Ladbrokes are to sponsor the 2015 Challenge Cup.

A step into the mainstream market (albeit one that divides people) can only be a good thing surely?

Thoughts?

I don't really mind who sponsors our competitions as long as they bring in some investment and publicity. I don't think it matters too much that it is a betting company, look at the amount of sponsorship from betting there is in other sports (shirt sponsors in football for example).

In the end, people aren't gonna dwell on it too much. You aren't gonna refer to it as the Ladbrokes challenge cup, you'll continue calling it the challenge cup like always.

In terms of a step into the mainstream, we did that with stobart and the super league, look how that deal turned out, having a bigger sponsor doesn't necessarily mean more money and publicity, we will just have to wait and see.

I've no problem with Ladbrokes sponsoring.

They sponsor darts already
William Hill sponsor Scottish FA and England Football games (and Darts too)
Skybet clearly have a lot of access through Sky Sports anyway.
Bet 365 even donate to the Labour party

So I don't think there is an ethical issue. Their money is good for me.

Top sponsor to have, one of the leading bookmakers, although they dont get my money as the prices are poor and stopped taking my bets!

good to have a recognised name on board.

Speaking to people in the media, Ladbrokes are also very proactive in providing promotional opportunities and publicity for competitions they are involved in.

They have a nationwide network of outlets, as well as a strong online presence, than can be used to market the tournament and the stars involved in it.

A positive step, not bad for a sport that is supposedly dying and a competition that nobody is interested in until it gets to the semis and final. (sits back and awaits arrival of resident trolls, armed with flaming torches of statistics)

Ladbrokes is a good name to have as the sponsor and it may just raise the profile of the cup if they splash some advertising either on line or in their high street betting shops.

Great news. Hopefully some extra cash for RL.

Hopefully some decent RL betting offers for the cup

DO you want to bet

Great News this.
Ladbrokes is a name that everyone knows and they have major High street coverage with wiki declaring 2,400 outlets across England Ireland (and Belgium and Spain??).
If it is, as I suspect, part cash up front and part % of bets, then let's hope that the RL community get behind this and if we are placing bets, we will do so through our new partner.
Just fished my Ladbrokes account card out of an old wallet.....let's hope they offer decent/competitive odds

I just read that the 2015 challenge cup final will be on 29th August which will be 120 years to the day that rugby league was founded in Huddersfield. Perfect opportunity for Ladbrokes to market the event and hopefully the extra significance can get some more people to the final, lets try to fill Wembley this year!

I agree it's good news to get a new household name on board, let's hope we can persuade them to do some RL themed TV ads

Sod Ladbrokes.
The RFL should be all over this like bees on Honey.
Friday May 1st...120 days to go until the 120th anniversary of TGG. Get your CC Final tickets now and be in with a chance to win a Box for you and 4 Friends at the 1st Kiwis Test in October....put a countdown clock on the RFL site.
Synergies like this are a marketing persons wet dream.

Supposedly worth £1m per season. Pretty good in my book. To give some context the FA cup is likely to run without a principal sponsor this year; the previous deal was worth £8m per year.

Good sponsorship deal if the alleged £1 million per season is correct.

A 3 year deal from 2015 to 2017 whilst the CC is still broadcast on terrestrial BBC makes sense.

Such a shame that this historically significant and prestigious cup competition which has been treated with such indifference and contempt during the SL-era will soon belong to Sky from 2018 onwards

When Sky take on the Challenge cup, the sport needs to work with them so that both Sky and RL get the best out of the deal.
Let's hope that Big Nige and his band of merry men are already working along these lines, if not the Cup will disappear into total obscurity.

Lets face it, it was the move to summer rugby that knackered most of the kudos of the cup, which like the FA cup, was always the last event of the regular season and a celebration of the sport.

There needs to be a way of re creating the "special" feel of the competition and we should bang the drum as loudly as possible to promote heritage of RL's oldest trophy.

At best 1/10th of those who watched on the bbc will be watch on Sky. Taking the challenge cup and internationals from the bbc is an absolute disaster and a stupid short term is decision.

The first round draw takes place at Wembley Stadium and will involve 40 teams from Aberdeen to London, students, police and the armed forces. In some ways this is the most exciting part of the CC - the start of the Road to Wembley! I know they're all amateur outfits but a half decent marketing team should be able to make something of it. I haven't heard anything about it, nothing on the BBC website for instance. Bit late now, it's scheduled for 12:45 tomorrow!

Absolutely spot on.

Can you see Sky dedicating a traditional Saturday afternoon date to the Wembley CC Final event?

I can't.

It'll be shunted to a Thursday night, or at best a Saturday or Sunday slot with a kick off around 6pm with just a paltry 100k converted moonies tuning into the ghetto of Sky Sports 3 or 4.

It's a disaster in the making and I don't believe it's an exaggeration to envisage the termination of the competition within a few years of Sky's less-than-enthusiastic coverage.

The haste with which the latest TV deal was signed last year was utterly obscene.

My guess is that the RFL will do so regardless. Whether Sky choose to screen it is a separate issue but to be honest whether they do or whether they don't matters little. In fact a refusal to do so might well deliver a boost to the gate while having a negligible impact on the cup's future profile.

Have missed something, or isn't the CC Final still classified as a protected event?

Yeah just the final though.

So RL to the masses is just about finished



Although the RFL pretend that we are in rude health, the reality is more like an ice cube in a tea pot.

Well big Nige needed something quick to push through his idiotic 3x8 system, a new TV deal and 300k advance is apparently all it took. There will be about 5 RL matches on terrestrial tv during the next tv contract.

I take your point that ideally the CC would be screened FTA. However, I'm not sure how great a benefit to the game the million-odd punters who sit glued to a TV screen on summer weekends actually are. Although the play off highlights packages don't tick the "live sport" box, I do reckon they serve the game well on account of their timing. While such packages won't replicate the CC coverage, if they could somehow be increased it could serve the game fairly well.