SPONSORSHIP & PROMOTION
The 2019 NCAA March Madness Music Series will see singer and songwriter Katy Perry headline the Capital One JamFest on April 7 with DJ and producer Zedd tipping off the night. The three-day Music Series (April 5-7) will be held at The Armory in Minneapolis and open with the AT&T Block Party on April 5, followed by Coca-Cola Music on April 6.
The NFL announced the launch of “Tickets for 100 Years,” a first-of-its-kind contest offering a grand prize of a pair of season tickets to the winning fan’s preferred franchise for the next century. This grand prize marks the first of a series of fan experiences NFL fans will be able enter to win throughout the league’s 100th season, following the launch of the NFL100 campaign during Super Bowl LIII. “The NFL was built on multi-generational fandom that bonds people together,” said NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell. “Giving someone a century’s worth of NFL season tickets may be the single greatest sports prize ever offered to a fan. It represents 100 years filled with incredible memories to share with the people who matter most. This is the first of a fan-focused series that speaks to the spirit of the ‘Fantennial’ celebration at the heart of our centennial year.”
The Professional Fighters League announced a multi-year partnership with Anheuser Busch In-Bev in a deal that designated Estrella Jalisco as the first-ever “Official Beer Partner” of the PFL. As the Official Beer of the PFL, Estrella Jalisco has global rights to use PFL logos and “Official Partner” branding for advertising and promotional usage, including pass-through branding rights for promotions with on-premise and retail channel partners. ABI and the league will also collaborate on exclusive content across digital platforms.
DIGITAL, DATA & TECH
Noah Basketball and the Pac-12 Conference opened a partnership for the Conference to leverage the Noah Shooting System and Noahlytics data service in both of its 2019 men’s and women’s basketball tournaments. Having already tracked every shot of the women’s basketball tournament this past week from the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, every shot at the men’s basketball tournament from T-Mobile Arena this week will also be tracked. The Pac-12 Conference is the first NCAA conference to partner with Noah, and the first conference to use the technology for broadcast television as the data will be featured across Pac-12 Networks coverage.
The 22nd edition of ESPN’s Tournament Challenge game will once again open its doors with fans able to submit up to 25 brackets and join up to 10 groups each for the men’s and women’s tournaments. New features in the ESPN Tournament Challenge App include redesigned bracket cards that allow fans to easily navigate between brackets and sort them by total points, maximum points or alphabetically. The TC App also gives fans advanced live scoring and bracket results through Bracketcast, expert analysis and matchup previews, opt-in push notifications for up-to-the-second scores, news and video updates, and the ability to pre-fill brackets before Selection Sunday.
ESPORTS
FIFA formalized the full line-up of participating countries who will take part at the first-ever FIFA eNations Cup. Meanwhile, London was tapped as the host city for the event, which serves as one of the major events in the EA Sports FIFA 19 Global Series with 20 national teams from all six confederations (Concacaf, CONMEBOL, CAF, OFC, AFC and UEFA) set to take part. The 20 countries confirmed to participate in the FIFA eNations Cup 2019 are: Argentina, Australia, Brazil, China PR, Denmark, England (host country), Finland, France, Germany, Mexico, Netherlands., New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Russia, and USA. In addition to international glory and a prize pool of $100,000 at stake for the teams, players selected by their member association for the FIFA eNations Cup 2019 will also have the chance to win up to 1,500 EA Sports FIFA 19 Global Series points.
Stockholm-based esports company G-Loot, with its Battle Royale brand GLL, is partnering with PUBG Corporation to host a new PUBG Classic event, GLL GRAND SLAM: PUBG Classic. The multi-regional tournament for PLAYERUNKNOWN’S BATTLEGROUNDS will be held in Stockholm from July 19-21. “When we started the GLL brand a little more than one year ago the strategy was clear. We wanted to create the largest tournament in the world with the world’s most played game – PLAYERUNKNOWN’S BATTLEGROUNDS. We are immensely proud to announce GLL GRAND SLAM: PUBG Classic. It will be the largest tournament by us to date and we are very happy to welcome fans worldwide to follow the tournament on site in Stockholm or online,” said Simon Sundén, Vice President and Head of Esports and GLL at G-Loot.
Scuf Gaming announced plans to release new special editions of its SCUF Vantage and SCUF IMPACT to honor OpTic Gaming. As OpTic’s longest running sponsor, Scuf Gaming’s new items mark the seventh OpTic Gaming-inspired collaboration between the organization and Scuf Gaming, its official controller partner.
INDUSTRY/ROSTER MOVES
New pro sports league World Physique Championship unlocked its plans for that competition circuit that will “focus heavily on promoting competitors and the industry to a mainstream audience.” The WPC is set to launch in Miami on June 15, with their inaugural event taking place at the James L. Knight Center. Additional markets that WPC will visit before the end of the year include New York, Los Angeles and Las Vegas. The Las Vegas-based WPC will be overseen by CEO Darren Owen.
ONE Championship announced an exclusive partnership with Japanese martial arts organization Pancrase. The deal will see ONE Championship work with the org to provide Pancrase athletes the opportunity to showcase their martial arts talents and further develop their skills on a global platform. All Professional Pancrase World Champions will receive the opportunity to compete in ONE Championship.
The Premier Lacrosse League announced that it will host its slate of Week 5 games at Georgia State Stadium in Atlanta, GA, on Friday, June 28 and Saturday, June 29. Atlanta joins Boston, New York, Chicago, and Baltimore has PLL host cities that have been announced. “We’re delighted to bring an amazing weekend of Premier Lacrosse League action to the Atlanta area,” says Paul Rabil, PLL Co-Founder and Chief Strategy Officer. “Led by PLL superstars Myles Jones and Scott Ratliff, the region has seen lacrosse grow exponentially in both participation and popularity. We look forward to bringing the PLL to the fans in the great state of Georgia.”
The NCAA, USA Basketball and the NBA will bring top male and female high school-age players from around the nation and world to the 2019 Men’s and Women’s Final Fours. The players will travel to Minneapolis and Tampa, respectively, for a weekend of player development and educational programming as part of Next Generation Sunday and, for the first time, Women’s Next Generation Saturday.
THE MAIN EVENT
2019 NCAA March Madness Selection Show on CBS on Sunday at 6p.
