Insurance company Aviva has extended its title sponsorship of the English Premiership, the top tier of rugby union in the country.
The new one-year deal will cover the 2017-18 season, which will mark Aviva’s eighth as title sponsor.
Aviva’s previous agreement with Premiership Rugby, the governing body of the league, expired at the end of the 2016-17 season and the organisation had been seeking a replacement title sponsor.
In May 2016, Premiership Rugby engaged the ESP Properties agency to aid its search for a new naming-rights partner after announcing that its relationship with Aviva would come to an end following the 2016-17 campaign.
However, an agreement has now been reached for Aviva to remain as title sponsor for at least another year.
Aviva will continue its Tackling Numbers programme, an initiative aimed at schoolchildren that uses rugby to make learning about numbers more fun, exciting and rewarding. The programme is delivered by the 12 Premiership clubs and has reached more than 26,000 children over the past three seasons.
Tom Daniell, retail marketing director for Aviva, said: “The extension gives us the opportunity to continue working with Premiership Rugby and the 12 clubs on our community initiatives, notably the Aviva Tackling Numbers programme and the Aviva Community Fund, both of which make such a valuable difference to communities and families across the country.
“With record numbers of both attendances and live TV audiences, the league is going from strength-to-strength and we’re very much looking forward to the upcoming season.”