The Colonial Athletic Association announced that Jersey Mike’s Subs will serve as the Presenting Sponsor of the 2018 CAA Men’s Basketball Championship. As presenting sponsor, the league will provide Jersey Mike’s with prominent branding inside the North Charleston Coliseum, which will be hosting the event. Also included will be brand integration into the CAA’s digital and social media platforms covering the games and related events. The agreement was secured by the CAA’s multi-media rights partner Van Wagner Sports & Entertainment.
Renault Sport Formula One Team is reportedly partnering with LaLiga for a cross-platform sports partnership that will see Spain’s top division football league become an Official Football League Partner of the Renault F1 Team. The LaLiga logo will be visible on the team’s newest car as well as on the overalls of Nico Hulkenberg and Carlos Sainz.
DC Solar will become the title sponsor of the Las Vegas Motor Speedway’s September NASCAR Xfinity Series race for 2018. The DC Solar 300 will take place at LVMS on Sept. 15, and is the third of four consecutive days of racing at the motorsports facility.
Elsewhere, Eastman Performance Films, LLC, a subsidiary of Eastman Chemical Company signed on to sponsor Hendrick Motorsports as a primary sponsor of driver Alex Bowman and the No. 88 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 team in the premier NASCAR Cup Series through 2020. Eastman will be a primary sponsor of Bowman for one race in 2018 and two races each season in 2019 and 2020.
Yahoo Sports’ explosive report into bank records and other expense reports that are part of a federal probe into college basketball made waves across the industry, as the story featured documents obtained in discovery during the investigation linking a slew of current and past NCAA players to potential benefits that would be violations of NCAA rules, including cash, entertainment and travel expenses from former NBA agent Andy Miller and his agency ASM Sports. NCAA President Mark Emmert responded, noting that “The allegations, if true, point to systematic failures that must be fixed and fixed now if we want college sports in America. Simply put, people who engage in this kind of behavior have no place in college sports. They are an affront to all those who play by the rules. Following the Southern District of New York’s indictments last year, the NCAA Board of Governors and I formed the independent Commission on College Basketball, chaired by Condoleezza Rice, to provide recommendations on how to clean up the sport. With these latest allegations, it’s clear this work is more important now than ever.”
US intelligence officials told the Washington Post that Russia’s GRU agency compromised as many as 300 Olympics-related PCs, hacked South Korean routers in January and launched new malware on Feb. 9, the day the Olympics began. In addition, according to the report, the organization tried to make it look like North Korea was responsible by using North Korean internet addresses and “other tactics.”
Sports Illustrated launched a new podcast titled Holdat and hosted by former NBA stars/teammates and friends Carlos Boozer and Nate Robinson. The show will “look at basketball from a player’s perspective, taking listeners behind the scenes in an entirely fresh way” with the first episode about the pair at this year’s All–Star Weekend.
Whistle Sports and Dude Perfect renewed vows, locking in an extension of their long-standing partnership. The deal will see Whistle Sports and Dude Perfect “combine their power in entertainment, storytelling, competitions and camaraderie and bring those stories to longer form content.”
IEM announced that Vodafone would serve as a premium partner of IEM World Championship Katowice, running March 2-4. “We’ve seen esports grow from a niche gaming activity to the world’s most popular sport of this generation, and we strongly believe that the next step to grow further, is technological advancement.” said Ralf Reichert, CEO at ESL. “This partnership enables ESL to deliver better events, better experience for fans, and better facilities for the players – and it’s just the beginning. We’re incredibly excited that Vodafone are partnering with us for the event in Katowice.”
Meanwhile, the $500,000 Intel Extreme Masters World Championship has its voices lined up as group play readies for launch. The commentary for those will be provided by Henry “HenryG” Greer and Matt “Sadokist” Trivett, Jason “moses” O’Toole and Lauren “Pansy” Scott (both stream A) as well as Harry “JustHarry” Russell with Hugo Byron and Alex “Snodz” Byfield with Jack “Jacky” Peters (both stream B). Meanwhile, Alex “Machine” Richardson will host, beside Janko “Ynk” Paunovic, Chad “Spunj” Burchill and Adam “friberg” Friberg.
Just ahead of winning the Intel Challenge Katowice 2018 over the weekend, Team Dignitas’ women’s Counter-Strike: Global Offensive team resigned with Harris Blitzer Sports & Entertainment. Team Dignitas’ squad includes Team Captain and AWPer Emmalee “EMUHLEET” Garrido; entry fraggers Amanda “rain” Smith and Mounira “Goosebreeder” Dobie; lurker Carolyn “artStar” Noquez and Kiara “Milk” Makua.
Texas Tech/West Virginia on ESPN2 at 9p.
