Great Clips was named the Official Hair Salon of the NHL as part of a partnership with the National Hockey League Players’ Association the league for the 2018 Stanley Cup Playoffs. The partnership centers around a campaign, dubbed the Legend-Hairy Greats of the NHL, which features an online poll where fans can vote for their favorite “hockey hair” styles from some of the sport’s most notable players. In addition, Great Clips will soon announce a lineup of Great Clips ambassadors who will help spread the word of the campaign.
The NFL and NFL Players Association are partnering with Cigna to host “Beyond The Physical: A Symposium on Mental Health in Sports” on May 14. The forum includes a series of panels featuring NFL players and legends as well as mental health organizations, caregivers, medical providers and media personalities, aims to raise awareness around mental health and promote a culture where everyone, including athletes, are encouraged to seek the help and support they need to achieve overall wellness.
MLS WORKS, Major League Soccer’s community outreach initiative, in collaboration with ESPN and Special Olympics, announced today the kick-off of the 2018 Special Olympics Unified Sports Soccer Exchange Program. The three orgs have teamed up to promote an environment of social inclusion by uniting people with and without intellectual disabilities through Special Olympics Unified Sports.
U.S. Figure Skating is moving its digital content to NBC Sports Gold, NBC Sports Digital’s direct-to-consumer live streaming product, giving fans access to live and on-demand domestic and international figure skating competition beginning with the 2018-19 season. Figure Skating Pass will feature content previously offered on to subscribers on icenetwork.com, including live coverage of the U.S. Championships (junior and senior), ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating Series, ISU World Championships, ISU Four Continents Championships, ISU European Championships and the ISU World Synchronized Skating Championships.
ESPN+ debuts Quest for the Stanley Cup, the behind-the-scenes documentary series chronicling the eight teams in the midst of the 2018 Stanley Cup Playoffs, starting today. The weekly series will be produced by Ross Greenburg Productions in association with NHL Original Productions, under the direction of 53-time Sports Emmy Award winning producer Ross Greenburg, who pioneered the sports documentary series genre. Emmy and Tony Award-nominated actor Bill Camp will narrate the series.
Rotoworld scored spikes from the NFL Draft, announcing that the platform’s NFL Draft section totaled more than 100,000 uniques, 161,000 in visits and 330,000 in page views, up 23% vs. 2017 in all categories. Meanwhile, the site’s NFL section totaled more than 470,000 in uniques, roughly 1.3 million in visits and nearly 4 million in page views, all up 8% vs. 2017.
Orlando City SC locked in a multimedia rights agreement with YouTube TV to sulliment its broadcast coverage. The new live TV streaming service will exclusively stream all locally televised matches live, including the pre, halftime and post-game shows, for the remainder of the season.
South Korean powerhouse KSV eSports underwent a brand overhaul and will now be known as Gen.G, “the global esports organization that transcends borders, offering the premier esports experience for fans, players and brand partners.” With the change, the company is unveiling fresh logos, branded jerseys and more for current and future Gen.G teams competing in the world’s most popular esports, including Overwatch, League of Legends, and PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds. As part of the rebrand announcement, Gen.G is also announcing first details for a new esports team in Shanghai playing in Supercell’s China Clash Royale League.
The Belgian Football Association unveiled its new national team – Belgian eDevils – for FIFA esports. Belgium marks the second nation football association, following France, to create a national team for FIFA 18.
Overall awareness of esports continues to surge. Research intelligence group Leger unveiled numbers from its March 2018 omnibus, with its survey revealing that – between May 2016 and March 2018 – esports awareness jumped from 22% to 38%, while approximately one in five US adults have watched an esports event. Although esports viewership continues to decline with age, the biggest gains in viewership are from the older millennials and younger Gen-X groups.
STATS announced the promotion of Vernon O’Donnell to Chief Customer Officer, a new position. O’Donnell most recently served as the Senior Vice President of Data Collections and Operations at STATS, overseeing STATS’ international data production.
The Alliance of American Football announced three executive hires tapping Tom Veit as head of business operations, Bill Kuharich as vice president of player personnel and Tim Ruskell as general manager for Alliance Orlando.
Kentucky Derby with coverage starting on NBC at 2:30p.
