Delaware loses out on Sports Betting

Delaware, a state looking for new revenue streams to balance its budget lost out on a major ruling that prohibits the state from becoming a fully fledged sports betting state. Delaware is one of four states (Nevada, Montana, and Oregon) exempt under the federal Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act because in the 70's they operated a state run NFL lottery that took NFL bets in parlay form (this is a common practice across Canada with numerous provinces running sports lotteries (e.g. Pro Line).

Delaware's attempt at expanding their sports betting practice was met with extreme displeasure from the four major sports leagues and NCAA.

But the leagues argued that the exemption does not allow Delaware to offer bets on single games, or on sports other than professional football. Speaking for the court, Judge Theodore McKee said Monday that the betting plan as currently envisioned violates the federal ban. - Source: AP

This was a significant ruling in favour of the sports leagues and huge blow to Delaware who had planned on taking individual game bets in September to coincide with the start of the NFL season.

Madden Monopoly

An interesting class-action lawsuit has been brought against EA Sports, the makers of the popular Madden NFL video game series. The lawsuit brought forward by the law firm of Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro represents all Madden purchasers and contends that and I quote "the company engaged in unlawful and anticompetitive agreements that monopolized the market for football videogames and nearly doubled the price of its popular game."

This story really starts in 2004 when EA Sports and the Madden faced a slight competitive threat from the makers of the NFL 2K series. The NFL 2K series were at that point licensed to use NFL player name and likenesses and they successfully targeted the market by pricing their product at $19.99USD, well below the price of the Madden games. Madden responded by significantly lowering their prices and eventually when EA Sports secured exclusive rights to NFL players and their likenesses the threat went away. It was at this point that EA Sports raised the price of Madden games back to the levels they currently are, at a high of $59.95.

Let's see where this lawsuit goes and how the prices of the Madden series if any are affected.

LA Lakers and Tequila

Back in January the NBA reversed their stance that was originally set back in 1991 that prohibited courtside advertising of spirits and hard liquor. The main reason behind lifting the restrictive ban now is to allow NBA clubs to find new streams of advertising revenue during this economic downturn that has seen numerous companies decrease or eliminate their sports advertising budgets.

The defneding champion LA Lakers are one club that has taken advantage of the ability to work in conjunction with hard liquor companies. The Lakers recently signed a deal with 1800 Tequila, a brand distributed by Proximo Spirits, which will see the tequila brand advertised throughout the Staples Centre in areas visible to fans at game and watching at home via TV broadcast.

Why tequila you ask?

According to research conducted by 1800 Tequila, Lakers basketball fans drink tequila more than other liquors. Therefore, Elwyn Gladstone, vp of marketing at Proximo Spirits said, the company forged a partnership with the basketball team to better reach that demographic. - Source: Brandweek

Free World Cup Tickets

It's certianly an admirable and noble offering. The South Africa World Cup organizers are handing out 120,000 free tickets to next year's World Cup of Soccer extravaganza. 40,000 of those tix are going to the construction workers that are building the stadiums.

Additionally organizers are offering tix as low as $18 CAD to S.African residents, those same tix are being sold to international residents for $87 CAD.

The bulk of the free tickets will be distributed by FIFA's sponsors - adidas, Coca-Cola, Emirates airline, Hyundai and Kia carmakers, Sony and Visa. They will focus on poor fans working in fields such as health care and education. Coke, for example, is encouraging students in impoverished areas to collect bottles for recycling while they learn about protecting the environment. Schools whose students collect the most will win some of the 20,000 free tickets Coke has been given to distribute. - Source: AP

Canada Day - LA Kings Style

The LA Kings are running an interesting promo night this upcoming season. In what's being dubbed as 'Canadian Night", the Kings are offering tickets starting at $39 to their Oct 29th tilt against the Vancouver Canucks, which includes a ticket to a post-game concert put on by the Tragically Hip at Club Nokia. The Hip are popular in Canada but have failed to transcend the US market. The Hip are kind of a curious choice in my mind because even in their native country they're not connecting with younger fans as much as say other Canadian Artists like Billy Talent and Metric.

Shaq vs. Nash

There's an interesting back story to Shaquille O'Neal's new ABC show Shaq Vs. that has been recently unearthed. To those that are unfamiliar with the show, Shaq challenges athletes to head-to-head competitions in their respective sports. Athletes participating include Ben Roethlisberger, Osacr De la Hoya, Albert Pujols and Michael Phelps. Shaq has long asserted that he came up with the idea as a way to challenge himself and give his off-season training an interesting twist, the thing is the idea wasn't his at all. According to numerous reports Shaq stole the concept of the show from his former Phoenix Suns teammate Steve Nash.

The smoking gun in this case is the fact that Steve Nash appears as an Executive Producer in the credits of the show.

Shortly after O'Neal was traded to the Suns in February 2008, Nash mentioned to his new teammate a reality show he was pursuing. It would feature the Suns point guard taking on professional athletes in their own sport.

The topic didn't come up again until early in the 2008-09 season, when O'Neal boarded the Suns bus and told the team he would be starring in a new reality show in which he would be taking on, you got it, professional athletes in their own sport.

"You mean the idea you stole from me?" one Suns representative said he heard Nash say.

Nash eventually sought out an entertainment lawyer, according to sources, which is why he now has an executive-producer credit and the compensation that comes with it. Source: The Arizona Republic

So what does Steve Nash think of the show?

"We collaborated on parts of the show," he said. "I support him 100 percent. I thought the first episode was a fantastic episode, and I can't wait for the next one."

You have to wonder if this played into the decision at all that saw Nash re-sign with the Suns as free agent shortly after Shaq was traded away to the Cleveland Cavaliers.

Dick's says: Ick to Vick Jerseys

U.S. sporting goods company Dick's will not be selling the new Michael Vick Philadelphia Eagles jerseys at their stores until according to them "they evaluate the reaction of Eagles fans".

The NFL's own merchandise shop NFLShop is not waiting for anything, they've already got a few Vick jersey options including a jersey you can buy for your dog.

"We anticipate sales of No. 7 jerseys will be among the top-20-selling player jerseys for the month of August," said the NFLShop's Brian McCarthy. The NFLShop is also selling an Eagles jersey for dogs that could be customized with the No. 7 and VICK on the back for $39.99.
"Just as you could with any other player, you can buy a customizable jersey for a dog with anybody's name on it," said league spokesman Greg Aiello.

Aiello said there are some names that the NFLShop would not accept — "Badnewz," the name of Vick's former kennel, among them. "But just to have Michael Vick's name on the back is not an issue," Aiello said. "Vick is working with the Humane Society and speaking out for the proper treatment of animals, so we don't see a problem." - Source: Philadelphia Inquirer

Seriously who in their right mind is going to buy a Vick jersey for their dog unless its for a joke, like when people we're throwing "MEXICO" on the backs of Falcons' jerseys a few years ago?

Favre's Financial Impact

His on-field debut in purple garbs may have been a dud but the impact of Brett Favre's signing with the Minnesota Vikings has been an absolute financial success off the field. According to reports the Vikes sold 3,200 season tickets in a 24-hour period after Favre's signing. In less than a week they've sold about 11,000 individual game tickets.

Steve LaCroix, Vikings Chief Marketing Officer is already predicting big sales figures on the merchandise side business as well:

LaCroix said that more than 200,000 people bought Favre's Jets jersey last year, and the demand for the Vikings version figures to be even higher. "He was right up there at the top of jersey sales and so we're ready." - Source: AP

$1 Nationals Game

You've heard of $1 hot dog promotions to entice fans to the ballpark but how about $1 ticket night by a MLB club. The Washington Nationals in a an attempt to generate buzz around the record signing of dynamo pitching prospect Stephen Strasburg are offering a select number of tickets for a dollar a piece for Friday nights game which will be preceded by an introductory press conference.

The Nats ended up selling out 6,000 tix in only 3 hours. Seeing as how Washington currently ranks 26th out of 30 teams in home attendance you have to think this promo was a "loss leader" just to get casual fans engaged in the the team and their young bright star.

UFC Counter-Programming

When Strikeforce signed free agent heavyweight and arguably the MMA world's best pound-for-pound fighter Fedor Emelianenko they instantly became an enemy of Dana White and the UFC. Prior to the signing of Fedor, Strikeforce was able to operate and carve out their own little piece of the MMA world without the wrath of the UFC, which was an impressive feat. The days of not being in the crosshairs of the UFC are over for Strikeforce.

During Strikeforce's PPV last Saturday which was headlined by Gina Carano's loss to Cyborg Santos, the UFC re-ran their extravaganza UFC 100 event on Spike TV at the same time, free of charge of course.

The UFC has a history of not responding warmly to direct competition. When the now defunct Affliction fight promotion put on their first PPV event the UFC ran counter-programming free on Spike TV, alive event which featured Anderson Silva's first foray in the 205 weight class.

It's rumoured that Fedor's first fight in Strikeforce will be in November, keep an eye on what sort of counter-programming UFC decides to run that night.

NFL - Moments of Truth

Back in June, I wrote about Grey New York signing a deal with the NFL to create a new brand initiative and marketing campaign for the NFL, now the results of that work are starting to come out.

Grey New York has come up with a 'moments of truth" campaign that will be carried out in several 30-second spots made that will be filmed in a real slow motion feel. The commercials will have the tagline "If you want the N.F.L., go to the N.F.L.”

To depict these moments, most of the six 30-second TV spots created so far by Grey New York — there will be about 12 by the end of the coming football season — feature N.F.L. players strikingly filmed in action in extreme slow motion by the Phantom HD, previously used for Animal Planet wildlife film. The players include Jeff Reed of the Pittsburgh Steelers, last year’s Super Bowl winner, kicking the ball, and Adrian Peterson, a running back for the Minnesota Vikings, running a 40-yard dash, as he would in training camp. - Source: NY Times

I'll post some of the commercials as they become available but right now I'm picturing something similar to the look and feel of the Where amazing happens commercials that the NBA ran during the playoffs.

The Patrick Kane Incident

By now you've probably already heard about Chicago Blackhawks' superstar Patrick Kane and his run-in with the law in his hometown of Buffalo. According to reports Kane and his cousin assaulted a Buffalo cab driver after the driver wasn't able to produce the proper change when handed $15 for a $13.80 cab fee. By all accounts this ugly incident looks like it will be settled out of court and swept under the rug as best as it can for one of the league's brightest stars.

Where the Kane case gets interesting is the impact it may have on his marketability. Kane has already been chosen by EA Sports to be the cover boy of their September video game release of NHL 2010. No word yet if EA Sports will backtrack on their decision of naming Kane as the cover boy.

There is precedent for EA Sports changing the cover because of the actions of players in the off-season. Joe Thornton was the original choice for NHL 2004 before assault charges were brought against him. To replace Thornton EA chose Dany Heatley and shortly there after he killed his teammate Dany Snyder in a car accident, which led to Heatley being dumped off the cover and Joe Sakic taking his place.

The NFL Vs. Twitter

While athletes from across sports embrace Twitter as a means to up their Q scores and build connections with fans, teams across the NFL are warning their players not to join the social networking bandwagon. Perhaps sparked by the fears of a NFL player divulging too much information or losing their focus during a game a la Charlie Villaneuva of the NBA who tweeted during halftime of a game last season.

An article that ran last week in the NY Times provided a look at how some teams are responding to Twitter. According to the article the NFL doesn't have a league-wide ban on social media such as Twitter or Facebook but there are plans on introducing a non-communique policy on the day of games. According to the NY Times article there's already a policy in place that states cellphones, computers and P.D.A.’s cannot be used by players, coaches or other club personnel on the sideline, in coaches’ booths or locker rooms from pregame warm-ups through the end of the game.

Last month newly renamed Chad Ochocinco already said that he fully intends to update his Twitter account during games. Let's see how well this goes over as the start of the new NFL season draws closer.

Florida Panthers Marketing Team Working Overtime

From offering free tickets to fans with a driver's license, to falsely guaranteeing a playoff berth which led to more free tix, to deploying the services of Drew Rosenhaus, the Florida Panthers' marketing and promotional groups have plenty busy over the last few months of trying to find new ways to attract fans to a franchise that sorely needs them.

The latest promo from Sunrise is the the 'Panthers Locker Room 'season ticket option, which essentially sees fans appointed to a specific Panthers player's section for the season and over the course of the season they'll be chances to meet and interact with said player. The season ticket promo works out to be $35 per game for lower bowl seats.

The 1,100 seats in sections 105 to 114, rows 18 to 28, are being divided into segments that will be named for five to seven Panthers players, who will hold autograph sessions and skating clinics for fans in their areas. Those seat holders will also get their section namesake's merchandise and birthday and holiday e-mail messages from him. The sections are being decorated to look like the inside of a team locker room. - Source: South Florida Sun-Sentinel

In the age of Twitter and athletes becoming more accessible to fans you have to hand it to the Panthers for offering up such a unique and aggressive season ticket option. It's pretty cool for fans to skate with a player, have personalized messages from that player and meet them over the year.