Nike terminates Pacquiao deal

Nike has terminated its sponsorship deal with boxing superstar Manny Pacquiao following homophobic words from the Filipino. Recently, Pacquiao commented that homosexuals are “worse than animals”.

Despite apologies from the boxer in a video shared on his Twitter account (below), Nike lost no time in ceasing its relationship with its biggest boxing ambassador worldwide and expressed its disappointment in a statement.

“We find Manny Pacquiao’s comments abhorrent. Nike strongly opposes discrimination of any kind and has a long history of supporting and standing up for the rights of the LGBT community. We no longer have a relationship with Manny Pacquiao.”

I’m sorry for hurting people by comparing homosexuals to animals. Please forgive me for those I’ve hurt. God Bless! pic.twitter.com/bqjRcWqp8R

— Manny Pacquiao (@mannypacquiao) February 16, 2016

Inter renews with Pirelli

Italian football giant Inter Milan has announced a new deal with its historical shirt sponsor Pirelli worth somewhere in the vicinity of €9 million a year according to La Gazzetta Dello Sport.

Inter’s partner since 1995, the world’s fifth-largest tyre manufacturer will be still on Nerazzurri’s jersey for the next five years.

ASICS acquires Runkeeper

In competition with others sports brand in the running game, the Japanese brand ASICS has bought one of the biggest sports apps worldwide, Runkeeper, for $US85 million.

Founded in 2008, Runkeeper connects 33 million users across the world. The app, owned by FitnesseKeeper, is full of sports tools tracking and recording fitness activities such as running, walking and cycling through GPS on smartphone devices.

FitnesseKeeper’s founder Jason Jacobs said they were proud to join forces with ASICS.

“When we look ahead, it seems clear that the fitness brands of the future will not just make physical products, but will be embedded in the consumer journey,” he said.

“By putting digital fitness platform and world class physical products, you can build a new kind of fitness brand that has a deeper, more trusted relationship with consumers and can engage with them in a more personalized way.”

NBA connects with one billion fans on social media

The NBA has become the first sports league to have one billion likes and followers on social media across league, teams and players accounts.

After becoming the first organisation to hit one billion loops on Vine some weeks ago, the NBA endeavours to unite the biggest sports fan community worldwide on social media.

In addition to players like LeBron James, who reaches around 64 million likes and followers on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, or franchises like Los Angeles Lakers, which around 29 million social engagement, the NBA’s own accounts connects with more than 60 million followers and likes.

Reflecting its position as the leader of social media, it gained 1,7 billion impressions on Twitter in only two days as part of the NBA All-Star weekend.

Twitter total audience: Global Tweets about #NBAAllStarTO were seen 1.7 billion times on & off Twitter (2/12-2/14). pic.twitter.com/W3CanulsYn

— Twitter Data (@TwitterData) February 16, 2016

New York City FC reaches out to China via social media

MLS giant New York City expanded its global online presence after rolling out its new Chinese website and a new account on Weibo, a Chinese microblogging platfrom which has around 200 million monthly active users.

Andrea Pirlo’s and Frank Lampard’s club becomes the first in MLS to own Chinese-language digital platforms.

New York City FC President, Tom Glick, hopes to grow fan base in China across these new platforms.

“The Chinese community is important to New York City FC. We are proud that our new platforms will allow us to interact with our Chinese speaking supporters,” he said.