The British and Irish Lions touring rugby union organizing has announced a pair of new commercial partnerships as it begins its 2025 campaign in Australia.
Sokin, the financial technology firm, has become the official global payments partner of the 2025 Lions tour, and its branding will feature on Lions players' shorts through the matches against Australian domestic teams, and then through the three tests against the men's national side itself.
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The Lions (made up of players from England, Ireland, Scotland, and Wales) will benefit from the use of Sokin solutions for international currency exchanges and payments, coming in conjunction with the brand’s launch in the Australian market.
Through this partnership, Sokin also gains a prominent branding presence across Lions games, including on LED pitch-side hoardings and interview backdrops.
The Lions, who played their first match of the overall tour against Argentina in Ireland on Friday (June 20), have also announced ActiveOps as their new official data analytics partner.
ActiveOps will be featured throughout the tour, on primarily on game broadcasts as the presenting partner of match data analysis graphics.
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By GlobalDataThis covers both the worldwide TV feed of Lions fixtures, and the local broadcast partnerships in the UK (with Sky Sports and S4C), Ireland, Australia (Nine and Stan Sport), and South Africa (Supersport), all prominent rugby markets.
ActiveOps is a global intelligence frim focusing on the banking, insurance, and healthcare sectors.
IMG, the global sports and entertainment agency, is the Lions’ worldwide licensing agency through 2027.
The 2025 Lions began their pre-tour warmup games with a shock 24-28 loss to Argentina in Dublin, although much of the Lions squad is yet to arrive from late domestic club fixtures.
Coming next, the Lions will face the four Australian sides from the regional Super Rugby Pacific competition, starting with the Western Force on June 28, followed by the Reds, Waratahs, and Brumbies on July 2, 5, and 9, respectively.
Following this, the Lions will face an Australia and New Zealand select side on July 12, before beginning the trilogy series against Australia in earnest on July 19, a three-test series that will run through August 2, with another exhibition against a First Nations and Pasifika select side on July 22.
Most recently, the Lions announced sports technology and data analysis firm Kitman Labs as a partner of the 2025 tour.
Throughout the tour of Australia, the Lions will "utilize the Performance Medicine and Performance Optimisation solutions," with the overall Kitman Labs Intelligence Platform aiming to combine both medical and performance data in one centralized location.
