In an exclusive partnership deal, Sportinglife.com, the UK’s leading multi-sports website, has joined forces with Amstel, Europe’s second largest beer brand, to create the leading online destination for UK football fans to follow the UEFA Champions League over the next eight months.
The sponsorship, which will go fully live on September 11th for the start of the First Group Stage of the Champions League, will see Amstel co-brand all of Sportinglife.com’s Champions League section. The Amstel brand will be fully integrated into Sportinglife.com’s coverage, which will include news, fixtures, results and reports as well as the live panel and the patented vidiprinter. Sportinglife.com will also run branded promotions for match tickets and hospitality along with competitions for Amstel Bier. The deal also encompasses sportinglife.fm, the unique live internet radio programme, and a downloadable guide to the UEFA Champions League.
Ben Warn, commercial director at Sportinglife.com, said, ‘We are delighted to be working with Amstel, which is undoubtedly one of the strongest brands in Europe across any sector and growing here in Britain. From our perspective, we see the deal as a vindication of Sportinglife.com’s pioneering ‘Beyond the Banner’ strategy, with no direct response media being attached to the deal. Key sports sponsors now realise the strength of sportinglife.com as a branding proposition, as we can successfully get their brand in front of our upmarket audience for long stretches of time. We want to ensure that all our users recognise and enjoy Tuesday and Wednesday nights as ‘Amstel nights’,’ he added.
Andrew Carter, Amstel’s Marketing Controller, commented, ‘We have been looking for an effective online vehicle to leverage Amstel’s status as an official sponsor of the UEFA Champions League. With over a million unique users and market leading coverage of the Champions League, we believe we have found the right partner in Sportinglife.com. Amstel is a truly global brand with over 120 years of heritage and quality and we feel this fits well with the qualities, reach and professionalism of Sportinglife.com.’
This latest sponsorship deal struck by Sportinglife.com comes off the back of numerous, recent successful partnership deals, including deals with Godolphin and Cheltenham and Gloucester. These have been secured on Sportinglife.com’s market-leading position achieved through its editorial virtues of innovation, immediacy and authority.
The partnership is part of a cross-media package leveraging Amstel’s status as an official sponsor of the Champions League. Details of offline elements will be announced next week.
For more details contact:
Firefly contact:
Jon Wayth jon.wayth@firefly.co.uk
Telephone: 020 7386 4840
Sportinglife.com contact:
Tony Singh tony.singh@sportinglife.com