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English top-flight soccer clubs Chelsea and Liverpool have ended their partnerships with 1xBet, a week after fellow Premier League side Tottenham Hotspur chose to cut ties with the online betting company.
The two clubs had only signed deals with 1xBet in July but have now ended their respective deals with immediate effect after string of allegations against the gambling brand. These included taking bets on children’s sports, advertising on illegal websites, cockfighting live streams and promoting a casino featuring topless croupiers. It subsequently suspended its advertising activity in the UK.
Both Liverpool and Chelsea had been contacted by the Gambling Commission, the UK’s betting regulator, warning them any promotion of 1xBet in the country could be considered unlawful, leading to heavy fines and imprisonment.
Official global betting partner is a significant sponsorship category for Premier League clubs and 1xBet held that designation with Liverpool. Although no figures were reported around the Reds’ now-terminated contract, the club’s previous deal with BetVictor paid in the region of UK£8 million annually, although that did include sponsorship of the club’s training kit.
Sponsorship
Staying in the Premier League, Brighton and Hove Albion have signed a new sponsorship deal with Oliver & Graimes (O&G), the club's creative marketing partner. O&G, which has been a partner at Brighton for ten years, has signed with the club for another two years.
Elsewhere, the Football Association (FA), the national soccer governing body in England, has launched a three-year partnership with the Pokemon Company International to help increase participation in its National Futsal Programme.
Spanish top-tier soccer side Valencia have named Skoda as a premium sponsor until the 2024/21 season, replacing Alfa Romeo.
Dutch companies Gasunie, Shell Netherlands, Remeha, Stedin Group, Port of Amsterdam and Groningen Seaports have teamed up to sponsor the Netherlands Olympic Committee (NOC), in the lead-up to the Tokyo 2024 Olympic Games.
Kosmos, the international sports investment firm owned by Spanish soccer star Gerard Pique, has partnered with Sony Music to provide entertainment at tennis’ Davis Cup finals in November.
Edgbaston, home to Warwickshire County Cricket Club, has agreed a new commercial partnership with global torch and portable lighting products manufacturer Unilite.
The International Canoe Federation (ICF) have announced a two-year partnership with boat builder Hody Sport, which will provide boats for the governing body’s development programme to support countries where the sport is still in its infancy.
G2 Esports has expanded its relationship with Red Bull, with the new multi-year partnership covering all its esports teams and content creators.
Saudi Arabian shopping mall operator Arabian Centres has signed a four-year sponsorship deal with Almeria, the second-tier Spanish soccer club.
Media Rights
Scottish free-to-air (FTA) channel STV has partnered with pay-TV network Premier Sports to broadcast a new 24-hour sports channel on their player, which will see live Serie A and Major League Soccer (MLS) matches available to STV viewers as part of the deal.
Australian commercial broadcaster Seven has signed a new deal for FTA coverage of the National Football League (NFL). Covering the 2024/20 season, Seven will be able to show live games each week during the regular season, as well as the play-offs and Super Bowl.
Max TV, the Ghanaian broadcaster, has secured rights to broadcast English Premier League matches on FTA TV during the 2024/20 season. The deal is a sub-licence from International sports rights agency Infront, which holds the FTA distribution rights in sub-Saharan Africa.
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Thai telecommunications operator Advanced Info Service (AIS) has obtained a sub-licence deal to live broadcast the 2024 Tokyo Olympic Games, the 2024 Youth Olympics, the 2024 Winter Olympics in Beijing and the Dakar Youth Olympics in 2024.
French telecommunications company Altice will show delayed coverage of Uefa Champions League matches featuring Paris Saint-Germain and Olympic Lyonnais on its local channel in each club’s city, at least 48 hours after they are broadcast on RMC Sport.
The Canadian Football League (CFL) and The Sports Network (TSN) have reportedly agreed a six-year contract extension worth CA$50 million (US$38 million), according to Postmedia.
The National Women’s Hockey League (NWHL) has agreed an exclusive three-year live-streaming deal with Amazon’s Twitch platform.
This season’s Caribbean Premier League, the Twenty20 competition based in the West Indies, will receive significant global exposure with the competition set to be shown across 125 territories.
The Brazilian Football Confederation (CBF) and Twitter have confirmed the last six matches of the Brazilian Women’s National Championship will be broadcast live on the social media platform.
Infrastructure
Wembley Stadium has been awarded the International Organization for Standardisation’s highest standard of sustainability for its Event Sustainability Management System (ESMS). It was introduced to coincide with the London 2012 Olympic Games and is designed to help event-related organisations reduce their environmental footprint.
SmartSeries
The National Hockey League (NHL) has dropped Jogmo World Corp as a primary technology partner for its player and puck tracking system, with ESPN reporting that SMT will be the replacement.
Simplestream has built an accessible video platform and responsive website for Channel 4, the UK-based commercial broadcaster, and its online coverage of Para Sport and the Tokyo 2024 Paralympics. The service has been designed to handle multiple live concurrent streams and on-demand video, as well as including adaptive bitrate encoding (ABR) for up to ten profiles.
Sports data and technology company Stats Perform has agreed a five-year deal with the Argentinian Football Association (AFA) for the rights to global betting video and data across national soccer competitions including Superliga Argentina, Copa Superliga Argentina, Argentina Cup and Recopa Argentina.
Los Angeles Football Club have become the first Major League Soccer (MLS) team to launch an official channel on short-form video platform TikTok.
