Here are the top China sports business news stories you need to know from this week:
Mengniu Group becomes FIFA World Cup official sponsor
Chinese Dairy company Mengniu Group and FIFA have jointly announced that the former became an official sponsor of the 2018 Russian World Cup. The deal includes 4 categories of Mengniu’s products as their branding will appear on all key promotional platforms. They will be the first dairy brand to sponsor the World Cup. Read more on Lanxiong (Chinese)
Mailman Take: Chinese businesses are continually using the sponsorship of major sporting events as a means of progressing their global strategy, choosing this approach to make an impression on a big audience. This marks the fifth company from mainland China to sponsor the upcoming 2018 Russian World Cup showing just how significant they see the benefits from being present at events such as this.
Manchester City sign long term deal with Kaiwen
Kaiwen Education Group have signed a ten-year strategic agreement with Manchester City Football Club. Due to launch in September 2018, The Kaiwen Manchester City Football school will offer a unique educational experience alongside a bespoke training programme encapsulating existing Man City approaches and philosophies. The deal also includes Chinese students travelling to train at the City academy during summer. Read more on Sina (Chinese)
Mailman Take: Top tier clubs such as Bayern, Real Madrid and City have set out to establish themselves in China at grassroots level to connect with China’s growing football generation and to capitalise on the Governments vision of China becoming one of the World leaders in football. This announcement is very much inline with City Football Group’s strategy to build a global football powerhouse.
Chien Lee Leads Acquisition of Barnsley FC
Chinese businessman Chien Lee has led a consortium of investors to acquiring a majority stake in championship side Barnsley FC. The consortium included former Major League Baseball player Billy Beane and will mark the end of Patrick Cryne’s 13-year ownership. This is Lee’s second movement for a football club having bought 80% of French team Nice last year. Read more on Tencent (Chinese)
Aston Villa Co-operate with Sports Data Company
Chinese sports data company GenGee have signed a strategic agreement with Aston Villa. The two sides will look to utilise their resources and strengths within R&D with a view to developing a digital youth training system. Villa will also implement GenGee’s big data products to all levels of their training set up. Read more on Sina (Chinese)
Umbro Sign First Chinese Player
Umbro announced their first deal with a Chinese player, signing China U23 star Deng Hanwen. Umbro will provide Hanwen with all apparel as they hope to inspire consumers to experience the advanced technology through a series of future products. They also want this to show their support for developing younger talent. Read more on Sohu (Chinese)
The CBA Joins Forces with Beitai Technology
The CBA have announced a strategic partnership with Beitai Technology. As the sole provider of CBA’s official data, Beitai will leverage leading data acquisition and analysis technology to provide high-quality data system solutions for the league as well as helping the CBA develop Chinese and overseas markets for big data products and services. Read more on Sohu (Chinese)
New Sponsorship Approach Revealed by the CSL
The CSL have announced they are looking for official sponsors for the next 4 seasons. They have classified the sponsorships into three levels including, Official Title Sponsor, Official Partner and Official Supplier. Read more on Yutang (English)
Crazy Sports partner with Soccer Manager
Chinese sports game company Crazy Sports and British gaming company Soccer Manager have signed a 6 year strategic cooperation. The deal gives Crazy Sports the rights to operate within China as well as other Asian countries. The two sides will also set up a joint venture focusing on the development of new sports games for the global market. Read more on Sina (Chinese)
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