Lowe’s has signed an extension to remain the sponsor for NASCAR driver Jimmie Johnson, a seven-time champion, through the 2018 season. Lowe’s has been Johnson’s sponsor at Hendrick Motorsports since 2001.
The Los Angeles Lakers are the most popular U.S. professional sports team on social media, ahead of the Chicago Bulls, Miami Heat, New England Patriots and Golden State Warriors. The Lakers have 21.8 million Facebook likes, 6.1 million followers on Twitter and another 3.5 million on Instagram.
Wayne Gretzky and Mario Lemieux will be among a group of Hall-of-Fame presenters for the 2017 NHL Awards and the NHL Expansion Draft on June 21 in Las Vegas. Gretzky, Lemieux and fellow presenters Marcel Dionne, Bob Gainey, Ted Lindsay, Mark Messier, Denis Potvin and Bernie Parent will also be recognized at the event during a special segment that honors the best hockey players in the world.
For the second year in a row, the annual rugby sevens tournament in New York City – the Hell Gate 7s – will be sponsored by the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office in York. In addition to continuing as the title sponsor, the agreement continues HKETONY’s partnership with the Village Lions Rugby Football Club of New York. The tournament, which started in 2009, is held July 8 on Randall’s Island.
DIGITAL & STREAMING
SNY has partnered with Overtime, a cross-tech platform tech startup, to create clips and highlights of the best high school athletes in New York City, with content that highlights noteworthy players and stories. Co-branded clips will run on SNY/SNY.tv, the Overtime app, and all SNY and Overtime social media platforms, and SNY’s flagship nightly news program, “GEICO SportsNite,” will feature a weekly segment. The partnership will also capture all the action during the summer’s most iconic NYC basketball leagues: Dykman, Hoops in the Sun, LES Express and more.
Esports could be getting a players’ union for the North American “League of Legends” Championship Series. The players’ association isn’t being started by players, but by game publisher and event operator Riot Games, according to ESPN.com. Hal Biagas, a former general counsel at the National Basketball Players Association, would head the players’ union.
The former director of Team Secret, Kemal Sadikoglu, has announced the creation of a new eSports team: Dynasty Gaming. The roster of the Dynasty Gaming team will be made up of the ex-Team Secret roster with the exception of the DotA 2 team.
The World Esports Association said OpTic Gaming has joined as a full member, bringing a “massive social following and fanbase” to WESA. In addition, the FaZe Clan, a founding WESA member, will remain with the organization despite saying it would depart in May 2016 because of concern that contract exclusivity could limit the tournaments it could participate in.
ROSTER MOVES
ESPN has promoted Connor Schell to oversee all content creation across all of the network’s television, digital and print platforms. Schell adds responsibility for studio and remote production, and digital and print content creation, to his previous responsibilities overseeing ESPN Films, Original Content, Audio and the company’s Talent Office. His stewardship of ESPN Films since its inception led to the network’s first Academy Award earlier this year for “O.J.: Made in America.”
THE MAIN EVENT
Detroit Tigers vs Seattle Mariners, on ESPN at 10p
