October 12 – Sports agency IMG has won the international TV sales rights to Italy’s Serie A in a three-year deal reportedly worth €371 million per season. The price marks a doubling of the value of the Italian overseas rights as well as a switch in agency.
October 12 – You can tell that a country is getting serious about football when a beer company launches a special brew for the club’s fans.
October 11 – Netflix have entered the European football documentary market announcing a fly-on-the-wall series with Italian champions Juventus that will debut on the streaming service in 2018.
October 11 – Arsenal have turned their in-game license agreement with video game PES (Pro Evolution Soccer) into an official partnership with the game’s maker Konami Digital Entertainment.
October 10 – Spain’s LaLiga has added another top tier sponsor partner for the Spanish market. El Corte Inglés has signed a one-year deal for LaLiga’s top two divisions.
October 10 – The fast-growing second tier of US professional football (soccer), the USL, has set a new league record surpassing the 2 million attendance milestone for 2017 as the season enters the final round of matches before the play-offs.
By Paul Nicholson
October 9 – Expectations that Facebook will be the next premium tier sports rights buyer that pushes broadcast fees into the next level financial stratosphere are likely premature. While the global social media giant has plenty of cash and bandwidth, it is its bandwidth it is selling and not its cash it is spending.
October 6 – The French Football Federation (FFF) has upgraded its deal with Orange who become a major sponsor of the national mens and womens teams in a four-year deal staring in 2018.
By Mark Baber
October 6 – Free Tibet have launched a campaign to press Liverpool FC to terminate a controversial sponsorship deal signed with Chinese water bottling company Tibet Water Resources Limited.
October 6 – England may have qualified for next year’s World Cup finals but that should fool no-one and their chances of success are next to nil judging by reaction to the last-gasp win over Slovakia that sealed their place in Russia.
October 6 – Chinese consumer electronics manufacturer Hisense has continued its global sponsorship expansion into football becoming the Official TV and Appliance Manufacturer of the US national teams in a deal that will take them through the 2018 World Cup in Russuia, 2019 Women’s World Cup, as well as including the U.S. Soccer Development Academy, and U. male and female youth teams.
By Paul Nicholson
October 5 – The value of broadcast rights will continue to rise driven by demand for premium content and spending power of the five digital giants from the US – Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Google and Microsoft – and China’s Alibaba and Tencent, said Martin Sorrell, CEO of ad agency WPP.
October 5 – English Premier League clubs have rejected a proposal to end equal distribution of overseas TV money and replace it with handing a greater share to those who finish highest in the table.
By Samindra Kunti in Delhi
October 4 – NTPC, Dalmia Cement Bharat Limited and Byju’s have completed the roster for the six national sponsorship slots for the U-17 World Cup in India, FIFA announced.
October 3 – Seven matches into the Premier League season sponsors are still mopping up the newly created sleeve sponsorship positions on club shirts with Burnley being the latest to announce the ‘Golf Clash’ mobile game as their new partner.