Amazon Places Bet on E-Sports Sponsorship

Following up on its recent $1 billion acquisition of streaming gaming platform, Twitch, Amazon this week announced that it will acquire GoodGame, which describes itself as "the world’s first full-service agency dedicated to the e-sports and live video game broadcasting communities." GoodGame will help monetize the 60 million active viewers that watch live streamed e-sports games on Twitch every...

Rio Tops $1 Billion in Sponsorship Revenue

The Rio 2016 organizing committee announced on Wednesday that with two years to go over $1 billion in domestic sponsorships have been sold, 85% of the total that is forecasted for the games. In comparison, London is said to have raised about $1.1 billion from domestic sponsors for the 2012 games. Rio's Chief Commercial Officer, Renato Ciuchini, says the World Cup helped accelerate sales efforts...

The SponsorPitch Daily Update

Our daily email will be back tomorrow at noon est. We're working very hard right now on a number of items that will make SponsorPitch a more useful and beautiful experience for all 50,000 of you. The daily email, which many of you have been asking us to bring back, is one part of that and will be back in your inboxes tomorrow. If you haven't yet signed up to receive the daily, be sure to go to...

WME To Make Cuts at IMG

In the wake of its $2.2 billion acquisition of IMG, WME will lay off about 100 employees, or 3% of IMG's worldwide staff. The restructuring will come in the coming weeks, according to Variety. Here's the memo from WME co-CEO's Ari Emanuel and Patrick Whitsell: In the seven months since WME acquired IMG, we’ve been focused on helping this company live up to its potential as the global leader ...

Real Madrid Amends Logo For Marketing Partnership

One of the world's most famous soccer clubs has gone so far as to alter its own logo in some regions, in an apparent effort to win over sponsors and fans in the UAE. At a ceremony last week to announce the launch of its sponsorship deal with the National Bank of Abu Dhabi, the club's iconic logo is missing the cross on its royal crown. "Their logo will remain the same in Europe, but with a hug...

Team Partner Changes Promotion In Face of Winless Season

Papa John's changed its pizza promotion with the 0-14 Philadelphia 76ers so that fans now get 50% off when the team hits 90 points, rather than wins as previously promoted. That's according to numerous reports making the rounds.

The New SponsorPitch (v4)

Welcome to the new, improved SponsorPitch! Our mission to help you access on-demand sponsorship intelligence in a faster and more targeted manner hasn't changed; but our look and feel has. And that's thanks to the feedback of users like you - users who have helped us grow from just a handful of users to over 50,000 active members in a short time. We can't thank you enough. And that's why we're ...

UA Makes Bid For One Of Basketball's Biggest Stars

According to ESPN's Darren Rovell, Kevin Durant's representation, Roc Nation Sports, is mulling a massive offer from Under Armour worth between $265 million and $285 million over 10 years. The prospective endorsement deal, which would bring to an end a seven year relationship with Nike, reportedly also includes stock and other items such a community center built in his mother's name. Your move,...

Reebok Offers Sponsorship For Tattoo

Sponsorships are almost never permanent. These days there is always a term and an "out clause." That kind of goes out the window though when you get a gigantic tattoo of your sponsor. Reebok in Sweden is offering a $6,000 (40,000 SEK) crossfit sponsorship to the athlete that gets the biggest tattoo of Reebok's logo. Check out this crazy promotion...

ESPN Got Paid In Bitcoin For Latest Bowl Sponsorship

It may come as no surprise that BitPay elected to pay ESPN for its recent bowl sponsorship in bitcoin. Company execs confirmed on Friday...