December 21 – German giants Borussia Dortmund have extended a long-term deal with Lagardère Sports, the sports and entertainment agency subsidiary of media conglomerate Lagardère Group.
December 21 – The Premier League’s broadcast rights auction looks like losing some of its heat after BT and Sky struck a deal to carry each other’s channels.
December 20 – FIFA has added a fifth sponsor for the Russia 2018 World Cup, the third from China. Chinese dairy products manufacturer the Mengniu Group will be designated the Official drinkable yoghurt and pre-packaged ice cream.
December 20 – UAE-based kit supplier Romai has lost deals with Jamaica and Senegal in the space of a week after what has been described as disastrous relationships with the two national federations.
December 20 – Premier League Burnley agreed a one-year sponsorship with online broker TeleTrade, who become the ‘Official Forex Trading Sponsor of Burnley FC’. No figure for the deal value was given.
December 20 – Tottenham Hotspur have signed a deal North East health and wellbeing company Mammoth Mattresses, who will become the Official Mattress and Pillow Supplier of the Premier League Club.
By David Owen
December 15 – The Chinese-owned Infront sports marketing company is splitting its summer sports and football businesses.
December 14 – Manchester City has launched a Manchester City Football Striker instant game on the Facebook Messenger platform, the first Premier League club to embrace the gaming opportunity of the Messenger platform.
December 13 – Sports rights agency IMG has been given the job of finding a headline sponsor partner for the home nation associations of Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales.
December 13 – LaLiga has added Iranian telecommunications company Irancell as a new regional partner. Irancell has more than 230 million customers in 22 countries across Europe, Africa and the Middle East.
December 12 – The French Football Federation (FFF), has inked a content agreement with Chinese media company NetEase Media Technology.
December 12 – Spurs fans nostalgic for their old White Hart Lane stadium can now revisit the stadium via a 360 degree video on the web titled ‘The Lane 360’. It is the first football club video of its kind celebrating the dismantled stadium and allowing users to immerse themselves in a journey through the old ground, including watching archive footage.
December 11 – The Premier League’s tender for its domestic broadcast rights package for 2019-22 has seen the league boost the number of packages available to seven with a total of 200 live games (up from 168).
December 8 – Inter Milan, who have invested in building their content division via their new Inter Media House facilities, are seeing an immediate benefit with the club announcing they have passed the seven million fans mark on Facebook.
December 4 – The French Football Federation (FFF) have prolonged their commercial partnership with automotive manufacturer Volkswagen until June 2023.