Sponsorship & Marketing

Sports rights and marketing companies World Sport Group (WSG) and Parallel Media Group International (PMI) are to merge.

Newly-elected International Olympic Committee (IOC) president Jacques Rogge has renewed his call to defeated rival Dick Pound to stay on as both the Games' marketing chief and a key figure in the fight against doping.

A squad of top NBA players will visit China and Taiwan in September for two exhibition games, the National Basketball Association has announced.

Investment bank Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein (DKW) has distributed a research note claiming that Manchester United plc has been the subject of bid speculation.

Chocolate producer Cadbury has become a multi-million pound sponsor of the 2002 Commonwealth Games in Manchester.

US broadcaster ESPN has unveiled a new dedicated interactive channel, ESPN Today, available to over 2 million viewers on the DirecTV digital satellite platform.

The programming costs of the UK’s digital terrestrial sports channel ITV Sport will hinder the share performance of the network’s owners Granada and Carlton Communications, according to a research report from leading broker Merrill Lynch.

Go Racing, the media consortium run by UK broadcasters Channel 4 and BSkyB and track owner Arena Leisure, has hired its first marketing director just a few weeks after it agreed a £387m ($545m) ten-year multimedia racing rights deal with the British Horseracing Board and the Racecourse Association.

Campbell Soup Company has signed a deal to become an Official Supplier for the Salt Lake City Winter Olympic Games.

SportBusiness Group is expanding its global reach by opening offices in Munich, Germany.

Japanese advertising giants Dentsu has obtained the exclusive marketing rights for the fourteenth Asian Games in Busan (Pusan), Korea.

Exposure to the colour yellow immediately before a race is shown to help a significant majority of athletes improve results during training, according to a survey carried out by psychologists at the request of UK athletics major sponsor Norwich Union.

Allstate has signed an agreement to become the official home and auto insurance sponsor for the Salt Lake 2002 Olympic Winter Games, as well as the 2002 and 2004 US Olympic Teams.

The European Commission has given further details of its concerns over UEFA’s marketing of television rights for the UEFA Cup and Champions League.

Yet another South American soccer tournament is in danger of disappearing as doubts arise about the participation of Brazilian teams in the Copa Mercosur 2002.

Latin American sports network PSN has entered into a strategic partnership with The Weather Channel’s subsidiary in the region.