Formula 1 to use ‘sprint qualifiying’ to decide grid position at some races, starting with the British Grand Prix April 27, 2021 Formula 1 is to introduce “sprint qualifying” races on the Saturdays of some grand prix weekends. The 100km sprints – roughly a third of a full grand prix – will not only be used to set grid positions for Sunday’s main race but will also be worth points for the three fastest drivers. July’s British [...]
Week in Sportbiz: Sports give qualified backing to Covid certification plan; US Beijing boycott talks escalates; Masters caught up in vote row April 8, 2021 British sport’s leading governing bodies have backed plans to use Covid certification if it means they can reopen stadiums in full later this summer. But they have called for urgent clarification on how and when social distancing will be relaxed, warning that partially full venues will not stem their financial losses. The Premier League, Football [...]
Singled out: This year’s billionaire Brits April 7, 2021 Forbes released its highly anticipated billionaire list yesterday morning which has left regular folks pinching purse strings in hopes to add another zero to their bank accounts. The UK’s home-grown billionaires did not make it into the lucrative top 10, which was dominated by tech big dogs: Amazon’s founder Jeff Bezos, Tesla and SpaceX’s Elon [...]
A drive to survive: How Liberty Media used Netflix and esports to win a new generation of fans and safeguard the future of Formula 1 March 26, 2021 It feels like an awful long time ago now that Liberty Media took the wheel of Formula 1, completing a takeover valued at $8bn including debt in January 2017. Donald Trump had just been inaugurated and the most relevant global health emergency was the Zika virus. In motorsport, meanwhile, Lewis Hamilton had been dethroned and [...]
Former Formula One driver and Le Mans winner Johnny Dumfries dies aged 62 March 22, 2021 Former Formula One driver and Le Mans winner Johnny Dumfries has died at the age of 62 after a short illness. The Scot was born John Crichton-Stuart, the seventh Marquess of Bute, but adopted a pseudonym to disguise his background. Dumfries won the British F3 title in 1984 and tested for Ferrari in 1985 before [...]
Week in Sportbiz: Tokyo 2020 Olympics hit by another sexism scandal; World Rugby boosts women’s game; LaLiga brings tiki-taka teachers to East Sussex March 18, 2021 “I would like to show a new direction,” said Seiko Hashimoto upon taking over as president of the Tokyo 2020 Olympics in the wake of a sexism storm last month. Four weeks later, Hashimoto’s hopes have been torpedoed by revelations that another senior male official for this summer’s Games made derogatory comments about women. Tokyo [...]
Week in Sportbiz: Formula 1 takes the pain; Budweiser buys NBA rights; watch every PGA Tour shot; World Rugby’s bad timing; squash, the great survivor March 4, 2021 “Our goal was to try and take the pain in 2020,” Greg Maffei, president of Formula 1 owners Liberty Media, told investors this week. Maffei can consider that mission accomplished after Liberty laid bare the devastating effect of the pandemic on F1’s finances last year. F1 slipped from a $17m profit in 2019 to a [...]
Champagne knocked off the F1 podium by a wine called Ferrari March 3, 2021 In what is surely a case of nominative determinism, Ferrari Trento sparkling wine has been named the official partner for Formula 1. From next season, it will be sparkling wine dousing the podium finishers instead of the customary champagne, with the 119-year-old winemaker taking the honours from incumbent brand Carbon. Other champagne brands associated with [...]
Doing good is now part of doing business: Why every sports brand and athlete needs to help society in order to find commercial success March 2, 2021 The influence and social media reach of sports women and men is incredible – and growing. But who is using it to greatest effect, both for their own benefit and that of society? Cristiano Ronaldo has 263m followers on Instagram and Lionel Messi has over 100m on Facebook. Manchester United, widely regarded as the biggest [...]
Week in Sportbiz: The end of the Tiger Effect? Plus Olympic bid shake-up, drinks all round, Lord Coe’s scare and Eddie Jones’s debt to Van Gaal February 25, 2021 Tiger Woods survived a serious car crash this week, to the immense relief of the sporting world. But it might not be such good news for the fabled Tiger Effect, to the consternation of golf’s broadcasters and advertisers. While Woods may yet defy the odds once more and return to the sport he has redefined, [...]