Global

Mediarex Sports & Entertainment (MSE), the parent company of the Global Poker Index (GPI), has announced plans to launch its first-ever professional team poker league as part of a wider effort to ‘sportify’ poker.

The Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) has appointed Steve Simon to replace Stacey Allaster as its new chief executive.

The International Skating Union (ISU) has expressed its “surprise and disappointment” after it was confirmed that the European Commission (EC) is to launch an investigation into current rules that enable the sport’s global governing body to ban skaters from its own competitions if they take part in non-approved events.

The International Volleyball Federation (FIVB) has launched a new masterplan outlining nine goals to deliver on its vision of becoming the No.1 family entertainment sport in the world.

Four of Fifa’s major sponsors have called for the immediate resignation of Sepp Blatter, piling further pressure on the under-fire president of world football’s governing body.

The FIA World Touring Car Championship is set to incorporate team time trials in each round of the 2016 competition, in what its organising body said would be a “first for global motorsport”.

Uefa president Michel Platini is set to be without his closest advisor as he seeks to shore up his claim to the top job in world football, while Asian football powerbroker Sheikh Salman Bin Ebrahim Al Khalifa has been linked to a run for the Fifa presidency.

Giants are emerging in the sports marketing landscape with multi-billion dollar agencies coming to the fore. Frank Dunne looks at how the arrival of the newly merged forces has affected the balance of power in the sports industry.

The World Rally Championship (WRC) is poised to expand to 14 events for its 2016 season through the return of a Chinese event to the motor racing series for the first time since 1999.

The International Automobile Federation (FIA) has issued a heavily revised calendar for Formula One’s 2016 season and has detailed plans to increase the noise levels associated with the motor racing series, while Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Kozak has said talks are underway to extend Sochi’s race contract and potentially switch the Russian Grand Prix to a night race.

Uefa president Michel Platini has stressed he is “still determined” to run for the top job in world football, adding there is “no doubt” about his integrity amid the attention currently being focused on the 2011 payment of CHF2m (€1.83m/$2.06m) that the Frenchman received from Fifa.

Owen Evans travelled to Singapore to ask Seamus O’Brien and Andrew Georgiou, executive chairman and COO, respectively, of Lagardère Sports and Entertainment, about how they hope a corporate facelift will banish an ugly few years for the sports marketing giant.

Formula One teams Force India and Sauber have filed an official complaint to the European Union’s Competition Commission concerning the motor racing championship’s governance and revenue distribution model.

Later this month the destiny of rugby’s world cup will be decided at Twickenham, the home of the Rugby Football Union in West London.

Former Fifa powerbroker Jack Warner was today (Tuesday) banned from all football-related activities for life by the ethics committee of the sport’s world governing body.

Golf’s European Tour has unveiled the initial sector of its 2016 Race to Dubai, with the calendar reflecting the strengthened ties with the Asian Tour through the addition of two new events.