Sports Ticker #121: £295m Hundred deal, F1 wing tests and EA's tracking technology – a speed read of commercial updates from the sports world

In a fortnight which saw the World Snooker Tour launch a new global streaming service and Adidas enter F1 with a Mercedes partnership, we bring you updates on the legal action against Wimbledon's expansion plans, FIFA's interim transfer rules following the Diarra ruling and the possibility of a two-tier cricket Test system.

As always, if there are any issues on which you'd like more information (or if you have any questions or feedback), please do let us know or get in touch with your usual contact at RPC.

Tech Billionaires Bowl Over London Spirit with £295m Deal

A consortium of investors have purchased a 49% share of the London Spirit Hundred for a record price of £295m. The consortium included prominent tech billionaires Sundar Pichai of Google and Satya Nadella of Microsoft, as well as other investors such as Egon Durban of Silver Lake, the private equity funder of the RAC breakdown recovery service and the All Blacks. The tech billionaires fended off competition from notable investors, including a vehicle controlled by Todd Boehly, the co-controlling owner and chairman of Chelsea, and members of the Glazer family, who own Manchester United. They also engaged in a 3 hour bidding war against RPSG Group, the owners of the Lucknow Super Giants cricket team who compete in the Indian Premier League. The sale represents a record fee, showcasing the demand for a stake in The Hundred teams. It will be particularly interesting to see how the sale of the other teams stacks up, especially following the recent news of Yorkshire CCC becoming the first team to sell a 100% stake in their Hundred team.

F1 Teams Brace for tougher wing tests ahead of the 2025 season

The FIA are set to introduce tougher tests concerning the flexibility of front and rear wings for the 2025 Formula 1 season. The level to which these components can flex has been a source of contention for Formula 1 teams, with the ability to exploit the wing's flexibility, while staying within the technical regulations, being regarded as a crucial factor in McLaren's constructors' championship win. Wings that are more flexible allow for a higher top speed on the straights, as they change their shape while under load which causes the reduction in drag. However, importantly, they can then flex back to their original shape through the corners, allowing for maximum downforce and consequentially enhanced grip. These factors combined increase a car's maximum speed on the straight and minimum speed through the corners, resulting in a quicker lap time than could otherwise be obtained by a more rigid front and rear wing design. These tests will be implemented in two phases, firstly targeting rear wings at the Australian Grand Prix in March 2025, and secondly testing the flexibility of front wings at the Spanish Grand Prix in May. The 2025 season promises to be one of the most competitive in recent times, and it will be interesting to see whether these new tests will have a material impact on McLaren's hopes of clinching back-to-back Constructors' Championships.

Wembley Stadium Remains "Connected by EE" with New Partnership Extension

EE has extended its deal as lead partner to Wembley Stadium and all four Home Nations Football Associations. The partnership includes EE signing multi-year deals with the English Football Association, Scottish Football Association, Football Association of Wales, and Irish Football Association. The deal also sees EE renewing its partnership, as connectivity partner, of Wembley Stadium. The deal continues EE's focus on football at all levels, with a specific focus on investment aimed at growing women's football, disability football through the title sponsorship of the FA Disability Cup and England’s Para Lions, and esports through sponsorship of The FA’s eLions. The FA’s commercial director, James Gray, commented that the deal is "great news ahead of an important year which includes our senior women’s team competing at EURO 2025 and the men’s team starting their 2026 World Cup qualifying campaign". EE has completed upgrades at Wembley Stadium, which it claims is the UK’s first sports venue to have a bespoke and permanent 5G standalone network.

EA SPORTS welcomes TRACAB Technologies to the roster

Electronic Arts has this week announced its acquisition of TRACAB Technologies in a bid to "enhance realism, immersion, and engagement" across its offering of EA SPORTS products. The publisher hopes this will see dramatic enhancements to its range of products, which includes FC (formerly FIFA), F1, Madden, and NHL. TRACAB, which until now formed part of the Swedish Chyron Corporation, positions itself as a pioneer in advanced sports optical tracking and data analysis solutions. According to Electronic Arts, TRACAB's software has the capability to track nearly everything happening on a computer-generated pitch or field at up to 60HZ per second, generating 600 million data points per game and capturing skeletal data of in-game players and referees across 21 joints and 65 unique data points on each individual body in motion. Electronic Arts has big plans for its goal-y matrimony, with a view to incorporating TRACAB's volumetric data capture technology into its existing EA SPORTS games engine, as well as the EA SPORTS App. The cherry on top, according to Electronic Arts, will be in the synergy offered in augmenting TRACAB's existing arsenal with Electronic Arts' own Artificial Intelligence and machine learning tools. Avid gamers, watch this space.

SailGP and Ericsson set Sail with 5G innovation for 2025 season

SailGP has partnered with Ericsson in a deal providing Sail GP teams and personnel with 5G connectivity in the aim of improving fan experiences and race operations. The technological solutions will also be used to support SailGP umpires make decisions when adjudicating on race protocol through live camera streaming, which will be 5G-enabled, and team location in-sights. Ericsson’s Cradlepoint edge routers will be installed in the wings of each F50 and are expected to handle, across the fleet of F50s, over 50 billion data points per race day. The live camera streaming and insights were initially tested at US events in the fourth season, however, the collaboration will be installed in all F50s and rolled out globally for the 2025 season. Chief technology officer at SailGP, Warren Jones, commenting on the innovation, detailed how providing the "best experiences possible for our teams and fans…requires networking technology that can keep up with the speed and intricacies of the sport".

Extra time...

…and finally, a Mercedes F1 car driven by Stirling Moss and Juan Manuel Fangio has sold for a record £42.75 million at an auction in Germany. The W196 R Stromlinien-wagen is only one of four remaining and was raced to victory by Fangio in the Argentinian Grand Prix and by Moss in the Italian Grand Prix of 1955, propelling Fangio to his third Drivers' Championship. The sale sets a record for the most expensive Grand Prix car ever sold and ranks second as the most expensive car ever sold, behind another 1955 Mercedes; the 300 SLR Uhlenhaut Coupe which sold in 2022 for £113 million. The Stromlinien-wagen was originally donated to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum by Daimler-Benz AG in 1965. Joe Hale, the president of the Indianapolis Motor Speed-way Museum, commented on how the sale would offer a "transformative contribution" to the museum helping to increase its "long-term sustainability as well as the restoration and expansion" of the collection.