Today’s Sport for Business News Digest looks at another example of sport and local business working together; at events around National Bike Week; at a winning and a losing day (in one sense) for Paddy Power; at the new soccer season fixtures in England and Scotland and the way in which one sponsor turned adversity into triumph…
British triathlete looks local for sponsorship
Small business sponsorship of sport has received another boost in England with the news that Olympic Triathlete Martin Beare is to be sponsored by a local fireplace and stove retailer in his home town.
Beare had spoken publicly of his difficulty in funding training for the London 2012 games and Ampthill Fireplaces spotted an opportunity.  They did not simply write out a cheque though.  Instead they renamed one of their products as the ‘Ironman’ stove and will use Beare as a ‘local hero’ to generate local and regional sales activity.
In similar fashion to Mallon Sausages support of Katie Taylor, this deal shows that sports sponsorship can deliver real value for both sides through quick thinking and imagination.
National Bike Week
This Wednesday is National Bike to Work and Cycle to School Day and people are being encouraged to save their pocket and benefit their health by doing just that.
They are part of a National Bike Week which commenced on Saturday and involves special activities up and down the country.
There is an international Cycling conference taking place in Dublin next weekend and the week is being coordinated by local authorities, cycling and community groups with the support of state agencies.
One 4 All gift vouchers and Coca Cola are credited as having leant commercial support.
Paddy Power’s mobile winner…
Paddy Power has won a prestigious Future Mobile Award for Mobile Entertainment.  The award is in the mobile gaming category and was presented by Juniper Research.
“In a vibrant and highly-competitive mobile gambling sector, Paddy Power’s range of products stands out,” said Dr Windsor Holden, Research Director at the Juniper who estimate the mobile entertainment sector as being worth €36 billion (€28.5 billion).”
Juniper said the Future Mobile Awards are given to companies that it believes have made significant progress within their sector during the previous year, and are now poised to make considerable market impact in the future.
… and underwear loser
Paddy Power was also in the news in less savoury fashion as Danish Soccer International Nikolas Bendtner was fined €100,000 and suspended for one game for his part in an ambush marketing tactic where he revealed a sponsored waistband on his underwear at the Euro 2012 finals.
The fine looks large compared to smaller punishments handed out to FA’s for racism incidents but was justified by the fact this was a commercial decision where the player fined had complete control over his actions.
The higher the cost of sponsorship, the more vigorously sporting organisations will fight to protect their value.
Aegon turn tennis controversy into positive
We commented last week on the crowded sponsorship inventory at the Aegon Championships at the Queen’s Club tennis tournament covered by the BBC.  The main sponsor, reputed to be paying over €20 million a year to the All England Lawn Tennis Club was in the news yesterday denying that the brand had been damaged by the disqualification of David Nalbandian from Sunday’s final.
Ironically he was kicked out for injuring a line judge by kicking and breaking a sponsors board at the side of the court.
Reduced TV exposure in the sports broadcast, and among the crowd in attendance, was more than compensated by the news value of what had happened and the quick thinking to place the sponsor at the heart of the story by denying something that was never likely to be the case anyway.
Football fixture lists published
The group stages of the Euro’s are not yet complete but the new soccer season loomed large yesterday with publication of the fixture lists for the English and Scottish Premier Leagues.
Manchester City and United will face each other in key games on December 8th and April 6th but there is greater concern in Scotland where Glasgow Rangers were not named in the fixtures due to the ongoing inquiry into the clubs solvency.
Instead the list has been published with a ‘Club 12’.  The impact on whether that is Rangers or another club bumped up from the Scottish First Division is massive for the league.
Broadcast partner Sky TV has said it would stand by the League but there is lively speculation that there would likely be a renegotiation of the rights fee,
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