Surprise as Sainsbury's pulls out of British Athletics sponsor deal

Sainsbury's has cut short its four-year deal with British Athletics to sponsor the sport.  The large-scale deal was signed in 2013 and was due to run until 2017.

But an announcement came just days before the World Athletics Championships start in Beijing to say that a mid-point review had allowed the supermarket to end the deal early.

Jenny Meadows at this year's UK Indoor Championship, EIS Sheffield

The surprise to many will be the timing - we have only just had the third Anniversary Games in London, all of which were backed by Sainsbury's, and it was only last year that they had agreed to sponsor all of British Athletics major events.

Betfred To Sponsor World Snooker Championship

Huzzah! Snooker's biggest tournament - the World Championship - will be sponsored again by Betfred for the next three years as the Betfred World Snooker Championship.  Betfred previously sponsored the tournament from 2009 to 2012 and were well loved by the media who they looked after so well.

It was recently confirmed that the event will remain at the Crucible until 2017, so this agreement with Betfred fits perfectly with that timeframe.
 
This year's tournament runs from 18th April to 4th May at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield.  The top 16 seeds will be joined by 16 qualifiers in pursuit of the £300,000 top prize.

Hewlett Packard - kiss of death?

As the headline sponsor for a team often thought as one of the 'BIG SIX' in recent years, Hewlett Packard must have thought they were on to a good thing to have their logo splashed across the chests of a premiership football team.

Based on the performance at the Etihad Stadium yesterday, perhaps Hewlett Packard should be looking for more of an 'in-form' team.  Accrington Stanley anybody?  (Or is it that the mighty Spurs need someone with a lucky touch.....?)