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Expedia signs up as Official Sponsor of Professional Referees and Match Officials
Expedia, the world’s largest online travel company , has signed a deal to become the Official Sponsor of Professional Game Match Officials Limited (PGMO). The deal will see the Expedia brand appear on the shirts of match officials at the Barclays Premier League, the npower Football League, The FA Cup with Budweiser, the Capital One Cup and other domestic, professional matches.
The one year sponsorship kicked off this Sunday, at the Community Shield at Villa Park. The partnership gives Expedia access to over 2,500 professional football matches, with an estimated cumulative global TV audience in excess of five billion.
Dan Lynn, CEO of Expedia in Asia said: “Sports and travel connect people and bring cultures together. Football fans are immensely passionate about the game and they will travel anywhere to support their teams. At Expedia, we understand the passion and inspiration behind these trips and there is no better opportunity to showcase the breadth of Expedia’s offerings than on English football’s greatest stage, a global sport that attracts over 1.2 billion viewers across Asia. It is through such strong collaborations that we can connect with our customers across our local sites in Asia, such as Expedia.com.sg, Expedia.co.th, and the soon-to-launch, Expedia.com.my.”
Andrew Warner, Senior Marketing Director of Expedia EMEA said: “Travel represents one of the biggest online purchases an individual will make and both sporting and travel decisions can carry huge financial and emotional implications. At Expedia we have helped travellers make good decisions for over fifteen years and welcome the newly formed association with some of the highest profile decision makers and role models from the world of sport.”
PGMO General Manager Mike Riley said: “We are very pleased to welcome Expedia as PGMO’s new official sponsor, the support of partners significantly helps in the training and development of officials at all levels of the game. We have a world class team of decision makers in the Select Group, which is why there have been over 80 FIFA and UEFA international appointments for Select Group referees in the past year. We are also one of only three European nations with three Elite FIFA referees: Howard Webb and Martin Atkinson have respectively taken charge of UEFA Champions League and Europe League semi- finals, and now we have Mark Clattenburg officiating the Olympic Men’s Final. With the standard of officiating improving season on season, it’s a good time for Expedia to partner with us.”
Expedia, which offers access to over 400 airlines and almost 150,000 hotels together with advanced tools to help travellers make the right decisions, will use additional marketing spend to reinforce the positive impact of good decision making, highlighting how online travel technology has empowered people to take control of their own travel experiences.
Through the partnership Expedia hopes to connect with customers and highlight how it can help people to make the right travel decisions for their unique needs.
The partnership delivers a range of designation and promotional rights, including shirt and training-wear branding on all professional match referees, assistant referees and fourth officials, branding and accreditation on all publicity material, PGMO and all governing body websites, as well as match official and refereeing inventory.
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About Expedia.com.my
Expedia, Inc. (NASDAQ: EXPE), the world’s leading online travel company, operates Expedia.com.my™ in Malaysia, a full service business helping travellers plan and book their travel by providing a personalised service, the latest technology and a wide selection of almost 150,000 hotels and 400 airlines of holiday packages, cheap flights and hotel bookings to suit their travel needs. In addition, Expedia also has hotel-only sites operating in Indonesia, Philippines, Vietnam, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Korea, along with its established businesses in Singapore, Thailand, Japan and India.
Expedia, Expedia.com.my, the Airplane logo and Where You Book Matters are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Expedia, Inc. in the US and/or other countries. Other logos or product and company names mentioned herein may be the property of their respective owners. © 2012 Expedia, Inc. All rights reserved.
About PGMO
Formed in 2001 to improve refereeing standards, PGMO is run by former referee Mike Riley whose team of managers and coaches are responsible for the training, development and mentoring of 77 referees and 231 assistant referees. The most high profile officials are the 16 full-time professional PGMO Select Group Referees.
The Select Group Referees are continually monitored at games and attend fortnightly training days where their performance, technique and fitness is monitored. They are supported by a team of full-time sports scientists who deliver a tailored fitness and nutrition programme, sprint coaches who improve running techniques, sports psychologists, podiatrists and vision scientists who measure reaction times and peripheral vision and work with each official to improve their viewing angles and help them anticipate moving into the right area for the best view of the match action.
PGMO plays an active role in developing refereeing standards across the world of football. Currently PGMO has a knowledge transfer programme that benefits entire confederations, such as the Asian Football Confederation who have a future referees project supported by PGMO, as well as individual football associations in Japan, Australia, Iceland, New Zealand, Canada and Major league Soccer in the United States, who work in partnership with PGMO to improve the performance of their own officials. PGMO also works with the British Council on the Premier Skills coaching initiatives and has provided coaches to train over 300 grassroot referees and assistant referees in 14 countries across Africa, China, South East Asia and Mexico.
