Americas

Sports betting company BETonSPORTS told its employees that it would be shutting down its Costa Rican and Antiguan offices.

Spanish Primera Liga club Barcelona expects its pre-season tour of USA to generate four times more revenue than its tour there in 2003.

Interest in sponsoring the London 2012 Olympics has been so strong that companies are reportedly prepared to pay around £100 million to become official partners, double the original estimate.

Soccerex, the world's largest business to business football convention, is delighted to announce that subject to Parliamentary commitments, the UK Minister for Sport, Rt Hon Richard Caborn MP will be attending the 10th annual Soccerex convention, held at the Madinat Jumeirah, Dubai, 26th-28th November 2006.

The International Olympic Committee signed a four-Games agreement for the broadcast rights in Korea with South Korean commercial broadcaster SBS.

The Mid-Atlantic Sports Network said it would expand to a 24-hour programming line-up that will eventually feature NCAA basketball, football and lacrosse games.

The British alpine skiing funding budget up until the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver has been reduced from £1.72m to £922,000.

The US Olympic Committee has narrowed down its list of possible bidding cities for the 2016 Olympics to three.

The Organisers of the 2007 World Cup in the West Indies said they are confident of putting on successful World Cup.

The International Rugby Board (IRB) has announced another year of record TV broadcast figures for the popular IRB Sevens World Series.

The US Olympic Committee is considering the launch of a new 24-hour network, provisionally called the United States Olympic Sports Network.

Online gaming company BETonSPORTS faces a civil case in the US over its operations taking bets on sports events.

The South American Football Confederation said it was unaware of a Colombian bid to host football's 2014 World Cup finals.

The World Cup final between Italy and France was a ratings winner in France, Italy and the USA. In Italy over 23 million watched public-service broadcaster Rai’s coverage of the final, some 84 per cent share of the audience, with an estimated two million more watching coverage on pay-broadcaster Sky Italia.

Fast food giant McDonalds renewed its long-term deal with Fifa as a World Cup Sponsor, until 2014.

Motor racing series A1 Grand Prix unveiled a provisional calendar of 13 races for its second season, 2006-07. The season kicks off on October 1, 2006 at Circuit Park Zandvoort in the Netherlands and concludes at Brands Hatch in the UK, on April 29, 2007. A New Zealand race, although still to be confirmed, is new to the calendar, while races at the EuroSpeedway and Estoril have disappeared from the calendar.