Pan-European ice hockey competition the Kontinental Hockey League has entered into a partnership with global payment services company MasterCard.
The company has been named an official partner of the KHL for the remainder of the 2015-16 season and the 2016-17 campaign.
As part of the agreement, MasterCard will sponsor the KHL Championship, the KHL All-Star game and the Youth Hockey League. The company also takes on the role of the official card and payment system for the KHL Championship.
As well as Russia, the KHL includes teams in Belarus, Kazakhstan, Latvia, Croatia, Slovakia and Finland, and the agreement will incorporate these territories. To mark the deal, MasterCard customers were over the weekend given exclusive rights to buy tickets for the 2016 All-Star Game, which takes place in the Russian capital of Moscow on January 23.
Further promotional activities and events will be organised over the course of the deal.
“In the entire history of the league, this is the first partnership with an international payment brand, and we are delighted to have established this collaboration with one of the leaders in global business,” KHL president Dmitry Chernyshenko (pictured) said. “We know that MasterCard supports sport all around the world, and I am sure that our cooperation will help us develop hockey, in Russia and abroad, and raise the profile of our Championship even higher.”