Media

American business icon Jack Welch, who is set to call it a day at General Electric, is poised to buy his favourite baseball team, the Boston Red Sox.

John Magnier, the racehorse breeder who last week bought a 6.7 percent stake in English soccer club Manchester United, is reportedly interested in buying the offshore betting operation owned by Victor Chandler.

British Eurosport?s coverage of cycling?s Tour de France race helped the satellite channel attract an average audience of 69,000 on Sunday.

Ninety percent of the population of Beijing tuned into the broadcast of the Olympic vote on the host city for the 2008 Games which saw the Chinese capital emerge victorious.

Hungarian retail group Fotex bought a majority stake in first division soccer champions Ferencvaros on Saturday in a deal worth 2.4billion forints ($8.38m), commercial television station RTL Klub said.

Singapore Press Holdings (SPH) allegedly stopped its only competitor from full coverage of a Manchester United soccer event it had sponsored.

The Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) has hired the chief executive of advertising giant WPP and the chairman of Australian telecommunications company Telesra, to help sell its marketing and media rights following the collapse of its former commercial partner, ISL.

Organisers of next year?s Commonwealth Games in Manchester claim to have already raised more money in sponsorship and commercial income than any other UK sporting event has ever attracted.
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French media group Vivendi Universal has unveiled strong second-quarter revenue and earnings growth, bucking the current downturn in advertising spend.

England?s Institute of Football Management and Administration (IFMA) has a new chairman.

US drinks conglomerate Ambev could be kicked into touch by Coca Cola in the South American publicity stakes for soccer?s 2002 World Cup.

The NFL is claiming a yet-to-be-built stadium in downtown Detroit will be the most unique and innovative sports complex in the country.

Ladbrokes, the world?s largest bookmaker, is reportedly planning to invest #40million ($57m) in high street betting shops in the UK to take advantage of tax-free gambling.
Online Gambling: The Regulation of Global Sports Betting: A new report from SportBusiness Group: Click here

Enic, the sports group that owns English Premier League soccer team Tottenham Hotspur, is expected to announce this week that it has sold UKbetting.com, its internet bookmaker, to Eric Semel, a former director of one of Las Vegas?s largest casinos.
Online Gambling: The Regulation of Global Sports Betting: A new report from SportBusiness Group: Click here

IG Index, the London-based company which offers spread betting on sport and financial markets, reported a 53 percent increase in pre-tax profit to #15.4m ($22m) for the year ending May 31, about #1m ($1.6m) more than analysts? expectations.

Promoters of dog racing in the UK have given the British Greyhound Racing Board (BGRB) a mandate to handle the sale of the intellectual property rights, including photo, betting and media rights, in return for two extra seats on the board.