The Nationwide League One (NLO) is set to sign its largest sponsorship deal worth millions of naira and also announce a partnership with two foreign service providers.

The four (4) year sponsorship agreement breaks records and represents a major step forward for the development of grassroots football in Nigeria.

NLO Chairman and former Deputy Governor of Nasarawa State, Silas Agara, shared further information about the agreement with.

“We are pleased with the various brands that have shown interest in the NLO in recent months as we want the NLO to become a global phenomenon as the most successful grassroots football league in Africa, as called for by the President of the NFF, Ibrahim Musa Gusau

“One of our partners is a lottery company licensed by the Nigerian Lottery Commission; will be the LO title sponsor. We have signed a sponsorship agreement with a term of four years. And we will reveal them on Thursday, March 14, 2024.

Twenty-four hours later, exactly on Friday, March 15, the NLO will present four of its possible partners.

“One of them is a service provider: a sports tracking platform based in Croatia with more than 25 million monthly active users worldwide. This is very good for our clubs. They have also directed the NLO to help them integrate other leagues in Nigeria.

“This is not about any monetary value, but about sharing the benefits of the development of our league and we have agreed to work with them.”

However, there is another IT company that has agreed to develop websites for all NLO clubs. They will also open social media channels for all clubs.

“They will train club officials to manage the websites and then market the website and social media so that clubs can generate funds to support their clubs.”

“The NLO sees this as a good avenue for club development and another source of income for NLO clubs.”

Agara further hinted: “Two more technical partners will join NLO as they will help facilitate talent discovery through the use of technology.

“The country’s third-tier national football league sees them as a development partner, and we have agreed to give them access to our data. The benefits for NLO are the revenue share from selling the data, we have a device that allows us to monitor what we see.”

In order to expand its reach to a wider audience and passionate fans of the league, NLO has in a separate development launched its two (2) channels on Blend TV.

The all-female F1 Academy series has agreed a partnership with global lifestyle brand Tommy Hilfiger.

Contract:

• Tommy Hilfiger will sponsor the entry of Spanish driver Nerea Martí
• The brand will also design and provide all F1 Academy staff uniform

Context:

Tommy Hilfiger becomes the latest brand to support the upcoming season of F1 Academy, with Charlotte Tilbury and Puma already on board. There will be five designated partner liveries this season, in addition to each car supported by a Formula One team, which means there are two partnerships still to be announced.

This adds to Tommy Hilfiger’s existing partnership with the Mercedes Formula One team, first signed back in 2018, as well as its personal endorsement of Lewis Hamilton and, more recently, George Russell.

Comment:

“Tommy Hilfiger is one of the most recognised global lifestyle brands, so it is a great honour to welcome them to F1 Academy as an official partner,” said Susie Wolff, managing director of F1 Academy.

“Tommy Hilfiger is fully invested in our mission to improve female representation in motorsport, and their global brand platform will appeal to those outside of the motorsport world and help us to reach new audiences.

“I would like to personally thank Tommy and his team for sharing our vision and supporting a talented young driver in Nerea Martí.”

Coming next:

The F1 Academy season gets underway in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia in support of Formula One’s Saudi Arabian Grand Prix from 7th to 9th March.

Xfinity has been title sponsor of Nascar’s second-tier series since 2015, with the ten-year deal worth roughly US$200 million.

However, with that contract concluding at the end of this season, there are no guarantees that Xfinity will continue as title sponsor.

When the contract was first agreed, it made sense for Comcast to promote its newly launched Xfinity brand through NBC Sports, also owned by Comcast, which had signed a ten-year broadcast partnership with Nascar.

This media rights deal comes to an end this year but, with the second-tier Xfinity Series being carved out to The CW Network for US$800 million, the synergy between the two Comcast-owned properties is lost.

“It’s a little too early for us to give a really good answer on [whether the Xfinity Series asset is a necessity for a contract renewal],” Matt Lederer, vice president for branded partnerships and activation at Comcast, told SBJ.

“But I would say that as we’ve learned the sport over the last ten years, we’ve learned the ecosystem of Nascar has a lot of tentacles and there’s a lot of ways to engage with the fanbase.

“The Xfinity Series for us has been the gold star across all those areas, but it’s a little too early to say what a new deal would look like.”

In 2021, Comcast upgraded its Xfinity sponsorship deal with Nascar, becoming a premier partner of the Cup Series alongside Busch Light, Coca-Cola, and Geico. The brand also has a team deal with 23XI Racing, co-owned by National Basketball Association (NBA) icon Michael Jordan and current Nascar driver Denny Hamlin.

Lederer continued: “We’ve both had a strong relationship over the last ten years and I’ve said it many times, it’s been an extremely beneficial partnership to our brand and business and a very valuable partnership for the business and brand of Nascar.

“And what I would say is we’re really confident and optimistic that Nascar is doing all the right things to capitalise on all the changes going on within the racing industry as a whole, and we appreciate the changes that have been made over the last few years and the direction of the team and [Nascar President] Steve [Phelps] to further engage fans, find new fans – that’s fantastic and we share that optimistic view.

“Right now, we’re engaged with Nascar to explore what a potential continued relationship could look like across the sport as a whole.”

Nascar’s second-tier series moving to The CW Network will give Comcast pause for thought when considering this contract extension.

The CW is a largely unproven network when it comes to sports broadcasting, but its majority owner Nexstar has started to build a small rights portfolio, including LIV Golf and a package of 50 college football and basketball games from the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC).

Whether this will be enough to convince Comcast to stick with its current arrangement or look for a restructured sponsorship deal remains to be seen.

With shifting consumer needs, the company could pivot towards its Xfinity Mobile brand, which was the primary sponsor on the 23XI Racing car of Tyler Reddick at Nascar’s last race at Atlanta Motor Speedway.