By Paul Nicholson
June 3 – The sports data business has a new powerplaying corporate entrant in the form of world leading data and technology provider Gracenote, which has acquired Europe’s Infostrada Sports and Canada-based SportsDirect for $54 million.
By Jaroslaw Adamowski
June 1 – Romania’s football federation FRF has signed a kit deal worth up to €5.4 million with Spanish sports apparel producer Joma. The company will replace Adidas which started supplying kits to the Romanian federation in 1970.
By Jaroslaw Adamowski
May 25 – Russian broadcaster NTV Plus has reportedly agreed the terms for extending its current broadcasting deal with Russia’s Premier League (RPL). The new contract is for a three-year period, and it is estimated to be worth at least RUB 5.6 billion (€101 million).
May 25 – This Summer’s Gold Cup, to be played in the US, has added another sponsor with Delta becoming the Official Airline. Last week CONCACAF announced Sprint as its official wireless provider.
By David Owen
May 22 – Paris Saint-Germain has opened a new front in its international brand-building initiative, launching a video game for mobile phones.
By David Owen
May 25 – Manchester United, the Premier League football club, which rounded off its season today with a goalless draw at Hull City, has extended its partnership with Epson, the Japanese printer manufacturer.
May 22 – Manchester United have announced the Kabam Field at the California Memorial Stadium as the venue for their US pre-season tour against San Jose Earthquakes. The stadium is on the campus of the University of California in Berkeley in the San Francisco Bay area.
May 21 – Premier League Liverpool are to unveil their third new kit for the final game of the season this Sunday against Stoke at the Britannia Stadium. But neither the club nor their new kit partner New Balance are giving away any preview of the design before the match kicks off.
By David Owen
May 21 – Paris Saint-Germain have made a new move to exploit the presence of Swedish superstar Zlatan Ibrahimović in their squad, agreeing a one-year regional sponsorship deal with Billys, a Swedish-produced pizza snack.
By Mark Baber
May 20 – Under a year since Emirates became the official airline of Sport Lisboa e Benfica, a three-year shirt sponsorship deal has been agreed between the two parties, whereby Fly Emirates will be displayed on the team jersey until the end of the 2017/18 season.
May 20 – Sprint has renewed its CONCACAF Gold Cup sponsorship as official US wireless provider. This is Sprint’s fifth consecutive Gold Cup, the first being in 2007.
By Mark Baber
May 19 – A row has broken out in Nigeria over what is being termed the “slave contract” between Nike and the Nigerian Football Federation (NFF) over the sponsorship of national team shirts. The argument sees the NFF marketing department pitted against the Pinnick-led hierarchy, with neither party keen to discuss a major underlying issue – sports brands’ reluctance to sponsor a federation in which homophobia poses significant reputational risks.
By Paul Nicholson
May 18 – Manchester United had a bumper week in terms of new Twitter followers in the Insideworldfootball Twitter ranking. Averaging gains of about 19,000 each week over their nearest rivals Chelsea and Arsenal, last week Man Utd added almost 50,000 new followers, double that of the London duo.
By David Owen
May 14 – The Scottish Professional Football League (SPFL) has unveiled betting company Ladbrokes as its new title sponsor, in a two-year deal running from 2015 until 2017.
By Alexander Krassimirov
May 12 – Half of the clubs in the Bulgarian top professional division do not use social networks. The research, by Insideworldfootball.com, also found that two of the 12 teams in the league do not even have an official website.