Zug, Switzerland – LGT has signed a major agreement to back the Champions Hockey League (CHL) over the next two seasons. The deal was negotiated by Infront Sports & Media, a Wanda Sports company, and the CHL’s exclusive media and marketing partner. It means the international private banking and asset management group will become an Official Partner and the Official Private Bank of the Champions Hockey League for the 2017/18 and 2018/19 seasons.
The agreement gives the company significant exposure over two seasons of the competition, which brings together the best ice hockey teams from the top leagues across Europe. LGT branding will appear on prominent advertisings boards in each arena across all 13 participating countries, on the tournament’s backdrops and they will further have a footprint on CHL’s digital assets. Additionally, a country-specific advertising spot will be featured on the video screens prior to and after each game as well as during the breaks.
The deal also means LGT branding will be prominent on the back of the jersey worn by the CHL Top Scorer of each team. Finally, to promote local networking, the company benefits from dedicated hospitality packages for individual games
Thomas Piske, CEO LGT Private Banking: “We are very pleased to support this young and growing sports platform. It is a competition that aligns very well with our values – performance, precision and good teamwork are important both in sports and in managing our clients' assets. Given this fit, we are particularly proud to support the Top Scorer concept, which rewards outstanding achievements.”
Bruno Marty, Executive Director Winter Sports at Infront, added: “Following LGT's partnerships in curling, we are very pleased to welcome them also to ice hockey. This new agreement offers them a chance to reach a younger audience with whom this competition is so strongly associated. LGT will benefit from growing TV numbers and can offer their distinguished guests unique customer experience at selected arenas. We look forward to seeing LGT colleagues and their guests at many exciting games.”
The 2017/18 CHL season began on Thursday, 24 August 2017 and will conclude in February 2018. The current Top Scorer is Fredrik Pettersson of Zurich’s ZSC Lions, with six goals and six assists.
A new qualification system for this season means 32 professionally ranked teams are taking part, all selected purely on the basis of sporting merit. That includes 24 of the best teams from the founding national leagues as well as eight wild cards from the Challenge Leagues. Sweden’s Frölunda Indians and British club Nottingham Panthers automatically qualified as the winners of the 2016/17 CHL and Continental Cup respectively.
LGT is a leading international private banking and asset management group that has been fully controlled by the Liechtenstein Princely Family for over 80 years. As per 30 June 2017, LGT managed assets of CHF 181.0 billion (USD 188.9 billion) for wealthy private individuals and institutional clients. LGT employs over 3000 people who work out of more than 20 locations in Europe, the Americas, Asia and the Middle East. www.lgt.com
The league is fully owned and operated by Champions Hockey League AG/Ltd which includes, as its shareholders, the 26 Founding Clubs, six national Founding Leagues and the International Ice Hockey Federation. The Founding National Leagues are: Austria, Czech Republic, Finland, Germany, Sweden and Switzerland. The best teams from the Challenge Leagues (Belarus, Denmark, France, Great Britain, Norway, Poland and Slovakia) are extended Wild Cards. The 2017/18 season includes 32 teams from 13 leagues, comprising a total of 212 national championships between them. The CHL season culminates in a one-game Final showdown to be played on 6 February 2018 at the home venue of the team with the best accumulated Group Stage and Playoff record. A season total of 125 games will have been played by the time the European Trophy is lifted by the champions.
Infront Sports & Media, a Wanda Sports company, is one of the most respected sports marketing companies in the world, managing a comprehensive portfolio of top properties. Led by President & CEO Philippe Blatter, Infront covers all aspects of successful sporting events – including distribution of media rights, sponsorship, media production, event operation and digital solutions – and has won a reputation for its high standards of delivery. As the number one player in winter sport and with a leading role in football, summer and endurance sports, Infront enjoys long-lasting partnerships with 170 rights-holders and hundreds of sponsors and media companies. Headquartered in Zug, Switzerland, Infront has a team of more than 900 experienced staff working from over 35 offices across more than 15 countries, delivering 4,100 event days of top class sport around the world every year. In November 2015, Infront was integrated into Wanda Sports Group, part of the Chinese conglomerate the Dalian Wanda Group.
Wanda Sports Group is the world’s leading sports business entity, founded to capture the opportunities in the global sports industry and to contribute to the prosperous international sports landscape in three key areas: 1) Spectator Sports (media & marketing business), 2) Participation Sports (active lifestyle business), 3) Services (digital, production and service business). Led by President & Vice Chairman Philippe Blatter, Wanda Sports incorporates the international sports marketing company Infront Sports & Media, the iconic endurance brand IRONMAN and Wanda Sports China. The headquarters are in Guangzhou, China.