Trading name World Sport Group Industry Sports Marketing Founded 1992 | Successor Lagardère Sports Asia Founder Seamus O'Brien | |
Headquartered in Singapore, World Sport Group was a sports marketing, event management and media company in Asia, with a roster of golf, football and cricket 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 Lagardère Sports and Entertainment division of Lagardère Group.
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World Sport Group is the exclusive marketing partner of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC), the ASEAN Football Federation (AFF), and a major stake-holder in Asian golf as organizers of the Barclays Singapore Open and the ASEAN Tour. The Group also manages global cricket player Sachin Tendulkar and has formed a partnership with the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) for the ground and title naming rights for the Indian National Team’s domestic matches. In partnership with Sony Corporation, the Group was awarded the global media rights for the Indian Premier League (IPL), the Twenty20 cricket competition. The 10-year deal is valued at over US$1.6 billion.
The Group is also a member of the Singapore Sports Hub Consortium, the group that won the bid earlier this year to build, operate and manage a sports, entertainment and lifestyle hub in Singapore that is due for completion in 2011. The SSH is believed to be the first and largest Public-Private-Partnership (PPP) sports infrastructure project in the world.
World Sport Group angered many Asian football fans by increasing the price of the broadcasting rights for the AFC World Cup Qualifiers 2014. meaning home fans in South Korea could not watch their international team. Also expatriate Iranian fans could not watch the match in Europe or the Americas.
Historical events
Events formerly supported by the World Sports Group include:
History
World Sport Group was founded in Hong Kong in 1992 as AFC Marketing Limited as a media broker for the Asian Football Confederation. (AFC Marketing itself was strike off in 2006) At that time the director of the company was Seamus Hamilton O'Brien and Jack Kazunori Sakazaki; the shareholders were British Virgin Islands 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), 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.
Circa 2000 the holding company of the group was British Virgin Islands incorporated The World Sport Group Limited. In the eve of acquisition and listing into Alternative Investment Market, the Jersey incorporated World Sport Group (Jersey) Limited became the intermediate holding company of the group. After the founder re-acquired World Sport Group from the public company, BVI incorporated World Sport Group Holdings became the holding company.
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 renamed into World Sport Group plc. (now known as Parallel Media Group plc, AIM: PAA) 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. 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 30% stake in World Sport Group Holdings, the parent company of World Sport Group. 20% stake was sold in 2007–08 financial year that ended on 31 March. On 18 May 2008 Lagardère Group via Lagardère Sports acquired approx. 70% stake of World Sport Group Holdings by acquiring 78.60% stake of a company called World Sport Group Investments, which owned 90% stake of World Sport Group Holdings.