Headquartered in

Singapore Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, bor ...

, World Sport Group was a

sports marketing Sports marketing as a concept has established itself as a branch of marketing over the past few decades, however, a generally accepted definition does not exist. Academicians Kaser and Oelkers (2005, p. 9) define sports marketing as 'using spor ...

, event management and media company in Asia, with a roster of

golf Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a course in as few strokes as possible. Golf, unlike most ball games, cannot and does not use a standardized playing area, and coping wi ...

association football Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

and

cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by st ...

events. World Sport Group manages almost 600 days of sports events annually, across more than 30 countries in the region. In 2015 it was merged into the Lagardère Sports and Entertainment division of Lagardère Group (which was the parent company from 2008 to 2020), renamed as Lagardère Sports Asia. World Sport Group was the exclusive marketing partner of the

Asian Football Confederation The Asian Football Confederation is the governing body of association football, beach soccer, and futsal in some countries/territories in Asia and Oceania. It has 47 member countries most of which are located in Asia. Australia, formerly ...

(AFC), the

ASEAN Football Federation The ASEAN Football Federation (AFF) is an organisation within the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) and is an international governing body of association football in Southeast Asia. It consists of the federations of Australia, Brunei, Cambodia ...

(AFF), and a major stake-holder in Asian golf as organizers of the Barclays Singapore Open and the ASEAN Tour. The Group also managed global cricket player

Sachin Tendulkar Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar (; ; born 24 April 1973) is an Indian former international cricketer who captained the Indian national team. He is regarded as one of the greatest batsmen in the history of cricket. He is the all time highest run-sco ...

and had formed a partnership with the

Board of Control for Cricket in India The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) is the national governing body for cricket in India. Its headquarters are situated at Cricket centre, Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai. The BCCI is the richest governing body of cricket in the worl ...

(BCCI) for the ground and title naming rights for the Indian National Team's domestic matches. In partnership with

Sony Corporation , commonly stylized as SONY, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. As a major technology company, it operates as one of the world's largest manufacturers of consumer and professional ...

, the Group was awarded the global media rights for the

Indian Premier League The Indian Premier League (IPL), also known as TATA IPL for sponsorship reasons, is a men's T20 franchise cricket league of India. It is annually contested by ten teams based out of seven Indian cities and three Indian states. The leagu ...

(IPL), the

Twenty20 cricket Twenty20 (T20) is a shortened game format of cricket. At the professional level, it was introduced by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) in 2003 for the inter-county competition. In a Twenty20 game, the two teams have a single inni ...

competition. The 10-year deal was valued at over US$1.6 billion. The Group was also a member of the Singapore Sports Hub Consortium, the group that won the bid in 2018 to build, operate and manage a sports, entertainment and lifestyle hub in Singapore that was due for completion in 2011. With the sale of Lagardère Sports to

H.I.G. Capital H.I.G. Capital is a Miami, Florida–based private equity and alternative assets investment firm with $53 billion of equity capital under management. The firm operates a family of private equity, growth equity, credit/ special situation, prima ...

, World Sport Group assets are now managed by revived

Sportfive Sportfive is an international sports marketing agency operating globally with offices around the world. The headquarters of Sportfive is based in Hamburg, Germany. History Sportfive was formed in 2001 when the European Commission unconditionall ...

Historical events

Events formerly supported by the World Sports Group included: * Hero Honda Indian Open * SAIL Open Golf Championship * Volvo Masters of Asia * Omega China Tour

History

Foundation and early years

World Sport Group was founded in Hong Kong in 1992 as AFC Marketing Limited as a media broker for the

. (AFC Marketing itself was dissolved by striking-off in 2006) At that time the director of the company was Seamus Hamilton O'Brien and Jack Kazunori Sakazaki; the shareholders were

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incorporated Park House Holdings Limited (40%), Nina Finance Corporation (40%) and Oakstaff Investments Limited (20%). It then expended into other fields such as golf (as Asian PGA Tour Limited), for

Asian Tour The Asian Tour is the principal men's professional golf tour in Asia except for Japan, which has its own Japan Golf Tour, which is also a full member of the International Federation of PGA Tours. Official money events on the tour count for Wo ...

), basketball (as ABC Promotions Limited), cricket (as WSG Nimbus Pte Limited), TV rights (as Asia Sport Television Limited) and publishing (as WSG (Asia) Limited). In Australia, World Sport Group operated WSG (Oceania) Pty Ltd., PGA Tour Enterprises Pty Ltd. (a joint venture), Sports Marketing and Management Pty Ltd., Javelin Pty Ltd.; in Europe: WSG Europe Ltd., Ladies European Tour Enterprises Ltd. (a joint venture), Sports Marketing and Management (UK) Ltd., Global Cricket Corporation Pte Ltd.; in America as WSG Americas Inc. and Tour de las Americas Ltd. (joint venture).

Listing and re-privatization

Circa 2000 the holding company of the group was

incorporated The World Sport Group Limited. In the eve of acquisition and listing into

Alternative Investment Market AIM (formerly the Alternative Investment Market) is a sub-market of the London Stock Exchange that was launched on 19 June 1995 as a replacement to the previous Unlisted Securities Market (USM) that had been in operation since 1980. It allows ...

, the Jersey incorporated World Sport Group (Jersey) Limited became the intermediate holding company of the group. From 2001 to 2002 World Sport Group was the subsidiary of World Sport Group plc (along with fellow sport broker Parallel Media Group International Limited), a listed company now known as Parallel Media Group plc. After the founder re-acquired World Sport Group from the public company in 2002, BVI incorporated World Sport Group Holdings became the holding company.

Acquired by Lagardère

World Sport Group was sold for the second time in 2008 to Lagardère Group, becoming Lagardère Sports Asia in 2015.

Ownership

The World Sport Group Limited (via World Sport Group (Jersey) Limited) and Parallel Media Group International Limited were acquired by Orchard Furniture plc in 2001. Orchard Furniture was also renamed into World Sport Group plc in the same year but known as Parallel Media Group plc after 2002. World Sport Group plc was owned by chairman David Ciclitira for 21.11% stake, as well as Park House Holdings for 27.41% stake as at 31 December 2001.World Sport Group plc report and financial statements at 31 December 2001, available in Companies House Park House Holdings was owned by the founder and high officials of The World Sport Group Limited, Seamus O'Brien and Anthony Morgan. Park House Holdings re-acquired the brand and the subsidiary from the public company on 13 November 2002. In 2004 Dentsu acquired a 30% stake in World Sport Group Holdings, the parent company of World Sport Group. Although, 20% stake was sold by Dentsu in 2007–08 financial year that ended on 31 March. On 18 May 2008 Lagardère Group, via its subsidiary Lagardère Sports acquired approx. 70% stake of World Sport Group Holdings by acquiring a 78.60% stake of a company called World Sport Group Investments, which owned a 90% stake of World Sport Group Holdings.

References

{{reflist

Sources

World Sport Group sees huge premium on IPL media rights

External links

Company Website
Defunct companies of Singapore Defunct companies of Hong Kong Sports marketing Sports journalism