Global media and sports group ups involvement in cycling
Global heavyweight IMG is tipped to take on handling the television rights to the races organised by the Flanders Classics group, selling the international broadcasts which come from those races.
The global sports and media company is involved with running the Tour de Suisse and if the predicted deal is finalised, it will work closely with races such as the Ronde van Vlaanderen (Tour of Flanders), Omloop Het Neuwsblad, Dwars Door Vlaanderen, Gent-Wevelgum, Scheldeprijs and Brabantse Pijl.
All are organised by the Flanders Classics group, which showed its desire for growth when it changed the traditional Ronde van Vlaanderen route this year in order to provide what it felt would be a bigger spectacle.
The collaboration is predicted by sportspromedia.com, which states that IMG’s head of sales Ioris Francini is heavily involved. Earlier this year the company also secured a long-term deal to work with RCS Sport, organisers of the Giro d’Italia and other top events.
In recent years cycling has been dominated by ASO, the Tour de France organiser. The French company also runs races such as Paris-Roubaix, Paris-Nice, Liège-Bastogne-Liège, Flèche Wallonne and others, and has considerable influence.
IMG’s increasing involvement in the sport sees it become another major player in cycling and shows that despite the current fallout after the Armstrong/US Postal Service doping scandal, that the sport is of major interest.