Top 10 Events in Sports Industry in 2016: Chinese Capital Invades European and American Sports Brand

AC Milan, Inter Milan, Kobe Bryant, Curry, C Luo, Messi ... As Chinese capital rises in international sports industry, these famous names are no longer distant from Chinese sports. Here's a recap of the main financial events in the sports world in China and the rest of the world in 2016.

Chinese market for club sports is growing very fast while Chinese groups invest in European football clubs.

Editor’s Note: Following the United States, Middle East countries and Russia, China becomes world's new force in professional sport industry.

1 - Inter Milan welcomes the Chinese boss

June 6, 2015, Suning Group held an M&A Intel Milan press conference in Nanjing. Sunning Group announced it bought Inter Milan’s 70% share with about 270 million euros (about 20.1 billion yuan). Two months later, AC Milan Feneryn West issued an official notice, announcing that Chinese consortium will purchase 99.93% of the "Rossoneri’s" share with 5.2 billion euros (about 3.8 billion yuan). Currently, the Suning Group has been fully involved in the Inter Milan’s management group. Suning Sports Group Vice President and Inter Milan Director, Mr. Liu Jun was appointed as acting CEO. As for AC Milan, after the transaction deadline was postponed to March 2017, the Chinese consortium paid to the "Rossoneri" another deposit up to 100 million euros. Westinghouse has confirmed this.

2- European professional teams enter the "Chinese capital era"

- In May 2016, Rui Kang Group invested 60 million pounds, harvesting all the shares of the British crown Aston Villa Club.

- June 2016, Desports bought the Spanish club Granada’s 100% shares with 37 million euros. Shortly after, Desports’ founder Jiang Lizhang became one of the small shareholders of the NBA Minnesota Timberwolves.

- June 2016, Li Mantie purchased Australian Super League team Newcastle Jets 100% share in the same month through Shenzhen Lehman Investment Co., Ltd.

- The same month, chairman of Plateno, the seven-day hotel founder Zheng Nan Yan and investors received 80% share of the French Nice Football Club through the joint acquisition. The former got 40% share, becoming the largest single shareholder.

- July 2016, Fosun Group acquired all shares of the Championship Wolves for 45 million pounds.

- August 2016, Shanghai Yun Yi Investment became the single shareholder of Premier League West Bromwich Group, the acquisition amount was not disclosed.

- The same month, Origen Group issued an official announcement, they invested 7 million euros to buy France B Club Auxerre 59.95% share.

- Investment Fund IDG Capital acquired 20% share of El Salvador Club, for approximately € 100 million.

In addition, the two domestic sport commentators Tang Hui and Li Xiang, and the Argentine partner Iglesias completed the acquisition of the West B League (third level) team FC Jumilla.

- Shanghai football godfather Xu Genbao also became the boss of Lorca FC in the same level.

3 - Suning acquired Premier League copyright of the 2019-2022 season for nearly 50 billion yuan

November 18, Suning Group published an official announcement, "(Suning) 's PP sports wins 2019-2022 season Premiership in mainland China and Macao, the exclusive full - media copyright. Currently, the two sides formally entered the stage of signing the agreement," According to Financial Times, in order to obtain the 2019-2022 Premier League Premier League media rights, Suning Group paid 564 million pounds (about 4.8 billion yuan). Such historical achievement of the Premier League is the most expensive overseas copyright contract. From the Super Sports Media Inc. 10.7 million pounds per year, to Suning 188 million pounds per year, the Chinese sports industry is rising strong.

4 - France European Cup & Rio Olympic marketing war

In June 2016, Hisense became the first European Union Football Associations' top sponsors from China in 56 years. During the French Euro Cup 2016, their billboards were appearing in various locations. Then, with the opening of the Rio Olympic Games, many domestic and international brand marketing strategies also emerged: McDonald's, Coca-Cola, Samsung, 361 degrees, Anta, BMW, Skyworth, Cadillac, Durex... Of course, in this marketing battle, Mengniu and Yili Group’s duel undoubtedly drew people’s attention. Previously, the two sponsors had disputes. During the Rio Olympic Games, Mengniu and Yili Group have paid a high price in order to appear in the CCTV sports channel.

5 - Messi, C Luo, Curry and Kobe representing Chinese brands

Last year, many Chinese brands attracted the world's top sports stars and signed endorsement contract with them. In March 2016, Huawei announced that Messi became the brand's global brand ambassador. Sources tell that the annual contract fee is up to 6 million euros. Two months later, the Nubian smartphone official announced that they had signed an agreement with Cristiano Ronaldo, according to reports, the contract cost about 400 million euros per year. In November, one month after the new NBA season opened, Stephen Curry became the brand ambassador and spokesperson of the new smartphone Xplay6, but the financial details of the contract was not publicly disclosed. Retired Lakers legend Kobe Bryant and Wang Zulan became spokespersons of Chinese take-away brand ELE last July 2016.

6 - Ali sports "on the field" expansion strategy

- LeEco, Tencent, Bao Feng Group, Wanda flagship copyright and sponsorship strategy have tremendously changed since the creation of Ali sports. Last year, their pace did slow down. In April, Ali Sports and the World Football League signed a contract to form a 10-year partnership and made plans to promote rugby.

- In August, Ali Sports jointly with Youku, acquired access to the rights of the Olympic network in Rio.

- In October, Ali Sports and the Chinese Football Association reached a strategic cooperation, gained access to the Chinese national team and its tournament business development and operation right including setting up 15 Chinese-made soccer league.

- In November, Ali Sports was invited to Harvard and Stanford Universities to participate in the China and the United States men's basketball team and announced the training plan for college students.

7 - The establishment of Basketball (Beijing) Sports Co., Ltd.

After 12 years of separation, the Chinese men's basketball league finally made changes. Currently, CBA company has a total of 21 shareholders, the Chinese Basketball Association has 30% of the shares, 20 CBA clubs each accounted for 3.5%, accounting for 70% of the total shares.

As expected, the Chinese Basketball Association first authorized the business right to the CBA company, and then transferred it to all the shareholders. The first board of directors has a total of 7 people. Two of them are Li Jinsheng and Zhang Xiong, then the CBA team voted five bosses, Yao Ming (Shanghai), Chen Haitao (Guangdong Hongyuan), Liang Zhibin Shenzhen New Century), Liang Zongping (Beijing Shougang) and Liu Jingyuan (Liaoning Men's Basketball Team). At the same time, the General Administration of Sports of China decided to transfer the control of the shareholding right, but the new owner is still unknown.

8 - Domestic sports stars join the entrepreneurial tide

In December, Sun Jihai, founder of Hi ball technology obtained the first external investment of 10 million yuan. In the past year, China's sports industry had a rapid accumulation of primitive capital stage, and a number of sports stars are also involved. In February 2016, the founder of "Dynamic App", Chen Yibing and the team entered electricity business sector. In August, Deng Yaping, as chairman of the board of the Cloud Sport, and Hongtai New Space chairman and chief executive officer of the company, launched an incubator project to cultivate entrepreneurial talent; the same month, the Olympic gymnastics champion Liu Xuan announced the establishment of its personal creation of women's sports brand "Balanpie balance".

9 - LeEco Sports might be in trouble

Last year in April, more than 10 stars invested in LeEco Sports. At that time, after joint investments from Hainan Airlines and the Sino-Ze joint investment, Ampang assets, and other institutions, the company financed 8 billion yuan and its stock value rised to 215 Billion. However, in the past six months, as the funding of the sports chain became a problem, LeEco Sports had to implement alternative strategies. After the company issued statement, LeEco Sports changed the development of sports strategy, intending to reverse the decline. However, the urgent financial situation is bound to continue affecting the development of LeEco Sports.

Wanda Group’s Chairman Wang Jianlin and FIFA President Gianni Infantin.

10 - Wanda Group becomes the official partner of FIFA

On March 18th 2016 , FIFA sent an email to all its media members and announced a formal agreement and partnership with Wanda Group for the next four World Cups (until the 2030 World Cup). Wanda Group thus becomes the official partner of FIFA, and willl also enjoy top sponsor rights and interests. Referring to the previous amounts paid for FIFA sponsorships, Wanda Group paid at least 900 million US dollars (about 6 billion yuan) for this 14-year contract. In cooperation with FIFA, the Wanda Group and International Basketball Federation, the World Badminton Federation and the International Bicycle Federation signed a cooperation agreement to host the first "China Cup" that will be in Guangxi in January 2017, which also the first A-level tournament.

Original article here