Getty Images NextVR has partnered with European club soccer champions Liverpool to show the Premier League team’s pre-season game against Portugal’s Sporting CP in virtual reality (VR). The match, which takes place on 24th July at Yankee Stadium, will see NextVR position eight cameras around the venue to virtually transport fans to the game. The VR experience will be exclusively available in the US for NextVR users with Oculus GearVR or Go headsets, as well as all Oculus Venues customers. The live broadcast will include dedicated announcers for the build-up to the game, halftime analysis, and a post-match recap. Fans can also experience the game live with friends using Oculus’ Venues app. David Cramer, NextVR’s chief operating officer, said: "Virtual Reality in technology is advancing at a very fast pace and transforming how sports fans consume content. Fans always want to be as close to the action as possible and now, with NextVR technology, they get to live the most exciting moments of this live football game to their fullest." Billy Hogan, managing director and chief commercial officer at Liverpool, added: “We believe that live virtual reality experiences are going to be an important way for fans to enjoy our games and we are extremely excited to be innovating with NextVR and Oculus Venues for the first time.” Sportscraft has been selected as the official uniform supplier of the 2020 Australian Olympic Team. It will design both the opening ceremony and formal uniforms for the team for the eighth time. Major League Soccer’s (MLS) Los Angeles FC have announced a new partnership with Satisfi Labs to enable fans to pre-order food and beverages at the Banc of California Stadium via Apple Business Chat. Ally has been named the official financial services partner of the ongoing 2019 International Champions Cup. It is the fourth year running that the company has sponsored the pre-season soccer tournament. English soccer club Arsenal have penned a three-year extension to their partnership with Chilean winery, Santa Rita. The company will continue as the Gunners’ official wine partner through to 2022, having first signed in 2016. Telecommunications company AT&T and esports organiser ESL have expanded their partnership to include new event activations at Intel Extreme Masters (IEM) Chicago and ESL One New York. AT&T has also signed a new partnership with DreamHack, the gaming and digital festival company. Motherwell and Newport County are the latest soccer clubs to be ‘un-sponsored’ by betting company Paddy Power as part of its Save our Shirt campaign, which will see teams play in unbranded kits during the 2019/20 season. The Rugby Football League (RFL), the governing body for professional rugby league in England, has named Checkatrade, the UK-based trade directory, as an official partner of its flagship competition, the Coral Challenge Cup. Checkatrade will also partner the RFL for its Try of the Week video feature. Wiesenhof, the German poultry brand, has extended its sponsorship of German top-flight soccer club Werder Bremen until the end of the 2021/22 Bundesliga season. Wiesenhof has worked with Bremen since the 2012/13 campaign. OrthoAtlanta is the official orthopaedic and sports medicine provider of the ongoing 2019 Atlanta Open. The nine-day ATP 250 tennis tournament concludes on 28th July. AJ Auxerre, the second-tier French soccer club, have renewed their kit supply deal with Macron until the end of the 2024/25 campaign. The team have had their kit provided by the Italian sportswear manufacturer since the 2016/17 season. SBS has secured the exclusive broadcast rights across Australia to eight international cycling events in a new agreement with Amaury Sport Organisation (ASO), the owners and organisers of the Tour de France. Fans will now be able to watch races live and free for the next five years, including the Tour of Oman, Volta a Catalunya, Arctic Race of Norway, Tour of Turkey, Eschborn-Frankfurt, Tour de Yorkshire, Tour de Hungrie and CRO Race. Match TV, Russia’s free-to-air sports broadcaster, has obtained rights to the EFL Cup, English soccer's secondary cup competition, in a three-year deal to show 30 games per season. New Zealand telecommunications company Spark has picked up rights to Motorsport Mundial, the weekly motor racing show produced and distributed by the UK’s Greenlight International. The agreement takes the reach of the programme to over 30 broadcasters and more than 100 countries. The total purse for this year’s US Open is more than US$57 million, the highest in tennis history. The men's and women's singles champions will each receive US$3.85 million, while the men's and women's doubles champion pairings will get US$740,000. The Australian Olympic Committee (AOC) has approved changes to its Rule 40 guideline, giving its athletes more flexibility to promote their sponsors during the Olympic Games. A statement from the AOC said sponsors can continue with campaigns featuring an athlete during the Games, provided ‘the campaign does not use Olympic properties’ and ‘the campaign is not escalated during the Games.’ The International Ski Federation (FIS) and Chinese digital platform Sina Sports have signed a strategic cooperation agreement to help promote snow sports in the build-up to the 2022 Winter Olympic Games in Beijing. US rapper Wiz Khalifa has teamed up with the Pittsburgh Knights as a strategic partner, with a statement from the esports team saying he will be ‘bringing expertise in creative direction, marketing, live events and entertainment.’ Fina, swimming’s global governing body, has confirmed that Kazan, Russia will host the 2025 World Swimming Championships, while Budapest in Hungary will stage the 2027 edition. French champions Paris Saint-Germain have become the latest European soccer club to join Chinese social media platform TikTok. To mark the news, the club took to their new account to exclusively announce the signing of Abdou Diallo from Borussia Dortmund.
Liverpool FC has joined forces with NextVR to show its pre-season game against Portuguese club Sporting CP on 24 July at New York's Yankee Stadium in VR. NextVR has installed 2012/13 cameras around the ground and VR coverage will be available exclusively in the US for users with Oculus Gear VR or Go headsets, along with the customers of Oculus Venues. NextVR COO David Cramer said fans wanted to be “as close to the action as possible”.