Here are the top China sports business news stories you need to know from this week:
NHL's Successful China Return
The National Hockey League (NHL) returned to China for the 2nd year in a row with two preseason games between the Boston Bruins and Calgary Flames. The games took place in Shenzhen (15th Sept.) at the Universiade Sports Centre and Beijing (19th Sept.) at the Cadillac Arena. Read more on Sohu (Chinese) and CNN (English)
Mailman Take: Building on from their first set of preseason games last year in Shanghai and Beijing, the NHL returned to China to continue to grow the sport of ice hockey and build the game from the grassroots by introducing educational hockey coaching clinics. 10,218 were in attendance at the Shenzhen game, while 12,993 attended Beijing. As the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics approach, the government aims to have over 300 million people participating in Winter sports throughout the next few years.
China Sports Lottery Hires 4A Agency
Mindshare Beijing successfully bid for China Sports Lottery's integrated marketing business. The contract is set to run from 2019-2021. The winning bid is a reported RMB3.6 million ($524,000) and is the first time the state-run lottery organisation has hired a multinational 4A agency to deliver a brand-building strategy. Read more on Campaign Asia (English) and GroupM Official Website (Chinese)
Mailman Take: The 2018 FIFA World Cup™ pushed the China sports lottery to an all-time high in terms of participants and money exchanged. Records were regularly broken as the period June 11-17 totalled RMB7.33 billion ($1.13 billion) and they generated their highest daily figures since launching in 2009. This move signifies their intention to capitalise on this increase in interest by utilising a marketing agency to drive increased sales and ultimately invest more money into local sport.
Ecosports Lands Audio Rights to EPL
Chinese sport business media company Ecosports has partnered with talkSPORT to become the exclusive English Premier League (EPL) audio rights owner in Mainland China. Ecosports will unite domestic platforms to provide more rich live audio sports programs for Chinese fans, aiming to deliver further sports culture education and strive to explore the new direction for the development of top international sports IP in the Chinese market. Read more on Ecosports (Chinese)
BVB Enroll in Partnership with Xi’an University
Bundesliga football club Borussia Dortmund recently signed a strategic partnership with Xi’an Physical Education University. The two parties will collaborate in football coaching. The university will look to take advantage of the German club's training system, ideas, coaching and management to raise the quality of the university’s education. Read more on Xinhua News (Chinese) and Sports Business Daily (English)
China Open Serves Up Sogou Partnership
Tennis’ China Open has partnered with Chinese tech company Sogou. The signing ceremony was held in Beijing where Sogou was appointed as the exclusive designated translation provider for the event. The China Open committee declared total prize money will be over $10 million (women’s total $7.64 million and men’s $3.4 million). This year marks the 15th anniversary of the tournament. Read more on PC Online (Chinese)
Ping An Sponsors Beijing Marathon
As an official tier-3 partner of the 2018 CFLD Beijing Marathon from 2018 to 2020, Ping An Insurance provided a 260-member medical and service team to serve the event as well as a full range of insurance coverage. Ping An also launched a charity running group to donate running miles to Ping An’s rural area health check campaign. Read more on PR Newswire (Chinese)
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