Digicel signs as Premier League’s presenting sponsor
Published:Monday | December 21, 2020 | 12:09 AM
Digicel has been named presenting sponsor of the redesigned Jamaica Premier League through its sponsorship valued at around $200 million over the next three seasons. Digicel has teamed up with the newly formed Professional Football Jamaica (PFJ), the body that will run the Premier League going forward, to announce that the competition will now be called ‘The Jamaica Premier League – powered by Digicel’.
Shortly after the announcement, Chief Marketing Officer for Digicel Jamaica Nasha-Monique Douglas described the sponsorship as another strong signal of the digital operator’s support for national development through sports.
“The national sport in Jamaica is football, and it has significance in how we manage social development as a nation,” she said. “Digicel can’t be a part of the country’s future without investing in properties that change people’s lives, and football hits every single community across the island.”
Douglas says giving back is essential, and this is the primary rationale behind the sponsorship.
“It’s a two-parter,” she said. “It’s clearly business, as sporting content is king at a time when people are glued to their devices, but it’s also about playing a key role in our nation and our youth’s development as Digicel continues to be a part of Jamaica’s tapestry.”
At the centre of this sponsorship is a broadcast agreement with SportsMax. Through the new deal, SportsMax will deliver exposure to the league through live and delayed broadcasts, analyses and coverage via subscriber and free-to-air television, or the SportsMax app on smartphones, and tablets.
For SportsMax Chief Executive Officer Oliver McIntosh, the renewed partnership is a continuation of their broadcast partnership with the Premier League, a relationship that dates back to the 2015-16 season.
FOUNDATION
“The Jamaica Premier League represents the upper level of football in Concacaf and is the foundation for the players that will form the team and that will hopefully go to the World Cup in 2022,” he said. “For us at SportsMax, the league will sit in a very good broadcast neighbourhood on SportsMax alongside the Spanish La Liga and the UEFA Champions League. The unrivalled production and broadcast will increase as we showcase the Premier League to viewers globally on cable and digital platforms for the next three seasons.”
Digicel now joins Jamaica Money Market Brokers, Wisynco, Yummy Bakery, Jamaica Producers, Indies Pharma, and Mount Pleasant Academy as sponsors.
The PFJ is awaiting the approval from the Government for the 2021 season and its chairman, Chris Williams, says that while negotiations are still under way with a number of other sponsors in the league and club categories, the organisers are fully in sight of their targets.
“Digicel has ensured we will have a Merry Christmas and we look forward to a happy new year when we make the final sponsorship announcements in early January,” he said.