SMB.

Sports information provider, STATS LLC has agreed a joint venture with Mumbai-based interactive media and digital sports content provider, Sportz Interactive, to form STATS Middle East.
The company will create, distribute and deliver worldwide sports content and data using innovative methods and platforms to enhance the digital sports media experience. STATS Middle East will bring a richer and wider array of dynamic sports content to the region.
STATS Middle East is the latest in a string of strategic initiatives by STATS to extend its worldwide sports coverage. Last August, STATS announced the formation of STATS Europe. The company also holds major market positions through affiliates in India, China and Japan.

Sphere: Related Content

Although the Bear Stearns still doesn't live in many places these days, it does live on the lacrosse field, where the Bear team is the defending champions in the Gotham Lacrosse League, an intramural league made up of Wall Street types.
Check out this video from Darrel Rovell.

Sphere: Related Content

Are professional sports a good place to put your ad dollars, at least during winter? Depends. f your company sells beer, office supplies or insurance, the answer is a resounding yes. Cars or airline service? Sure, but your money is just as well spent elsewhere. And if your business is fast food or credit cards, forget it--unless you're AMEX.

That´s the conclusion of a Forbes analysis of a study by Ithink. The study measured the effectiveness of advertising and sponsorships for the just completed NBA and NHL seasons.

The company decided to investigate, looking at 36 major sports advertisers across 11 product categories and measuring the degree of "lift" each got from its sports advertising and sponsorship programs. It asked 3,500 sports fans whether they found a brand distinctive, whether they felt loyal toward it and, most important, what percentage of their recent purchases in a given product category came from that brand. The more sports fans were pulled to a product over non-fans, the higher the product scored as a good match for sports advertising.

The study was confined to the core demographics in both groups (fans and non-fans), dominated by the 25- to -54-year-old educated consumer. It also found that promoting through the NBA, with its larger audience and frequent stops in play that advertisers love, brings about 3.5 times more recognition and loyalty than promoting through the NHL.

A company that wasn´t at top 10 but looks promising: Kia, the small Korean auto company that is the NBA's official automotive partner. With 12% growth in unit sales during the first quarter of 2008, Kia stands as the world's fastest-growing car company.

Here you can find top 10 most effective sports advertisers

Sphere: Related Content

The Top ten ball players are:

C- Jorge Posada 13.1 Million New York Yankees

1B- Jason Giambi 23.4 million New York Yankees

2B- Jeff Kent 9 million Los Angeles Dodgers

SS- Derek Jeter 21.6 Million Dollars New York Yankees

3B- Alex Rodriguez 28 Million Dollars New York Yankees

LF- Manny Ramirez 18.9 Million Dollars Boston Red Sox

CF- Carlos Beltran 18.6 Million Dollars New York Mets

RF- Bobby Abreau 16 Million Dollars New York Yankees

DH- Jim Thome 15.7 Million Dollars Chicago White Sox

SP- Johan Santana 17 Million Dollars New York Mets

RP- Mariano Rivera 15 million Dollars New York Yankees

Collectively these players have averaged 82 hits, 13 Home Runs, and 50 RBI’s.

That means Baseball fans are paying around 1 Million dollars for each hit, 6.3 Million dollars per Home Run, and 16 million dollars per RBI on average

Sphere: Related Content

The NBA Draft was three weeks ago and two player still without a shoe contract, they are Derrick Rose and Michael Beasley.

During the summer league games, Rose wore Nike and Adidas. Beasley wore Jordans. But noe of the bands have confirmed that either of them have signed. According to Darren Rovell, Rose has an offer of $ 1 million a year and around $ 650,000 a year for Beasley.

Sphere: Related Content

Even with all scandals that make many fans think that NBA was in big trouble, a recent article from Forbes shows a different story.

According to their numbers, the value of the typical NBA franchise rose 6% this year, to $372 million, as the Knicks became the first basketball team worth $600 million. NBA teams posted an average profit (in the sense of earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization) of $9.8 million, on revenues of $119 million. This is the highest income since Forbes began tracking basketball team finances 10 years ago. This great financial success it's due to steady increase in ticket sales, bigger TV deals and collective bargaining agreement that tightly controls spending on players.

Gate receipts, also known as ticket sales, rose 6% last season to $1.2 billion. They represent the NBA's largest revenue stream (33%); national broadcast are next up at $ 1 billion or 28%. Last season the league set an attendance record with 21.8 million fans.

In addition, two weeks after the Finals, the NBA and ESPN, ABC and TNT announce an eight-year, $ 7.4 billion extension to the agreement set to expire after the 2007-2008 season. It was a record, representing a 21% monetary increase over the current contract.

Another increase in NBA's revenues will come from their two new system for salary cap, the escrow tax and luxury tax. The escrow tax is designed so that teams only spend 57% of league-wide revenues on player salaries. Last season, players contributed 9%, or $177 million, of their $2 billion salary haul to an escrow account. That money is split between owners and players, so total player salaries and benefits are reduced to 57% of league-wide revenue. Last season, owners divvied up $155 million of the escrow account, while $22 million went back to the players. The luxury tax threshold is proving to be much more important than the salary cap number, as teams are loathe to pay the tax. Teams must pay one dollar in tax for every dollar they spend on players over a certain threshold--last season, it was $65.4 million. The tax is a double-whammy in that tax-paying teams are ineligible to receive distributions from the tax revenues collected. Five teams paid the tax last year, with the Knicks leading the way with a $45 million tax bill. The other four taxpaying teams chipped in $10 million.

Sphere: Related Content

Nike will drop three Hyperdunk ads from its basketball campaign that critics said it's homophobic. These ads evoke a 1992 rap song ("Punks jump up") with anti-gay lyrics.

Nike states that is "strongly opposed to discrimination of any kind and has a long history of supporting athletes regardless of their sexual orientation. The advertisement in question is based purely upon a common insight from within the game of basketball - the athletic feat of dunking on the opposition, and is not intended to be offensive.

However, after listening to concerns expressed around specific executions, we have decided to drop them from the campaign to underline our ongoing commitment to supporting diversity in sport and the workplace.

Nike has a strong record of support for diversity and is proud to have been honored with a 100 percent score over several consecutive years in the Human Rights Campaign Foundation¹s Corporate Equality Index."

Well, I think there's a little misunderstanding here, because Nike (a Giant in this biz) wouldn't waste money with homophobic ads, what do you think?

Sphere: Related Content

Sphere: Related Content