Massage Envy signed a four-year marketing deal with the PGA Tour, becoming the official total body care sponsor of the mobile training and wellness trailers for the PGA Tour and PGA Tour Champions. The agreement marks Massage Envy’s first major sports sponsorship – coinciding with the introduction of the company’s new assisted stretching service — and comes two months after the PGA Tour added restaurant chain Arby’s as an official partner.
Ryan Murphy is the newest addition to Speedo USA’s sponsorship team after winning three gold medals last year at the Rio Olympics, a move that Yahoo Sports says positions the 21-year-old backstroke specialist as the successor to Michael Phelps as America’s leading man in the run-up to the 2020 Summer Games. “He would probably tell you it’s more of a team effort, but we do see him as someone over the course of the next couple years being the face of swimming,” Speedo USA president John Graham told Yahoo Sports.
The Pro Football Hall of Fame has partnered with Vegas Stats & Information Network (VSiN) to host a fantasy football experience in Las Vegas this Aug. 11-12 at the South Point Hotel, Casino and Spa. VSiN fantasy football experts will join Hall of Famers Jerome Bettis, Tim Brown and Chris Doleman in helping participants draft and manage a winning fantasy team during the two-day event. General admission tickets are $149, while VIP admission is $249 and includes a private meet-and-greet session with the Hall of Famers.
Major League Baseball and its players association are jointly contributing $1 million to the Kansas City-based Negro Leagues Baseball Museum. The grant is meant to inspire future generations of minority youth to play baseball by helping to ensure the museum’s sustainability and preserve the history of the Negro Leagues. A portion of the funds will also allow the museum to complete the Buck O’Neil Education and Research Center.
USA Track and Field has partnered with the American Cancer Society on a fundraising campaign built on the slogan, “Together: Nothing is Impossible.” USATF and the ACS have created a public service announcement that will debut on national TV during the June 22-25 USATF Outdoor Championships on NBCSN. The PSA encourages Americans to pledge money for each medal the U.S. track and field team wins at the IAAF World Championship this August in London.
Univision Communications commissioned a research study conducted by Nielsen that found Hispanics consume more sports (20 hours a week across TV, video and radio) than non-Hispanics (12 hours). The study, titled Los Fanaticos: The Passion and Power of the Hispanic Sports Fan, also found that Hispanic sports fans are 33 percent more likely to say they buy products they see advertised during sports programming.
The Washington Wizards have acquired the right to own and operate an NBA G League team that will debut during the 2018-19 season. The team in the league’s developmental league will play its 24 home games at the Wizards’ new practice facility in Ward 8 in Washington D.C. and, like the Wizards, will be owned and operated by Monumental Sports & Entertainment.
Sports Illustrated will host a live streaming NBA draft show tonight, with current and former players offering instant analysis, insight and reactions throughout the first round. Hosted by SI Now anchor Maggie Gray, the show will feature NBA insiders including former No. 1 pick Kwame Brown, ex-Minnesota Timberwolves GM David Kahn, and current NBA players Garrett Temple of the Sacramento Kings and Kyle O’Quinn of the New York Knicks.
SB Nation’s weekly MMA show, The MMA Hour, will stream live on Twitter for the first time beginning June 26 in collaboration with Vox Media. SB Nation’s longest-running show, The MMA Hour airs every Monday at 1 and – despite its name — is actually 4-5 hours of in-depth MMA news and analysis. Award-winning MMA journalist Ariel Helwani is the host and will take and answer questions from the Twitter audience during exclusive extended segments only available through social media.
fuboTV, the sports-first live streaming TV service that earlier this week announced a new $55 million fundraising round, has reached an agreement to add CBS Corp networks to its entry-level lineup. The agreement means available programming includes NFL games on CBS, the NCAA men’s basketball championship, SEC on CBS, golf and Showtime’s NFL and boxing shows.
Road to Race Day, an eight-part original docu-series that goes behind the scenes with Hendrick Motorsports during the 2016 NASCAR season, will premiere July 19 on Complex Networks’ Rated Red platform, available via the go90 streaming service.
UFC FIGHT PASS, the leading digital destination for combat sports, has added a linear streaming channel called FIGHT PASS 24/7 that’s available as a complement to traditional video-on-demand functionality. FIGHT PASS 24/7’s summer offerings include the UFC’s annual Hall of Fame event, UFC Fight Night Rotterdam, two GLORY Kickboxing events, two Invicta FC events, EBI 12: The Female Flyweights and the debut of Polaris, FIGHT PASS’s second world-class jiu-jitsu promotion.
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Jeff Levick will join The Players Tribune as CEO in September after leadership roles with Spotify, AOL and Google. Most recently, Levick was Chief Revenue Officer at Spotify, overseeing distribution efforts and helping the company expand its footprint from 12 countries to 58. “Jeff’s expertise in developing monetization strategies through advertising and subscription-based revenue will be invaluable as we continue to diversify our revenue streams,” said The Players Tribune President Jaymee Messler, who co-founded the athlete-created media platform with Derek Jeter.
Karl Ravech reached a contract extension with ESPN to continue his expanded, multi-sport role at the company, which he originally joined in 1993. Ravech, the full-time host of ESPN’s Baseball Tonight since 1995, will replace Chris Berman as the play-by-play voice of the T-Mobile Home Run Derby that airs July 10 on the network. He will continue his extensive baseball coverage – with hosting responsibilities for MLB, College World Series and Little League World Series – and increase his play-by-play and studio duties for men’s college basketball.
