Good morning. It’s Wednesday May 29, 2019 and this is your first early morning Sports briefing.
 

Game 1 of the 2019 Stanley Cup Final between the Blues and Bruins on NBC saw the network reel in an average Total Audience Delivery of 5.380 million viewers, making it the most-watched Game 1 in four years and NBC Sports’ third-most watched Game 1 since it began broadcasting the Stanley Cup Final in 2006, according to Fast National data from Nielsen and digital data from Adobe Analytics. That is up 2% over last year’s Game 1 and up 9% vs. 2017. On NBC alone, the game delivered a 2.87 HH rating and 5.264 million TV-only viewers. St. Louis led all markets with a 29.0 local rating, NBC Sports’ highest NHL rating on record in the market. Boston scored a 25.2 rating.

 

 

PROGRAMMING

In other ratings news, Univision Deportes’ telecast of the Liga MX Final drew nearly 2 million viewers for the second leg, growing 8% with P2+ and 3% with A18-49 from Thursday’s leg one telecast. This season’s Liga MX Clausura Final – the two matches combined - averaged 1.9 million P2+ and 976K A18-49.

 

The USGA is upping the ante, announcing that it has raised the purses for both the U.S. Open and U.S. Women’s Open, making the first the most lucrative event in major championship golf at $12.5 million in prize money, while $1 million will be offered to the winner of the women’s event with $5.5 million overall in the pool. “The USGA is committed to providing an unparalleled experience to every player competing in its championships,” said USGA senior managing director John Bodenhamer. “Through strategic investments in our player relations program, we are continuing the effort to create a competitor experience commensurate with the game’s most prestigious championships, and that includes an increased purse and a continued commitment to make playing in an Open championship unforgettable for the world’s top amateur players.”

 

Univision Deportes detailed coverage plans for the UEFA Champions League Final between Tottenham Hotspur and Liverpool FC, with coverage on June 1. Coverage begins on Univision Deportes Network at noon with a special edition of Misión Europa and continues at 1:30p on Univision and UDN with the Fútbol Central pre-game show. As part of the coverage, Univision Deportes top shows Misión Europa and Línea de Cuatro will air live from Madrid throughout the week, while Locura Deportiva, Fútbol Club and Contacto Deportivo will include special live segments from the Spanish capital.

 

MLB Network’s MLB Central co-hosted by Robert Flores, Mark DeRosa and Lauren Shehadi will run live from Yankee Stadium at 10a leading up to the Padres/Yankees telecast on MLB Network at 1p. San Diego Padres players Eric Hosmer and Franmil Reyes are among guests from both clubs who are scheduled to join the program.

 

ESPN+ reached an agreement to be the exclusive English- -language home in the United States for the 2019 CONMEBOL Copa America. The 46th CONMEBOL Copa America will be played June 14 - July 7 throughout Brazil with all 26 matches streamed live on ESPN+. ESPN+ will also carry the matches in Portuguese.

 

Meanwhile, FloSports renewed its partnership with North, Central America and Caribbean Volleyball Confederation (to provide live and on-demand coverage of six scheduled events on FloVolleyball.com extending for the third year since 2017. FloVolleyball subscribers will have access to the NORCECA Volleyball Confederation games where USA Volleyball youth, junior, men’s and women’s teams will compete.

 

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SPONSORSHIP & PROMOTION

While not an official NBA partner, Chipotle announced plans to give away up to one million dollars of burritos during the “2019 Men’s Professional Basketball Championship Series” to celebrate its nationwide free deliver offer. Every time an on-air announcer says the word “free” during the official coverage of the men’s professional basketball championship series, Chipotle will be “freeting”: live tweeting a unique code good for the chance to win a free burrito from @chipotletweets. Each mention of “free” in the first half of each game will result in up to 500 free burritos. Each mention of “free” in the second half will result in up to 1000 free burritos.

 

NBA prospect Ja Morant, currently projected to become the number two pick of the NBA Draft, announced a show deal with Nike. “All my life, my parents worked for a check. Now I’m proud to say I work for the check. #Nike#NikeBasketball,” Morant wrote on Instagram.

 

The PGA TOUR and Trifecta, the nation’s largest organic meal delivery service, announced a new multi-year marketing relationship that designates Trifecta as the “Official Meal Delivery of the PGA TOUR, PGA TOUR Champions and the Web.com Tour.” As part of the PGA TOUR’s Official Marketing Partner program, Trifecta will activate the partnership by offering a nutritional support program to eligible PGA TOUR players. Trifecta's culinary chefs will create custom meal plans for TOUR players as they travel and compete around the world.

 

Expedia, Official Travel Partner of the UEFA Champions League, is now teaming up with The Players’ Tribune to produce a series of eleven short documentaries to run across the next two seasons. ‘Madrid Like a Champion’, debuting in the build-up to this year’s UEFA Champions League Final, will follow Luis Figo to some of his favorite places in the city. “The Players’ Tribune is excited to be partnering with Expedia to bring football fans a unique insight into the iconic cities where some of the truly memorable European Football moments have taken place” said Anthony Hogg, VP Commercial EMEA at The Players’ Tribune.

 

 

DIGITAL, DATA & STREAMING

Meredith agreed to sell the iconic Sports Illustrated to Authentic Brands Group for $110 million, and sees Authentic Brands picking up the intellectual property of the iconic magazine that will comprise of Sports Illustrated, Sports Illustrated Kids, Sportsperson of the Year, Sports Illustrated Swimsuit, SI and SI TV, the companies said in a statement. The companies also formed a strategic partnership to build a global media platform and develop broad-based licensing programs under the Sports Illustrated brand that will include product, original content and live events. Authentic Brands would take on the marketing, business development and licensing functions for the Sports Illustrated intellectual property and brand, while the print magazine and SI.com would continue to function independently under Meredith and Editor-in-Chief Chris Stone and Publisher Danny Lee, the companies said.

 

The NHL locked in a deal with GameOn in a move that will allow fans to receive premium content through the exclusive NHL Chatbot (http://m.me/NHL), launching for the 2019 Stanley Cup® Final. Available for Facebook Messenger, the NHL Chatbot will deliver fan experiences through regular news updates, game previews and notifications, scoring alerts, schedules, standings and most notably, GIF and video in-game highlights.

 

fuboTV detailed plans to carry every FIFA Women's World Cup match this year in 4k. The event starts on June 7 and runs through July 7, with all matches streaming on FOX Sports, FS1 and FS2 in 4K Beta with fuboTV. fubo will also carry Telemundo's coverage of every match in Spanish (not in 4K).

 

Once again, the NBA has a strong presence on Tunity Analytics’ Top 10 out-of-home sports ranker. For the week of May 20, NBA games and related programming took the top five and the number eight slot, with the majority of airings on TNT. The Indianapolis 500 on NBC averaged 1.4 million out-of-home viewers 18+ on Sunday, May 26. This marks an +8% increase over last year’s OOH viewership on ABC. The race peaked at 3:58 PM with 2.5 million OOH viewers. In other sports news, the Stanley Cup playoffs started out strong on May 27 with an average OOH audience of 2.1 million viewers for NBC. As we continuously see, OOH hockey audiences skew younger than other major sports with 65% of viewers in the A25-54 demo. Show/Network/Data/(000’s)

1. NBA-Warriors/Trail Blazers: ESPN on May 20 (3714)
2. NBA-Bucks/Raptors: TNT on May 25 (3530)
3. NBA-Raptors/Bucks: TNT on May 23 (3217)
4. Inside the NBA: TNT on May 25 (2631)
5. NBA-Bucks/Raptors: TNT on May 21 (2370)

Source: Tunity Analytics. Viewing estimates are derived from Tunity mobile app usage for the week beginning May 20, 2019. OOH Viewer impressions are calculated using Tunity Analytics proprietary estimation model.

 

 

ESPORTS

Mike Tyson is now the latest celebrity to jump into the world of esports, with the former world heavyweight champion's company Tyson Ranch locking in a substantial investment in the esports team Fade 2 Karma. The F2K-TR partnership will include a fully dedicated streaming facility that is currently under construction in El Segundo, titled "The Ranch House" that will include include private streaming rooms; a performance stage for tournaments; content production; a DJ booth for events that will utilize the facility's rooftop party deck; high-speed fiber optic cable and video screens.

 

Dignitas named Caffeine, the social broadcasting platform, as its exclusive broadcast partner. Through a multi-year partnership, all official Dignitas team-focused content will be exclusively live streamed on Caffeine and the pair will now produce original digital series that highlight popular teams, including Dignitas’ World Championship-winning Rocket League and female Counter Strike: Global Offensive (CS:GO) teams. Caffeine will also become the official broadcasting partner for Dignitas' upcoming influencer initiative that will produce original content and live shows for leading influencers at the confluence of gaming and pop culture.

 

DreamHack dialed up a new partnership with Samsung to become the primary partner for the DreamHack Mobile Series. The partnership will first be visible during DreamHack Summer (Jönköping, Sweden), June 15-17, and during a special DreamHack Mobile Series qualifier at the Samsung Experience Store in Stockholm on June 9. Samsung will deliver the official tournament mobile phones, with the flagship phone Samsung Galaxy S10 in focus but also with Samsung Galaxy A70. Samsung will also be present with a large booth in the expo area showcasing products for visitors to experience.

 

The first ever eChampions League final – a joint venture by UEFA and EA SPORTS, is now locked in to take place in Madrid on May 31 as eight of the best EA SPORTS FIFA 19 players compete on PlayStation, with the winner having the chance to raise the eChampions League Trophy aloft at the Estadio Metropolitano ahead of the UEFA Champions League Final on June 1. The competitors and their coaches will participate in an eChampions League draft and will go head to head to pick their teams, containing footballers who were involved in this season’s UEFA Champions League group stage.

 

WorldGaming Network announced a first-of-its-kind partnership with SCENE, Canada’s largest entertainment rewards program. Beginning June 28, SCENE members can earn more points by participating in weekly esports and video gaming tournaments hosted through WorldGaming Network’s online platform. The tournaments will enable gamers to compete for a weekly prize pool of up to 50,000+ SCENE points, which can be redeemed for a variety of great rewards, including movies at their local Cineplex theatre. “We are proud to run the world’s leading grassroots competitive gaming tournaments and content platform, and our new partnership with SCENE helps us build on our existing success,” says Wim Stocks, CEO and General Manager, WorldGaming Network. “Esports and competitive gaming is becoming more and more mainstream, appealing to a broad base of gaming enthusiasts, and we are excited to extend our platform to the over 9 million SCENE members across the country.”

 

The Golden Guardians, the League of Legends Championship Series (LCS) affiliate of the Golden State Warriors, entered a multi-year partnership with Zenni Optical to become the Official Eyewear of the team. To tip off the partnership, Zenni and the Golden Guardians will host an activation at the LCS Summer Split tailgate on June 1 at the LCS Studio in Los Angeles and members of the Golden Guardians will use both Zenni prescription eyewear and their signature Blokz blue blocker lenses.

 

 

INDUSTRY/ROSTER MOVES

AMB Sports and Entertainment named Dietmar Exler as senior vice president and chief operating officer to oversee Mercedes-Benz Stadium operations, including: fan experience, the award-winning food and beverage program, private events, the MBS tours business, as well as security and retail across the AMBSE portfolio. Exler most recently served as president and CEO of Mercedes-Benz USA.

 

Universal Tennis added Anne Worcester, former WTA CEO & Connecticut Open Tournament Director, as president of the company. As President, Worcester will oversee the growth and development of UTR worldwide. Beyond her leadership at the organization, her focus at the outset will be on increasing grassroots efforts to connect communities to the sport and fostering diverse partnerships within the tennis ecosystem to build participation on the platform.

 

The National Basketball Association tapped NBA Vice President and Managing Director for Africa, Amadou Gallo Fall as President of the Basketball Africa League , a new professional league featuring 12 club teams from across Africa scheduled to begin play next year. Fall will assume his role as BAL President immediately while assisting in the transition and search for a new Managing Director of the NBA in Africa.

 

NBC Sports Chicago appointed veteran multimedia executive Ed McGregor to the position of Vice President of Content Strategy, where he will lead NBC Sports Chicago’s comprehensive and growing portfolio of multi-platform content including, live events, programming, digital media, news, and original content.

 

 

THE MAIN EVENT

Game 2 of Blues/Bruins on NBCSN at 8p.

 

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ON THIS DAY in 1977: AJ Foyt wins his fourth Indianapolis 500.

 

In the Know: Which basketball team was once stranded on Gilligan’s Island? (Email chris-sports@cynopsis.com with your answer and be sure to include your name, company and city.)

 

Answer to Our Last Sports Trivia Question: Which two teams have the Padres played in the World Series? Answer: The Yankees and Tigers. Kudos: John Ferlazzo/London; Michael Ritz-Northwestern Mutual/NY; Andrew Kalb-ABC News/NY; C. Eric Wright-D S Simon Media/NY; Randy Ingram-WISH/WNDY-TV/Indianapolis; Peter Lasser-Lasser Productions/Atlanta; Synda Kollman-Charter Marketing Group/Boca Raton; Howard Kamen-Gannett Co., Inc./USA TODAY/McLean; Joe Lyons-ESPN/Dallas; Lance Davis-ESPN Milwaukee/Milwaukee; Bill Robertson-WCHA/Bloomington; Lance Phegley-Texas Runner and Triathlete magazine/Houston; Rich Wolfe-Lone Wolfe Press/Scottsdale; Rick Pike-InterMedia Advertising/Woodland Hills; Larry Hutchings/Nipomo; Jim Himmel-TCB Media/San Clemente; Nick Monroe-Monroe Photography/San Diego

Later -- Chris