Europe

English Premiership rugby union team Harlequins has confirmed financial services company IG as the principle sponsor for the latest instalment of its Big Game series at London’s Twickenham Stadium.

Yorkshire-based law firm Blacks Solicitors LLP has agreed an enhanced sponsorship deal with English Super League rugby league club Wakefield Trinity Wildcats for the 2014 season.

Sports retailer Intersport has agreed a deal to become the main sponsor of the 2013-14 Vierschanzentournee ski jumping series.

This month’s issue of Sport Sponsorship Insider contains interviews with two of the key commercial figures in world football: Uefa marketing director Guy-Laurent Epstein and Fifa marketing director Thierry W…

California-based sunglasses and sports performance apparel manufacturer Oakley has entered into a multi-year partnership with Formula One motor racing team Ferrari.

French Ligue 1 football club Paris Saint-Germain has signed a partnership with US software corporation Microsoft that will run until the end of the 2013-14 season.

German football’s Bundesliga will earn around €35.55m ($47.6m) from its central sponsorship partners in the 2013-14 season, a 28.3-per-cent increase on the 2012-13 season.

Euroleague Basketball is searching for two brands to take its roster of second-tier Premium Partners to six, and aims to scrap sponsorships previously sold around its season-ending Final Four tournament and Game of the Week broadcast.

The French football league, the Ligue de Football Professionnel, is planning to create several new sponsorship packages - a title sponsorship, a technology partner, and some regional partners.

Fifa marketing director Thierry Weil expects brands from five sectors to take up the majority of the federation’s new Regional Supporter sponsorships: insurance, telecommunications, railways/ground transportation, logistics and real estate.

Uefa hopes to make around 25 per cent more sponsorship revenue from its Champions League deals in the next cycle, 2015-16 to 2017-18, and also aims to increase Europa League sponsorship income, thanks to several new features in its sales strategy.

The International Rugby Board more than doubled its income from logistics firm DHL in a sponsorship renewal last month.

Swiss watch maker Blancpain has expanded its association with the SRO Motorsports Group by taking on the title sponsorship of its Sprint motor racing series.

French sportswear manufacturer Le Coq Sportif has expanded its cycling presence by becoming the official partner of L’Etape du Tour from 2014.

English Super League rugby league team Huddersfield Giants has agreed a kit sponsorship deal with business-to-business trade exchange Bartercard.

QBE, the Australian Securities Exchange-listed insurance underwriter, is sponsoring the QBE Autumn Internationals as part of a deal with the Rugby Football Union, which ends in August 2016.