Under Armour’s first year as title sponsor for the NBA Draft Combine (Powered by Under Armour), will include a slate of activities and activations during the event, which will include a line of Under Amour NBA Combine Apparel that will be available in Fall 2017. Select apparel pieces will be exclusively offered at the Under Armour Chicago Brand House for the duration of Draft Combine. In addition, other activities include the Jr. NBA Youth Basketball Leadership Conference as well as the NBA FIT app.
Meanwhile, the NBA also announced the official opening of NBA Academy India for the top male and female prospects from throughout the country. Twenty-one elite male prospects will receive scholarships and training at the facility, employing “a holistic, 360-degree approach to player development with focuses on education, leadership, character development and life skills.”
NBC is reportedly working with ad executives to make the ad buys work in both the February 4 broadcast of the Super Bowl as well as the subsequent Winter Olympics, which starts four days later. Variety writes that NBC execs are telling potential sponsors that the company will “work with advertisers so they can make tweaks to a Super Bowl commercial that would render the ad more relevant to audiences during an Olympic advertising dash,” according to Dan Lovinger, EVP, Ad Sales at NBC Sports Group.
Serena Williams’s partnership with Tempur-Pedic will see the tennis star “prepare for motherhood by taking care of herself – that means continuing good sleep habits she’s built up as a Tempur-Pedic owner the past 10 years” as part of the brand’s “Tempur-Pedic Sleep Is Power” integrated marketing campaign. Television and digital ads featuring Williams begin rolling out this month.
Winnebago Industries announced an exclusive, multi-year partnership with the Chicago Cubs’ Joe Maddon, who – along with his wife – took delivery of a new 2017 Winnebago Grand Tour. The brand will roll out additional extensions of the Meet the Maddons campaign throughout the season, including a forthcoming Korked Baseball/Respect 90 T-shirt collaboration, media campaign and social media extensions.
The DICK’S Sporting Goods Foundation and Carrie Underwood (along with her brand CALIA by Carrie Underwood) announced plans to fully fund girls team sports projects on education crowdfunding platform, DonorsChoose.org. The two organizations pledged $200,000 to fund an estimated 100 teams across the country in the month of May.
Anthem Sports & Entertainment Corp. announced that FNTSY Sports Network and Fight Network are now available on go90. “The launch of Anthem’s flagship properties FNTSY Sports Network and Fight Network on the go90 platform is an important step in our mobile expansion strategy,” said Leonard Asper, CEO of Anthem Sports & Entertainment Corp. “The service reaches mobile phone users across the U.S., creating a new national platform for viewer consumption and conversation. Our original and timely premium content is a perfect fit for the service, fueling combat sports fans with exclusive fights and digital features, while giving fantasy sports players an edge with the latest picks, rankings, projections and much more.”
ELeague is dangling a quarter million dollars to showcase a rematch between Major CS:GO finalists Astralis and Virtus Pro in a single game that will take place on June 16. The original battle between the two teams took place in Jan and was won by Astralis 2-1. E League announced this epic rematch on Youtube video, with the match dubbed “Clash for Cash”.
MLG locked in its return trip to Las Vegas for the Gears of War Pro Circuit Las Vegas at Caesars Entertainment Studios with team passes on sale starting today.
ExxonMobil is refilling its ties with the Rocket League Championship Series, locking in another round of sponsorship for Seasons 3 and 4 of the slate, according to WWG. “Having a blue-chip brand like Mobil 1 involved in the Rocket League Championship Series is a huge priority this year.” said Nathan Lindberg, Director of Global Esports Sponsorships at Twitch. “As the business of esports is still in its nascent stages, sponsorship renewals with non-endemic companies are still very rare. This makes the continued commitment from a marquee brand like Mobil 1 both an achievement and a noteworthy indication of where the industry is heading.”
Blizzard announced group and city locations for the Overwatch World Cup this Summer. Each group is comprised of four nations who will play a full round-robin series of matches with the top two finishers from each of the four group stage events qualifying for the Overwatch World Cup finals at BlizzCon 2017. Groups A and B will compete in Shanghai, Groups C and D in Sydney, Group E and F in Katowice and Group G and H in Burbank. The US portion will see the US, Chinese Taipei, Brazil and New Zealand in Group G, while the UK, Germany, Israel and Belgium compete in Group H.
The CSL North American Collegiate Grand Finals kick off on Friday at 12:30p with universities competing in Starcraft II and the League of Legends Invitational. The weekend’s action then includes Dota2 on Saturday while Counter Strike takes place on May 14.
Newsy unveiled a slate of new original programming at its NewFront event in NYC, while will include Varsity Gamers, a series that examines the day-to-day lives of esports gamers under some of the country’s first college esports scholarships.
M&C Saatchi Sport & Entertainment announced the opening of its new Los Angeles office, which will be led by Corey Langworthy, who joins from global PR agency Golin. The Los Angeles office will “provide industry insight and creative solutions across sports and entertainment sponsorship and activation, experiential, public relations, content creation and social media.”
Game 7 of Penguins/Capitals at 7:30p on NBCSN.
