Big brands doing big deals show the UK sports sponsorship industry remains in rude health January 14, 2019 January is typically the time to look forward, to forecast and predict what will happen in the coming year. To understand the state of the UK sponsorship industry, however, it’s more worthwhile to look at what happened in the months leading up to Christmas. Rewind to the week after Black Friday in December and big [...]
Sport and betting: Why Brexit could pave the way for a wider levy, the role of live data rights, and how the $5bn US market can change the game January 7, 2019 The UK betting industry’s voluntary “whistle-to-whistle” advertising ban during live sports coverage has been widely welcomed but broadcasters – and, by extension, the media rights fees they pay to sport – will take a hit and some sports, such as horse racing, are deemed to be so reliant on gambling that they are exempt from [...]
Did Football Leaks kill financial fair play? Where breakaway threats and claims of systematic cheating have left Uefa’s rules December 6, 2018 Credibility has always been hard to come by for Uefa’s financial fair play rules, but a series of recent claims involving some of the sport’s richest and most powerful clubs has made the European governing body’s attempts at regulation look weak at best and, at worst, doomed. Central to the current crisis surrounding FFP is [...]
Davis Cup reboots, Wembley sale talk and Premiership Rugby takeover bids: how private investment is shaking up a sports industry at a crossroads November 22, 2018 From plans for a breakaway Super League in European football to takeover bids for Premiership Rugby, the collapsed sale of Wembley Stadium and the $3bn revamp of the Davis Cup, there is a common thread running through some of the biggest sports stories of recent months. Change is sweeping through the industry at breakneck pace [...]
Chris Kermode interview: ATP Tour chief on the men’s tennis circuit’s rebranding, efforts to attract new audiences and the future of London’s ATP Finals host status November 13, 2018 The iceberg looming for men’s tennis is the shelf life of the superstar players who have virtually monopolised the game’s top prizes for the last decade – according to conventional wisdom, at least. Chris Kermode, president and executive chairman of the ATP Tour, has bigger worries, however. For Kermode, the greatest challenge facing the elite [...]
Overseas matches, disruptive broadcast deals and a global network of delegates: how La Liga is trying to close the gap to the Premier League October 25, 2018 You may have noticed Spanish football in the headlines lately – and not only because this weekend sees the latest instalment of its biggest game, El Clasico, between Barcelona and Real Madrid. La Liga, the organisation that represents Barca, Madrid and the other 40 clubs that make up Spain’s top two divisions, and their straight-talking [...]
Wembley Stadium sale: Why Shahid Khan’s £600m offer for the national stadium met such resistance October 23, 2018 England’s unexpectedly successful World Cup summer created an atmosphere of togetherness that captured hearts and minds. Despite failing to deliver the trophy the nation craved, it brought a greater prize back to our shores. Amid the beer sloshing, waistcoat wearing and anthem singing, football had come home. It was soon back to business for the [...]
Six Day London: Cycling’s most exciting series embarks on biggest season yet and targets 25 events a year by 2023 October 21, 2018 When a Victorian gentleman named David Stanton proposed a £100 bet that he could cycle 1,000 miles around Islington’s Agricultural Hall over six consecutive nights, it’s fair to assume he didn’t intend to spawn a global phenomenon. That, however, is the target for the organisers of the Six Day Series, the modern incarnation of a [...]
Canelo Alvarez: Boxer’s record-breaking $365m deal with DAZN highlights rise to prominence of both October 17, 2018 Every now and then a commercial deal comes along that doesn’t just reflect the shifting sands of the sports landscape, it magnifies them, turning the protagonists into even bigger names in the process. Paris Saint-Germain’s €222m signing of Neymar last year, which didn’t so much break football’s transfer record as smash it to smithereens, was [...]
Legal Q&A: Why has Eleven Sports breached the UK Saturday afternoon live football blackout? October 8, 2018 The traditional Saturday afternoon restriction on broadcasting live football in the UK has been challenged by online-only subscription broadcaster Eleven Sports. Lawyer Satish Khandke examines the implications. What are the legal restrictions that Eleven Sports has challenged? Uefa regulations allow the member associations of football’s European governing body to designate a blackout period of two and a [...]