LEBRON COURTING NIKE
Basketball player LeBron James has signed the largest single-athlete sponsorship in the history of Nike. The Cleveland Cavaliers forward has agreed a lifetime contract worth a reported $500m, surpassing Oklahoma City Thunder’s Kevin Durant previous 10-year $300m record deal in 2014.
The sports manufacturers have sold $340m worth of LeBron trainers in the USA alone within the last year and a further $200m of apparel has been sold globally. Nike’s total revenue has tripled since James signed a seven-year $90m deal in 2003 with the stock price of Nike rocketing up by more than 1000%. However, James still chases basketball legend Michael Jordan who is still making an estimated $90m a year from Nike since his retirement.
TIMICO SADDLE UP WITH GOLD CUP
Communications company Timico will replace bookmaker Betfred as the title sponsor of Horse racing’s most prestigious event, the Cheltenham Gold Cup, for the next four years. The new deal will see the prize purse increase by £25,000 to £575,000 ending Betfred’s four-year affiliation with the race.
Timico has a rich heritage of Horse racing as chairman, Lord Daresbury, was a champion amateur jockey and is currently the chairman of Haydock Park racecourse. Chief executive Tim Radford is also the owner of horses Somersby, Calgary Bay and Racing Demon. According to various news outlets, Timico plan to use the sponsorship to build towards a planned stock market flotation in 2017.
ARSENAL DOWN UNDER
Arsenal will partner New South Wales (NSW) government in a multi-year tourism partnership which will result in the Gunners playing two pre-season matches in July 2017 against Sydney FC and Western Sydney Wanderers at the ANZ Stadium in Sydney. NSW have become the official tourism partner for Arsenal and will be able to utilise a wide range of rights including LED perimeter boards, player and legend access, digital and social promotions, in-stadium activations and matchday hospitality.
The announcement was made via Arsenal’s official YouTube channel by manager Arsene Wenger with the hope that NSW will gain exposure in the UK, China and the United States, Arsenal’s biggest and most engaged fan bases.
SPORT IN THE TWITTERSPHERE
Twitter have published a #YearOnTwitter report providing insight to the most retweeted posts and successful hashtags. The Saudi Arabian club #AlAhli topped the global sporting hashtag table largely due to the amount of sports clubs outside of football who operate under the same name. Premier League giants #MUFC came second and #LFC came third in the most used hashtags this year.
The Copa America was the most talked about sporting event of the year generating 14 billion impressions during the tournament and women’s football proved it’s ever growing popularity as the hashtag #FIFAWWC was viewed an incredible 9 billion times. Taking the UK’s domestic honour for the most tweeted sporting moment in 2015 was Lionel Messi, whose solo wonder goal against Bayern Munich received 25,300 tweets per minutes.
NEW BALLS PLEASE
The Premier League have extended their deal with Nike as official ball partner until 2019. Nike has been a Premier League partner since 2000/01 and Premier League managing director Richard Masters issued a statement thanking Nike for “Continuing to put on a high quality football competition which is enjoyed by fans in the UK and around the world.”
As part of the extension, Nike will also support the Premier League Players’ Kit Scheme from next season, an initiative that has helped supply football kits to over 4,200 schools and grassroots teams in the UK.
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