The Weird Thing About US Jerseys đ˝
+ Why Klopp Stayed, DAZN's Next Disruption, and Mino Raiola.
Edit: On Saturday afternoon (April 30), after we pubslished this weekâs post, a family statement on the Twitter account of player agent Mino Raiola confirmed Raiolaâs death. âMino fought until the end with the same strength he put on negotiation tables to defend our players.â
We now changed the title to not capitalize on this terrible news.
Original post:
Yesterday afternoon the world of sport lost one of its most influential figuresâŚfor about 20 minutes!Â
Yes, in what can only be described as a horrendous mistake, some of the worldâs biggest media companies decided to report that football agent Mino Raiola had died from an unknown illness.Â
This news shocked the footballing world, but it shocked no one more than Raiola himself.Â
So what on earth happened? It appears that the initial report of Raiolaâs death came from the Italian media. This was then picked up by several journalists from major publications who proceeded to release the news without checking their facts.Â
Moments after Raiolaâs death started trending on Twitter, his family and spokesperson contacted journalists to inform them that Raiola was not in fact dead but was fighting for his life in hospital.Â
Red-faced, the newspapers quickly deleted the original stories and switched to reporting on Raiolaâs life-threatening condition.Â
Raiola himself was obviously offended that the worldâs media would put his family under such distress by sharing fake reports of his death and took to Twitter to make sure his feelings were known.Â
 The tweet went all over the place and gained Raiola 40.000 new followers. We hope he recovers soon and goes back to doing his thing and showing the traditional media how it's done.
âď¸ Deal of the Week
Why Klopp is Staying at Liverpool đ°
Jurgen Klopp is probably the closest thing football management has to a major celebrity.Â
Sure, the likes of Pep Guardiola and Jose Mourinho are incredibly well known, but the fame and admiration around Klopp reaches a whole new level.Â
One British political figure even wrote a love letter to Klopp that practically begged the German to enter UK Politics.Â
While people seem to want Klopp to become some weird combination of their husband/prime minister, it looks like the German has decided to stick with his current job for the time being.
It came as quite a surprise that Klopp had decided to extend his Liverpool contract by an extra two years, with most of the media reporting that he intended to leave at the end of his current deal in 2024.
In fact, it was Klopp that approached Liverpool owners FSG about extending the contract. This moved surprised FSG, who had been planning to talk to Klopp at the end of the season.Â
Considering Kloppâs incredible success in recent years, and the fact that FSG thought they were losing him, it would have been understandable for Klopp to ask for a raise. But reports suggest that Klopp will remain on his current salary of around ÂŁ16 million per year.
The lack of new demands meant that FSG and Kloppâs agent were able to negotiate the extension in just two weeks.Â
For anyone wondering why Klopp had a change of heart, it turns out his wife did most of the persuadingâŚ
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With Kloppâs future now secure for the next four years (barring a dramatic downturn in form) attention turns to Liverpoolâs dream of winning the quadruple.
đ Story of the Week
The Next DAZN Disruption: Betting đ˛
The intoxicating mix of passionate support and alcohol usually only leads to one outcomeâŚbetting.Â
From Romans betting on the gladiators to drunk people betting that Cristiano Ronaldo will score an overhead kick from inside his own half in the 90th minute, betting has been a fixture of sport since the beginning.Â
There is one main reason for this almost symbiotic relationshipâŚentertainment!Â
Live sport is exciting on its own. Itâs unpredictable, unlike our lives that are governed by laws of society (and physics), we believe that anything can happen on the field. Even if there are just minutes left on the clock, we truly believe that our thoughts and wishes can cause that home run or score that equaliser. We desire the euphoria of victory and dread the sting of defeat. It is for these reasons that we keep coming back each week.Â
Now imagine all of those emotions, but add the possibility of winning or losing money.Â
When we bet on a certain outcome, the fear of losing and the desire to win are only amplified. This sort of fix can often become addicting.Â
The companies involved in sports betting have mastered this quirk of human psychology to such an extent that the sports betting industry is actually bigger than all of the world's sports combined.Â
In 2020, more than 180 billion euros worth of bets were placed on the football matches of Europeâs top five leagues. In that same time period, the clubs of the top five leagues generated just 15.6 Billion euros in revenue.
The takeaway here is simple⌠the combination of betting and sport is a huge business.Â
One company that is perhaps more aware of this fact is DAZN. The sports media company has spent the last few years disrupting the traditional broadcasters by taking over their TV rights deals and moving customers from old-fashioned satellite TV to a âNetflixâ style online streaming platform.
By moving fans from their televisions to online platforms, DAZN is able to interact with their customers in ways Sky or ESPN often struggle.
To put it simply, they can add new features to an online platform with relative ease, the same can not be said for the traditional TV broadcast.
One such feature is something DAZN is calling ârecreational in-play betting.â
In plain English, this means that DAZN is planning on adding a feature that makes it easier for fans to bet during live sports.
To achieve this aim, DAZN has teamed up with betting technology company Pragmatic, which will provide a platform that gives fans a âfun, convenient and integrated betting experience.âÂ
Talking about the deal, DAZN Group CEO Shay Segev explained:Â
âThe convergence of sports media and betting is the future. This historic partnership brings together the leading sports media company and a technology partner who is committed to developing innovative experiences for fans.â
This deal has the potential to change sports forever. The amount of money betting companies could make used to be limited by the number of matches or the ability of the fan to enter the physical store to place their bet. With the rise of big data and online payment processing, betting companies were able to offer fans a faster and more convenient way of betting, which led to even more bets being placed.Â
Now DAZN is offering fans a completely integrated betting and viewing experience, which will make it dramatically easier, and more enticing, for fans to place bets.
How long before sports clubs start demanding a piece of the action?
đşđ¸ U.S. Sports Story of the Week
The Weird Thing About US Jerseys đ˝
Why is a Liverpool fan happy to buy a shirt with the logo of a multi-national bank on the front?Â
Itâs certainly not because they love the banking sector. In fact, most Liverpool fans prefer to replace the âBâ in the word âBankerâ with a âW.â
Fun nicknames aside, it probably doesnât seem odd to any football fan that the shirt of their beloved team has the logo of a corporation on the front. After all, thatâs just sponsorship and itâs how the team pays the bills.
But ask a fan of an American sport about sponsorship on jerseys and they might be a little confused. Sponsorship on a jersey is almost unheard of in American sport. Take an NFL jersey for example. Most have a large number, the team name, and the NFL logo on the frontâŚthatâs it, not a single multi-national corporation in sight.
U.S. sports were able to keep their jerseys âpureâ for all of these years because they were making enough money from TV/commercial deals and had no threat of relegation to contend with. That was until 2020âŚthe global pandemic caused most U.S. sports teams to lose huge chunks of their revenue thanks to canceled games and closed stadia. Keen to grow their commercial income, most of the major leagues realized that selling the valuable real estate on their jerseys was a quick and guaranteed way of generating millions in extra cash.
Technically, the NBA introduced the so-called âJersey patchâ in 2017, but the scheme has only really started to take off, generating around $225 Million this year.Â
The NHL debuted helmet ads in 2020 and has just announced jersey ads for next season which are set to generate each team around $5-10 million a year.
The NFL already has ads on training jerseys but has not announced any plans for ads on match-worn uniforms.
And then there is Major League Baseball. While the start of the league season was disrupted by disagreements, the new collective bargaining agreement will allow all MLB sides to sell advertising space on their sleeves from 2023 onwards.Â
A few weeks ago, the San Diego Padres became the first MLB team to announce a sleeve sponsor with Motorolla signing a deal to appear on the team jersey and around the stadium from 2023.
Even more recently, the LA Dodgers announced that they too were looking for a new stadium and sleeve sponsor.