May 4 – Tottenham Hotspur have released their SPVRS app for iOS and Android devices that takes users on a tour of the club’s currently being constructed new stadium using Virtual and Augmented Reality technology.
May 4 – No sooner had Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho bemoaned a packed fixture schedule as the club battle to close its season out with a Champions League qualifying place, than the club triumphantly announce a sixth pre-season friendly, against Norway’s Valerenga on July 30.
May 3 – Olympique Marseilles has hired one of the world’s leading advertising and marketing agencies, McCANN France, to carry out a club rebranding, develop a communications strategy and lead the ticket marketing effort for the 2017-18 season.
May 1 – The timing could perhaps have been better with Joey Barton having just received an 18-month ban for betting on football matches, but the Scottish Professional Football League (SPFL) is poised to announce an extension of its naming rights sponsorship with bookmaker Ladbrokes.
May 1 – The expanded CONCACAF club competitions, including the Champions League, have signed their first major broadcast deal for the new format with FOX Sports Latin America. The five-year deal renews Fox’s existing broadcast deal from 2017/18 to the end of the 2021/2022 season.
By Helen Cracknell
April 28 – It has been a long wait for Virtual Reality to live up to its billing as the next big revolutionary technology for fans to experience football matches. However the technology is there and clubs are waking up to the multiple opportunities of VR across their business, and perhaps more importantly, the opportunities of Augmented Reality and the innovations that Microsoft’s Hololens glasses will bring. The real wait is now for clubs to commit financially.
April 28 – Bournemouth have unveiled Umbro as new technical kit supplier in a club record deal. The new partnership will begin with the 2017/18 season and run for five years. Umbro replaces JD Sports.
By Samindra Kunti
April 27 – Social media platform Twitter has broken into top tier football rights territory with the live-streamed final of the CONCACAF Champions League as part of their partnership with the governing body.
April 27 – Kenyan-based online gaming firm SportPesa has expanded its football sponsorships in Europe becoming the official African betting partner of Spain’s La Liga in a three-year deal.
April 25 – Newcastle United’s re-ascent to the Premier League will immediately catapult the club into ninth place in the Premier League social media rankings, but is it a position that perhaps reflects the under achievement of what is undoubtedly one of England’s most passionately supported clubs?
April 25 – Manchester City has expanded its partnership with London-listed but China focussed technology, content and services company BNN. The new deal will see the club deliver coaching programmes and unique content via the Xinhua News mobile app.
By Paul Nicholson
April 24 – When Facebook boss Mark Zuckerberg launched its augmented reality Camera Effects developer platform last week at its annual developer conference last week in California, Manchester United teamed up as the demonstration guinea-pig to demonstrate the applications.
April 24 – The Dutch Eredvisie has signed telecommunications operator KPN in a four-year deal as the league’s main sponsor from the start of next season.
April 21 – Nissan has released its latest Excitement Index findings that show reveal Real Madrid vs Bayern Munich was the most exciting Champions League match this season, but that overall Barcelona top the Excitement Index Team League.
April 21 – European furniture retail chain Conforama has signed a three-year title sponsorship with France’s Ligue 1. The deal, reportedly worth €10 million a season, will start with the 2017-18 championship and run though to the end of 2019-20.