MUMBAI: CCTV-IMG, a joint venture between China?s state television network CCTV and IMG Worldwide, has entered into a 10-year partnership with the Chinese Football Association Super League (CSL) thereby marking IMG‘s comeback in China?s professional football market after a ten-year hiatus.

CCTV-IMG and the CSL will work jointly to bring global best practices to capitalise on the enormous popularity of football in China. This includes developing the CSL, helping improve management of Chinese football clubs, advising on development of world-class training programmes for young and future players, and bringing of corporate sponsors for CSL events.

The CSL has continued to grow with the national telecasts on CCTV of nearly 70 matches this year as well as the continuing arrival of some the world?s top footballers and managers. Through this new strategic partnership, CCTV-IMG will immediately launch a broad based marketing effort to bring new corporate partners to the CSL, including the title sponsorship of the league from 2014.

CCTV-IMG will also create training programmes for league and club management, interface with top international football entities, develop special football events and establish a high level global football forum in China.

Chinese Football Association Head Wei Di said, ?It is mutually beneficial and synergistic for CCTV-IMG and CSL to form this strategic partnership at this historic time in Chinese football. I am especially pleased that IMG is returning to Chinese football after a 10-year interval, and the Chinese Football Association (CFA) is happy to support this partnership to develop the CSL into a world-class league. I look forward to working with our partner to build Chinese professional football together.?

IMG Worldwide Chairman and CEO Michael Dolan said, ?We believe this partnership can be very powerful. As IMG is involved in all sports around the world, we know that football has become the one true international sport. Judging from the success of Chinese sports team in the Olympic Games, we believe that working together we can also develop world-class Chinese footballers and teams,? the IMG Chair continued. ?CCTV-IMG and the CSL, combined with the reforms implemented by Chairman Wei, truly sets the table for international development of football in China. I pledge that all of IMG?s worldwide expertise and resources will be available to support this strategic initiative.?

CCTV Sports MD and CCTV-IMG Chairman Jiang Heping said, "For CCTV, especially CCTV Sports, CSL is a valuable partner that provides important broadcasting content. CCTV is committed to our role in developing CSL in the long run, and CCTV Sports will invest more resources to support the CSL in the future. We view IMG?s return to football in China as a show of confidence in the CSL and the Chinese football market. Today is a new beginning; I wish our partnership great success."

MUMBAI: IMG Worldwide, the global sports, fashion and media company, has bought a majority share in Enetpulse, the global provider of live sports data.

Enetpulse, which is the exclusive worldwide distributor of official live scoring data for the ATP and the WTA, will become the data arm of IMG Media, where its purpose will be to service data exploitation within the scope of the IMG broad media representation agreements with governing bodies.

This follows IMG?s recent strong minority share in a new joint venture with Bloomberg Sports to provide enhanced marketing, sales and production assistance for both the existing Bloomberg Sports analytics products as well as a new series of projects.

IMG Media president Michel Masquelier said, ?The supply of data to the sports business world is becoming increasingly important and Enetpulse, with their progressive vision, excellent technological infrastructure, key federation relationships and industry expertise, is a company who are at the forefront of this market. We have strong relationships within tennis, in particular with the ATP, so this is a good fit for IMG and our clients. We believe strongly that governing bodies, promoters or personnel should share in any revenue that involves data used for digital entertainment platforms and predictive analytics from their sport.?

Enetpulse CEO Leo Noer said, ?As the exclusive worldwide distributor of live scoring tennis data for the ATP & WTA, Enetpulse are already at the forefront of an exciting and dynamic time for the global sports data market. As such, we welcome the opportunity to now being part of a company that shares our vision and desire to be the market leader in this space."

ATP & WTA Tour Senior Vice President Murray Swartzberg said, ?We are delighted that IMG Media and Enetpulse will be working as one to maximize the potential of data from the ATP and WTA. IMG is a company that has a long and successful history in the world of tennis and I?m sure the expansion of its media operation into sports analytics will be a huge success as well.?

Since announcing the five-year ATP and WTA contracts in September 2011, Enetpulse has secured agreements with several major leading operators for the supply of its data.