Sponsorship & Marketing

The Salt Lake City Organising Committee for the winter Olympics has signed up its 33rd corporate partner for the 2002 Games in a $20m (#12.7m) sponsorship deal.

Octagon, the global sports marketing and entertainment group, has named Alasdair Ritchie as worldwide president and COO of Octagon Marketing, the conultancy, property representation and event management division.

S:COMM, the Stockholm-based market research compnay, has agreed a partnership with Lynne Anderson Consulting Group in Sydney, Australia. The group will add S:Comm?s Spindex monitoring service to its value-added services for brand exposure evaluation during spring 2000.

SportSitio Inc., an online sports communications company, has completed the acquisition of TotalFutbol.com, the Latin American professional soccer news and information portal.

ISL Worldwide has signed Orad Hi-Tec Systems to provide Orad's IMadGINE virtual advertising for the Tennis Masters Series TV coverage. This is the first time that Orad will be providing virtual advertising to an ISL premium event.

John Dooner, Jr., formerly head of McCann-Erickson, has been named President and Chief Operating Officer of The Interpublic Group of Companies, owners of Octagon, the leading global sports marketing company.

John Krimsky, former deputy secretary general and managing director business affairs of the United States Olympic Committee (USOC), has been named president of YankeeNets Properties and chief marketing officer of YankeeNets, the completed merger between the Yankees, New Jersey Nets and the recently affiliated New Jersey Devils.

Toyota Motorsport is to create a new marketing and communications group to support Toyota's entry into Formula One.

UK terrestrial broadcaster Channel 4 has signed a one-year deal worth #4m with StepStone, the European online recruitment agency, giving StepStone broadcast sponsorship of all sport coverage on Channel 4.

ESPN has announced its X Games franchise is to undergo a major expansion ? which include staging several events annually around the globe.

Eastman Kodak has signed a new eight-year deal worth more than $100m to continue as a global sponsor for the 2002 Winter Games in Salt Lake City, the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, the 2006 Winter Games in Turin and the 2008 Summer Games.

Adidas- Salomon is moving into the European e-commerce market for the first time by offering a limited number of products over the Internet.

NFL International managing director Doug Quinn is the latest high-profile sports sector executive to confirm his participation at Sport Business 2000, the prestige conference organised by Sport Business International and Dow Jones.

Total Sports has launched a new wireless application for the 2000 NCAA Division I Men's and Women's Basketball Championships.

The San Diego Soccer Development Corporation (SDSDC), the San Diego-based company that promotes, develops and markets professional and youth soccer throughout the United States and abroad, has signed a one-year sales and marketing agreement with the North County Soccer Park.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) and Sema Group are due to sign their master information technology agreement in New York later today.