12/17/18: REP Worldwide talks licensing

Good morning. It’s Monday December 17, 2018 and this is your first early morning Sports briefing.

It has been just over a year since the NFL Players Association launched REP Worldwide, described as a first-of-its-kind brand management and representation business that puts the group licensing expertise of the NFLPA to work for athletes and sports properties. The enterprise was launched in conjunction with founding equity partners, the US Women’s National Team Players Association and the Women’s National Basketball Players Association, and since added the U.S. Rugby Players Association as a client.

With personal branding in the spotlight more than ever, Cynopsis Sports asked Steve Scebelo, VP of business development and licensing at NFL Players Inc. in addition to serving as the president of REP Worldwide, about the company, licensing and the challenges ahead.

Scebelo on lessons learned: The most positive lesson we have learned is that there is an interest and desire for companies to align themselves with the world’s premier women athletes, in the US Women’s National Team players and WNBA players. To have secured 19 signed licensing agreements in that time frame confirms that the business opportunity has strong growth potential. Companies are willing to explore the fit for more players in their product assortments, and realize that women’s soccer and basketball stars will appeal to new fans and customers.

On new opportunities for growth: Beyond the core categories, we at REP are very enthusiastic about exploring unique new categories that are great fits for the USWNTPA and WNBPA programs. For example, both are interested in the travel category – luggage, fashionable apparel, etc., since their players spend so much time on the road. Sporting goods is a category that will allow younger players to model their favorite athletes while playing on the pitch or on the court. Toys hold a lot of promise, including action figures and more, that bring star women athletes into young girls’ and boys’ play patterns. Digital and technology platforms also have significant potential. Health and beauty aids (think sunscreen, bandages, etc.) and consumables are growth categories that will be explored as well.

On success stories: We are excited to see the ongoing development of the USWNTPA and WNBPA group licensing programs. The timing of REP’s launch has coincided very well with planning for the Women’s World Cup. Having the ability to talk about this global event, in which the National Team players will be defending their World Cup title, has helped drive early ramp up for the program. With the 2020 Olympic Games to follow, our goal is to build a lasting program to ensure that fans continue to have the opportunity to buy licensed products featuring their favorite players, in World Cup years and beyond. For WNBA players, their group licensing program represents a major leap forward. Timing is outstanding, when noting recent growth in popularity and key fan metrics around the world’s best female players. We look forward to having player merchandise in the market to allow fans – as well as athletes from other sports, e.g., NFL players, NBA players, US Women’s National Team players, and more – to show their support for WNBA players during the upcoming CBA negotiations with the league. We believe the players’ future opportunities are bright, and licensed product opportunities will continue to grow.

On challenges: When it comes to the USWNTPA and WNBPA programs, the primary challenge facing the programs is to continue to break down walls in the way slow movers think. We still run into meetings where companies dismiss women’s sports as too challenging, or not as popular as the men’s game, or not having any room at retail. REP Worldwide will continue to approach that challenge in a way that encourages potential partners to think about developing different approaches, and investing different resources to truly succeed and see an astounding return on their investment. The fans are there, the players are willing to get engaged and help push the sales – it’s a matter of building the right set of products and offering them through the appropriate channels in order to maximize sales.

PROGRAMMING

Feld Motor Sports is shifting gears with a new multi-year media partnership that will see NBC Sports become the official home of Monster Energy AMA Supercross and Monster Jam in the US with the New Year. NBC Sports Group will present comprehensive coverage of all Supercross Heats, Last Chance Qualifiers and Main Events across NBC, NBCSN, NBCSports.com, the NBC Sports app and NBC Sports Gold in addition to 26 Monster Jam events on NBCSN, all of which will stream on NBCSports.com and the NBC Sports app NBC Sports Gold will offer subscribers “Supercross Pass” – a package of events that will include all Supercross qualifiers and races live and without commercial interruption, as well as full on-demand replays. Programming begins Jan. 5, with live coverage of the first of 15 consecutive weeks of Supercross.

The USOC is banking on another run in Utah, announcing that they have chosen Salt Lake City as the choice for a potential 2030 bid, selecting the city over Denver. “I’d like to thank Denver and Salt Lake City, and their respective leadership teams, for participating in this process and their commitment to make the Olympic and Paralympic movements stronger,” USOC Chair Larry Probst said in a statement. “We’re incredibly lucky to have multiple able and willing cities to choose from, but in the end, we believe Salt Lake City will give us the best chance to return the winter Games to the US.” The selection will not be made by the IOC until 2023.

ESPN and Major League Baseball announced that the June 30, 2019 regular season game between the Yankees and Red Sox from London’s Olympic Stadium will air exclusively on ESPN. The telecast will begin at 10a and see the Sunday Night Baseball team – Matt Vasgersian, analysts Alex Rodriguez and Jessica Mendoza and reporter Buster Olney – on microphone duties.

The NFL is reporting that the 2018 Thursday Night Football season delivered an average audience of 14.9 million viewers this season across FOX, NFL Network, FOX Deportes, and digital properties, for a rise of 4% over the 10-game TNF average in 2017. The Nielsen-measured audience averaged 14.3 million viewers, up 3%, with FOX delivering a 10.3/18 in metered markets, up 7%. Amazon Prime Video and Twitch reached a total of 24.4 million viewers in over 200 countries and territories for the entire season, up 33% with an average minute audience of 500K viewers, up 61%.

Elsewhere in ratings news, Telemundo and Universo saw coverage of the FIFA Women’s World Cup France 2019 Final Draw on Dec. 8 nearly double the network’s average of the 2014 Final Draw, averaging80,000 adults 18-49 and 166,000 total viewers for a markup of 86 and 87% respectively, according to Nielsen.

A CYNOPSIS MESSAGE

JUST ANNOUNCED: The 2019 Cynopsis TV Awards Finalists!

Awards Event: FEB 6 in NYC

The Cynopsis TV Awards salute excellence in national TV programming and we’re thrilled to announce this year’s finalists! Joining us will be a range of companies, including: 7ATE9 Entertainment, A+E Networks, Animal Planet, Beck Media, BET Network, CNBC, Cooking Channel, Crown Media, Discovery, E! Entertainment, Food Network, and MANY more (click here to view full list).

The awards gala will take place on February 6th at the Yale Club in NYC.

SPONSORSHIP & PROMOTION

Charles Fazzino, famous for his 3D pop art, has been commissioned by the College Football Playoff (CFP) to create limited-edition prints and posters in celebration of the fifth anniversary of the CFP National Championship. “We are honored to work with Charles to commemorate the CFP,” said executive director, Bill Hancock. “His iconic pop art will dazzle fans of college football and our great event.” The 2019 CFP National Championship will be played on Jan. 7.

Air Force and Richard Petty Motorsports will continue their 11th consecutive year as partners in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series in 2019. The Air Force will continue to be a two-race primary sponsor of the No. 43 with driver Bubba Wallace, as well as a major associate throughout the season. Air Force colors will adorn the vehicle on July 4 weekend at Daytona International Speedway and Veterans Day weekend at ISM Raceway in Phoenix.

DIGITAL, DATA & TECH

DraftKings and the Professional Fighters League unveiled partnership surrounding the PFL’s inaugural Championship event on New Year’s Eve. The Pick ‘Em fantasy game will launch on Dec. 21 and will task sports fans to predict four outcomes for each of the six fights: Who will win the fight? What will the method of victory be? What round will each fight end? What time within that round will the fight end? The game will feature a live leaderboard for players to track their position in real time, and DraftKings will award $25K in guaranteed prizing

Amazon announced the launch of NBA League Pass on Prime Video Channels, allowing Prime members to subscribe to the league’s out-of-market subscription service to access hundreds of live, regular season out-of-market games. Prime customers streaming NBA League Pass on Fire TV devices will have access to Prime Video’s X-Ray feature, which allows fans to interact with team stats and player information while they watch.

The IOC opened the digital doors to its first Olympic store for Chinese fans courtesy of a partnership with Alibaba group. The platform opens on Tmall, with additional plans in development to create a global ecommerce platform for fans around the world, and will offer official products developed as part of three Olympic core licensing collections, aimed at engaging Chinese fans all year round.

ESPORTS

It is the end of the line for an esports title that helped blaze esports into mainstream popularity. Blizzard on Thursday announced that it was pulling the plug on its support for organized esports for Heroes of the Storm – the Heroes Global Championship and Heroes of the Dorm. The company stated that a number of developers would be pulled in to help with other games, noting that Blizzard have more live games and unannounced projects than at any point in company history. Characters would still be added to the game, along with themed events, but the “cadence” would change for players.

Esports organization Immortals saw its collaboration with heritage sneaker and lifestyle brand K-Swiss come to life on Friday when the shoe Immortals Icon was made available to consumers for $110 at kswiss.com/immortals. The sneaker sports Immortals branding and comes with two pairs of shoelaces in Immortals colors of black and teal. “Esports is exploding, and we’re excited to be at the forefront,” said Barney Waters, K-Swiss’ brand president. “Immortals is a great organization to be partnered with as we explore together the intersection of sneakers and esports. As shown in the Immortals Icon, this creative zone is one we continue to focus energy on.”

ESP Gaming announced plans for its second World Showdown of Esports event, taking place on Dec. 20–21 at the OGN Studios in Manhattan Beach. Competition will see 16 women Hearthstone players from around the world duel for their share of more than $30,000 in prizes and a chance to become the first WSOE Hearthstone Champion. The event will be streamed live at twitch.tv/WSOE. Leading Hearthstone personality TJ Sanders will host and be joined by a top crew of analysts, commentators, and reporters including Brian Kibler, Dan “Frodan” Chou, Nathan “Admirable” Zamora, Paul “Zalae” Nemeth, and Lauren Jbara.

Gfinity announced plans to host four events as part of the EA SPORTS FIFA 19 Global Series. Tournaments consist of one FUT Champions Cup and three Licensed Qualifiers with all held at the Gfinity Esports Arena in London and streamed across digital platforms. Each of the events form part of the journey that players will take on the road to the FIFA eWorld Cup 2019.

Luxury car brand Porsche and iRacing are launching the Porsche iRacing World Championship Series, offering competitors a $100,000 prize pool, competing in ten rounds, with the series qualifiers starting next month. The series was announced at the recent Porsche SimRacing Summit at the Porsche Factory in Leipzig, Germany.

INDUSTRY/ROSTER MOVES

Brett Yormark, CEO of BSE Global, was named to lead the newly established Advisory Board for Haymon Sports, LLC, the creator of PBC. The Haymon Sports Advisory Board will help to fuel the direction for Haymon Sports by advising its leadership team on branding strategy, cross-licensing opportunities, commercialization, and future growth initiatives for PBC.

THE MAIN EVENT

Saints/Panthers on MNF on ESPN at 8p.

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The 5^th Annual Cynopsis Social Good Awards

*ENTER BY 12/20*

Whether you’re looking to celebrate a campaign, a series, a partnership or eager to shine a light on a certain social good shining star in your office, Cynopsis’ 5th Annual Social Good Awards is ready to help you honor and inspire. Finalists and winners will be broadcast through Cynopsis’ widely-read daily newsletter, cynopsis.com and all of our bustling social media outlets.

[2018 WINNERS] [CATEGORIES] [GET STARTED]

ON THIS DAY in 2004: Toronto Raptors trade Vince Carter to the New Jersey Nets.

In the Know: What is the full name of the character that pulls the football away from Charlie Brown before he kicks? (Email [email protected] with your answer and be sure to include your name, company and city.)

Answer to Our Last Sports Trivia Question: Name a current Olympic sport that features mixed gender individual competition (no teams/pairs/relays, etc.). Answer: Equestrian (lots of answers along the lines of ice dancing, curling, etc., but those are team sports). Kudos: Roger Furman-Sports Marketing Communications/NY; Matt Sautter-WideOrbit/Harrisburg; Synda Kollman-Charter Marketing Group/Boca Raton; Peter Steckelman-Tennis Channel/Santa Monica; David Westberg-SAG-AFTRA Federal Credit Union/Burbank; Tom Moore-Kalt Productions/LA; Lorrie Shilling/El Segundo.

Later — Chris

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

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