Sport for Business Weekly New Issue is live
The latest issue of Sport for Business Weekly is online now.  It will be free to view until the weekend when it will be available to members only.
Included in this week’s issue is a look at how Cheltenham Racecourse has maintained its appeal through leaner economic times, a feature on how the Hockey Association has brought the Olympic Games to Dublin, how Irish racecourses fare in the gossipy world of Twitter that should suit the sport so well, and Fáilte Ireland’s search to create sporting stories to sell Ireland on a world stage.
Launch the latest issue of Sport for Business Weekly
Bohemians deliver DHL as new team sponsor
Bohemian FC has announced that DHL Express is to become the club’s main sponsor.  The company employs 275,000 people worldwide and generated revenues last year of more than €50 billion.  It has a history of involvement with sport being the official logistics partner of the Football Association of Ireland, Manchester United, Formula One and the Rugby World Cup.
That is an impressive list for Bohemians to join.   “From the perspective of DHL Express Ireland we wanted to partner with a local club which our customers and staff could relate to and support,” said Bernard McCarthy, Managing Director of DHL Express Ireland.
The new agreement, which takes effect from Bohemians’ first home league match of the season against Shelbourne this Friday, will see the DHL logo included on the jerseys and training kit worn by the club’s players during all domestic and European competitions.
The sponsorship deal was brokered by Peter Halpin of Halpin Sports and is also a credit to Matt Devaney, Commercial Director of the club.
Irish golfers awarded grants
The Team Ireland Golf Trust has announced grants totalling €139,000 to fifteen aspiring golfers who are pursuing their careers on professional golf tours.
Paul Cutler and Danielle McVeigh both turned professional in 2011 and will receive support in this first full year of their tour careers. Cutler receives €15,000.  He turned professional after being the top points scorer for the GB and ireland team in the 2011 Walker Cup.  Last year he won the Irish Amateur Close Championship in Shannon, a competition which has been won by Ireland’s four major winners of recent seasons.
Danielle McVeigh made her professional debut at the Ladies Irish Open at Killeen Castle last August, having won the British Amateur Championship in 2009 and being a member of the Curtis Cup team in 2010.
The Trust was established between the government the golfing union sand the private sector in 1999 and has so far distributed more than €3 million to recipients including Peter Lawrie, Damian McGrane, Michael Hoey, Shane Lowry and Rebecca Codd.
Champagne Bollinger partners with the Boat Race
Bollinger is to be the official champagne of the English University Boat race between Oxford and Cambridge.  The Champagne house values its association with sport being an existing partner of the Open Golf Championship, Royal Ascot and English Rugby.
Bollinger was first created in 1829, the year of the first boat race.  That is the kind of resonant fact that helps to quickly establish a link.  Do irish sports research their own historic milestones to act as a potential trigger for commercial partnerships?
Lucozade launches bottle top club promotion
Lucozade Sport has launched a Club Challenge which offers clubs from all sports the opportunity to win a development prize of €10,000.  There will be three prizes for clubs with less than 250 members, more than 500 and in between the two.  Club members have to collect bottle tops from Lucozade sport products and register online to receive a collection pack.  The competition runs until August and will be promoted with TV advertising using players including Gooch Cooper and Shane Long.
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