08/17/17: Tournament of Champions gets Sentry duty

Good morning. It’s Thursday August 17, 2017 and this is your first early morning Sports briefing.

The PGA TOUR landed a new title sponsor for the winners-only Tournament of Champions, inking mutual insurance company Sentry to a five-year deal agreement. The event will now be known as the Sentry Tournament of Champions and serve as the first tournament in January 2018 when the 2017-18 PGA TOUR schedule resumes following the holiday break. “Sentry Insurance is proud to partner with the PGA TOUR to sponsor the Tournament of Champions, held on beautiful Maui,” said Pete McPartland, Sentry Chairman of the Board, President, and CEO. “This tournament and its champions format is the ideal way to more broadly introduce Sentry to the business insurance audience.”

ON THE AIR

ESPN details plans to showcase coverage of the first-ever MLB Little League Classic on Sunday Night Baseball presented by Taco Bell on Aug. 20. The event takes place in Williamsport, Pa. – the location of the Little League World Series and will see the Cardinals/Pirates play at 7p on the network. Dan Shulman will provide play-by-play with analysts Jessica Mendoza and Aaron Boone and reporter Tim Kurkjian. The telecast will include a special interview with Commissioner Manfred, who will join the Sunday Night Baseball team in the broadcast booth. Meanwhile, Mendoza and Boone will be pulling double duty, having also called the 1p Little League World Series broadcast on ABC.

Pac-12 Networks announced its on-air broadcasters for the upcoming college football season, with play-by-play set to include Roxy Bernstein, Guy Haberman, J.B. Long, Ted Robinson and Jim Watson along with Kate Scott who will become the first woman to do regular season football play-by-play for the Pac-12 Networks when she calls Arizona’s home opener on Sept. 2. Meanwhile, game analysts this season will include Anthony Herron, Glenn Parker and Yogi Roth along with Chad Brown and Jeremy Bloom. Providing sideline reports this year will be returners Cindy Brunson, Lewis Johnson and Jill Savage along with Camryn Irwin. In the studio, analysts for studio programming will include a rotating cast of Nick Aliotti, Eric Allen, Nigel Burton, Curtis Conway, Lincoln Kennedy, Ronnie Lott and Evan Moore, along with hosts Ashley Adamson and Mike Yam.

Speaking of college football, SiriusXM recruited Ryan Leaf to join the roster of college football experts on SiriusXM, marking his first regular on-air media role since the end of his playing career. Leaf made his debut yesterday alongside co-host Jason Horowitz and will be heard multiple times each week on SiriusXM College Sports Nation, channel 84.

WWE secured a deal with the Nine Network channel 9Go! in Australia to showcase weekly hour-long versions of Raw and SmackDown. “We are thrilled to add another best-in-class TV partner to our roster in Australia to deliver content to our fans,” said Michelle Wilson, WWE’s Chief Revenue and Marketing Officer. “Our partnership with Nine Network enables us to expand our reach in Australia and complements our live programming in the region.”

British Athletics and USA Track & Field are slated to go head-to-head in a new format, one-day competition that will take place next year, titled The Meet. The event will be staged July 21, 2018 at the London Stadium and feature “a new, fast-paced format designed to appeal to new audiences at one of the most celebrated athletics stadiums in the world.”

A CYNOPSIS MESSAGE

ALERT: The “Early-Bird” Rate Expires in 2 Weeks!

Cynopsis Esports Master Class – Reserve your space, while you can

Friday, Sept 15 | Barclays Center | BKLYN

Cynopsis is partnering with ESL to provide you with the ultimate esports experience, including:

A high-level look at the opportunities and challenges in the esports industry, an information-packed event with experts in the esports space AND a VIP/behind-the-scenes tour of ESL One with a pass to the weekend esports tournament.

Space is limited – Register by 8/30

SPONSORSHIP & PROMOTION

American Express detailed its activation festivities for the US Open this year and experiences set to include American Express Air Tennis, which uses a combination of custom-built and responsive technologies, including air haptics and an ultra-sensitive motion capture system to create an interactive live gaming experience. The brand is also partnering with Venus Williams for a social content series that showcases how she is getting ready for the US Open.

Atlantis, Paradise Island resort announced Bad Boy Mowers will become the first-ever title sponsor for its early-season collegiate basketball tournament. Scheduled to run Nov. 22-24, the Bad Boy Mowers Battle 4 Atlantis will feature 12-games. “We couldn’t be more excited to sponsor a tournament of this caliber,” said Lennie Foree, Director of Marketing for Bad Boy Mowers. “The entire organization, from the event’s planners and organizers to the Atlantis resort itself, is just world-class at every level. For us to be the first title sponsor in its history just makes it even more special.”

Franklin Group cemented a deal via Learfield to develop a deeper presence within the collegiate athletics landscape through a four-year partnership providing Franklin Group access to 16 collegiate institutions Learfield represents nationwide. Franklin Group will be introduced as a preferred partner to these university relationships concurrent with the start of the 2017-18 athletic season.

DIGITAL & STREAMING

ESPN saw more than 2 million teams drafted as part of its ESPN Fantasy Football Marathon presented by DraftKings, besting last year’s tally by more than 300,000. Meanwhile, the network was quick to apologize after taking heat for producing a fantasy football sketch that ran as part of the event. The segment featured a live auction of a football players, of which some were African-American, to predominantly white crowd, and drew complaints on social channels. “Auction drafts are a common part of fantasy football, and ESPN’s segments replicated an auction draft with a diverse slate of top professional football players,” the network said in a statement. “Without that context, we understand the optics could be portrayed as offensive, and we apologize.”

ESPN also rolled out an updated version of its Apple TV app that introduces the ability to watch four live simultaneous streams. The app lets you choose from over 30 live events streaming across ESPN networks.

Amazon closed a deal with Discovery Communications to stream content from Discovery’s Eurosport channel, including live coverage of the 2018 Olympic Winter Games in PyeongChang and Germany’s Bundesliga in Germany and Austria.

ESPORTS

In this week’s edition of Cynopsis Esports & Gaming…

Tespa expands its wings in collegiate esports
Prodigy Sports talks esports job market
ELEAGUE gets ready to CS:GO again
Telemundo’s FIFA lineup
Overwatch lines up Contenders
The International drives Dota 2 viewership
Esports One starts the countdown
Take-Two’s ink issues

THE MAIN EVENT

Diamondbacks/Astros on MLB Network at 2p.

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Cynopsis Rising Star Awards Reception

What better way to kick off a Friday happy hour?

Friday, September 15 | Midtown Lofts | NYC

Join us in toasting this exceptional group of 2017 honorees at our celebratory awards reception, with theatre-style seating featuring food, drinks, and an incredible line up from 3pm-5pm. Seating is limited and registration closes ONE WEEK from today, so don’t wait! ( click here for a peek at this year’s honorees!)

ON THIS DAY in 1933: The Yankees’ Lou Gehrig plays in his 1,308th straight game to break the major league record.

In the Know: Which sports comedy movie featured fictional teams that included the Los Angeles Riots, Miami Dealers and New Jersey Informants? (Email [email protected] with your answer and be sure to include your name, company and city.)

Answer to Our Last Sports Trivia Question: In what city was Babe Ruth born? Answer: Baltimore. Kudos: Michael Dittelman-Dedicated Sports Marketing/NY; Matthew Willence-ITN Networks/NY; Howard Goldberg-CBS Sports Network/NY; Barry Katz-NEP/NY; Jon Miller-NBC Sports/Stamford; John Miller-NBC Sports Group/Stamford; Peter Lasser-Lasser Productions/Atlanta; Randy Ingram-WISH-TV/WNDY-TV/Indianapolis; Mark Stulberger-Stully’s Broadcasting School/Houston; Kevin Micklo-Pinnacle Advertising/Chicago; Matt Fumagalli-Levy/Chicago; Jordan Barton-True Media/St. Louis; David Hauptman/Denver; Jim Seifert/Denver; Bruce Trotter-CoxReps/LA; Don Moyer-Killer Tracks/Santa Monica; Greg Dudsic/Venice; Larry Hutchings/Nipomo

Later — Chris

Chris Pursell @VegasandVine
Roberta Caploe Publisher @robertacaploe	Diane K Schwartz Senior Vice President Media Communications Group	Cynopsis Ad Sales Mike Farina \| 203-218-6480 VP, Sales	Cynopsis Job Listings Sales Trish Pihonak \| 203-899-8459 Director of Operations

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