Sponsorship & Marketing

Real Madrid’s team last season was built more around marketing concerns than ‘sporting realities’, the Spanish soccer club’s former president has said.

The GEM Group has been appointed to handle the PR for Vodafone’s sponsorship of English Premier League soccer giants Manchester United.

Former president of the NBA’s Portland Trail Blazers, and current senior executive on the Euroleague, Marshall Glickman, has unveiled full plans of his new sports consultancy business.

US racetrack giant Churchill Downs has declared itself the opening bidder in the bankruptcy auction for Fair Grounds Corporation’s racetrack and off-track betting assets.

Japanese giant Dentsu has bought a 30 percent equity stake in Asian marketing company the World Sport Group (WSG).

Courtesy of booming sales, sportswear giant Nike has posted strong fourth quarter finance figures – with profits up 24 percent.

Copyright Promotions Sport has brokered a new licence deal for clients the RFU.

Chiefs from European basketball’s two leading organisations have staged meetings in a bid to patch up their differences and plan for future co-operation.

The financial and marketing boom delivered to nations and commercial programmes courtesy of a good run in a major soccer tournament will be deprived to at least two of the world’s biggest markets, after another shock exit during Euro 2004.

Real Madrid and England star David Beckham has more than 100 website domains devoted to him…while national team-mate Emile Heskey has none, according to a domain name specialist.

Soccer fans welcome the idea of companies signing naming rights deals for football stadia, according to research carried out for English Premier League club Arsenal - which just happens to be seeking such a deal itself.

Tennis Grand Slam Wimbledon gets underway today in London – and for the first time highlights will be available on the latest generation of video mobile phones.

NASCAR has signed another major partnership deal.

The European Broadcast Union has secured the broadcast right to the 2010 Winter Olympic Games and 2012 Summer Olympic Games in a deal worth an estimated $800 million.

Ho Kim, president of Octagon Korea, has joined the team behind the Paris 2012 Olympic Games bid.

The England & Wales Cricket Board should set up a separate company to handle its commercial deals, according to the former chairman of its corporate affairs and marketing committee.