World Rugby has partnered with sponsorship valuation platform Turnstile to assess commercial packages for upcoming major tournaments.
Turnstile will work with World Rugby’s commercial team to forecast sponsorship valuations for the 2021 Women’s World Cup, whose host is yet to be determined, and the 2023 men’s World Cup in France.
Turnstile launched in February and partnered with the Formula One motor-racing championship as a foundation client. F1 team Williams Racing subsequently appointed Turnstile to value its sponsorship portfolio.
World Rugby’s chief commercial officer, Tom Hill, said: “As rugby continues to grow as a global proposition, we were seeking a methodology that captures the full value of the Rugby World Cup. While the global reach of the events is massive, we believe that the value of the Rugby World Cup is far more than just exposure. The unique values of rugby – integrity, respect, solidarity, passion, discipline – resonate globally and we liked the Turnstile approach to capturing our intellectual property value.
“We believe that Turnstile’s methodology will better reflect the value being generated by the women’s component of rugby. Women’s rugby is a strong differentiator for our sport and its audience is growing. It already has tremendous goodwill amongst our fans and we want to properly capture this engagement in our valuations.”
Rob Mills, chief executive and director of Turnstile, added: “World Rugby’s decision is further proof of the industry’s desire to build a more robust approach to the pricing of sport and entertainment properties.”