Kildunne and Maher honoured with Barbie dolls, celebrating women’s sport Sport Business England Red Roses star Ellie Kildunne has been honoured with her own Barbie doll alongside US sensation Ilona Maher. The pair are two of four players – alongside New Zealand’s Portia Woodman and France’s Nassira Konde – to have dolls created for them by Barbie owner Mattel. It comes after the Red Roses partnered with [...]
Maher, mauls and moneyballing women’s rugby Sport Business Much has been said about USA rugby player Ilona Maher’s potential move to wrestling and the WWE, and she herself has mentioned how she’d like to follow in the footsteps of people like The Rock in going from sport and entertainment into acting. The confidence of the most followed rugby player in the world is [...]
BBC Sport signs Premiership Women’s Rugby deal Sport Business The BBC is betting on the Women’s Rugby World Cup driving interest in the domestic game with a deal to show Premiership Women’s Rugby matches over the next two seasons. The contract includes the broadcast of one live Premiership Women’s match every week of the season, in addition to one semi-final and the final. “With [...]
The best and worst sports marketing campaigns of 2024 December 25, 2024 In the true Christmas spirit of judging others, I’ve looked at my favourite – and not so favourite – sports marketing campaigns of 2024. I had planned to hand out awards with categories based on the startling number of current football pundits who were in Graham Taylor’s Euro 92 England squad. The Gary Lineker Award [...]
Ollie Phillips: Dupont leads my 2024 rugby union awards December 20, 2024 For my last rugby union column of 2024 in print it’s only right that we hand out a couple of awards covering the last 12 months. Rugby has seen an Olympic Games sit front and centre of the calendar while there have been some surprises in terms of domestic winners. It wasn’t easy but I’ve [...]
Maher social media aide to be paid more by Bristol Bears than some players December 3, 2024 Bristol Bears Women is hiring a social media specialist solely to work with new star signing Ilona Maher on a higher salary than most of the club’s players. The West Country outfit this week signed one of the most recognisable faces in rugby, American sevens sensation Maher, and saw their follower numbers leap as a [...]
Can rugby’s biggest social media star boost the English game? December 2, 2024 You may not have heard of her but she can claim to be the most famous name in the game – and now Ilona Maher is seemingly on her way to England and Premiership Women’s Rugby. The 28-year-old USA sevens player is a social media sensation, with 4.6m followers on Instagram and a further 3.2m [...]
Messi and LeBron beaten to top spot in athlete marketability rankings October 22, 2024 US gymnast Simone Biles has beaten LeBron James and Lionel Messi to be named the most marketable athlete in the world by sports industry experts. Real Madrid and Brazil footballer Vinicius Jr is second, followed by NBA legend James, women’s basketball sensation Caitlin Clark and Messi in the list published by SportsPro magazine. Biles, who [...]