By Paul Nicholson
August 9 – The Premier League has been cleared to continue its UK broadcast rights sales after regulator Ofcom closed an investigation into how live rights are sold and whether the auction system restricted or distorted competition.
August 9 – The Premier League has announced video game maker EA Sports as a new Lead Partner in a three-year deal that significantly expands its current partnership with league.
August 9 – Middlesbrough, newly promoted to the Premier League, have announced TLCBET as the club’s official betting and gaming partner as the club moves to take the market opportunity of exposure in Asia to the Asian betting community that the Premier League offers. No figure was announced for the deal.
August 9 – The opening of the Bundesliga 2 season in Germany has recorded strong viewing figures according to pay-TV broadcaster Sky. While football in general, ahead of the big league kick offs, is rating comparatively well against the Olympics that are taking place in Rio.
August 7 – La Liga, keen to boost its international broadcast profile and revenue, has issued guidelines and a warning to clubs that if their stadia are not seen to be 75% full on the television transmission they will fine their clubs.
August 5 – William Hill have scored a Premier League hat-trick this week announcing a three-year deal with Chelsea to become the club’s new official betting partner. The deal is a global partnership.
August 4 – Setting the pace digitally and in the way they use their media assets, Premier League club Manchester City have also boosted their physical touchpoints with the club for fans with the launch of what they are calling their ‘Ultimate Football Day Out’.
August 4 – Under the new Chinese ownership of Tony Xia, England’s once great Aston Villa are expecting to be challengers for an immediate return to the Premier League. They will be hoping that success in achieving that will also transmit to their new challenger brand betting partner EnergyBet.
August 3 – Tottenham Hotspur have announced William Hill as their Official Betting Partner for Europe and Australia in an initial two-year deal starting with the 2016/17 season. On Monday the bookmaker announced a similar deal with Everton.
By Paul Nicholson
August 3 – Any doubts that Facebook wasn’t preparing a major broadcast assault in the world’s biggest sport can be dispelled with the social media giant tonight making Premier League history with the streaming of a Wayne Rooney’s testimonial match.
August 2 – With the first round of Scotiabank Champions League fixtures kicking off the 2016-17 season tonight with Trinidad’s Central at home to Canada’s Vancouver Whitecaps and Mexico’s Pachuca at home to Honduras’ Olympia, CONCACAF has announced a significantly expanded Spanish-language TV deal in the US with Univision.
August 1 – William Hill has agreed a two-year partnership with Premier League Everton to become its new official betting partner, offering exclusive odds to Everton fans.
By Paul Nicholson
August 1 – English champions Leicester City made their Hollywood debut in LA with an inconspicuous 4-0 spanking at the hands of French champions Paris St-Germain. One wonders if the follow-up movie to the Leicester story currently being scripted by two big name Osar-winning writers will have a different storyline.
July 29 – Bhutan has become the first of the Asian Football Confederation’s (AFC) member associations to embrace the new Live Streaming Platform with the AFC’s partner mycujoo.
By Paul Nicholson
July 29 – As if on cue, as Facebook’s millionaire founder Mark Zuckerburg (pictured) announced that the social media giant’s future would be ‘video’, so Liverpool launched their third kit via a Facebook Livestream directly from Facebook Headquarters in San Francisco.