Collegiate summer baseball

• Genius Sports Limited (“Genius Sports”) (NYSE:GENI) has won a major new expansion and extension of its exclusive low latency official data partnership with Football DataCo, the data rights holder of UK football.
• Under the terms of the agreement, Genius Sports has extended its long-term partnership with Football DataCo to be the exclusive official supplier of low latency live data from the English Premier League (“EPL”), English Football League (“EFL”) and Scottish Professional Football League (“SPFL”), to the global sports betting industry.
• Genius Sports has been the exclusive distributor of low latency official data from over 4,000 UK football fixtures per season to hundreds of regulated sportsbooks worldwide since the start of the 2019 season.
• “We are delighted to extend our partnership to continue to power innovation and now to expand it to include our suite of AI-powered Second Spectrum Tracking Data technology for the EFL Championship as well as the Premier League.”

• China's renowned Baijiu brand, Tuopai, as a sub-brand of Shede Spirits, and the Premier League powerhouse, Wolverhampton Wanderers FC, held a momentous global official partnership signing ceremony and banquet in London.
• Through this partnership, Tuopai will gain valuable benefits, including brand exposure and the opportunities to conduct consumer experiential activities.
• Tuopai, a prominent Chinese Baijiu brand under Shede Spirits, a renowned Chinese Baijiu enterprise, originates from Shehong, one of the hometown of Chinese Baijiu.
• By bringing joy to households worldwide through the enjoyment of Chinese Baijiu, they aim to showcase the captivating aesthetics of the Eastern lifestyle embedded within Chinese Baijiu.

• University of Phoenix is holding the newest webinar in its Educational Equity Webinar Series, titled “Mirrors, Windows and Lenses: The Impact of Early Messages,” on June 15, 2023, at 11 AM AZT.
• The event is part of a public series intended for educators, diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging (DEIB) practitioners, higher education leaders and administrators, employers, nonprofit organizations, government affiliates, and University of Phoenix faculty, staff, students, and alumni across the globe.
• The discussion will be hosted by Tondra Richardson, MBA, director of Student Diversity & Inclusion and Saray Lopez, MBA, director, Student Diversity & Inclusion, both with the Office of Educational Equity (OEE) at University of Phoenix.
• The Educational Equity Webinar Series is part of a series of events with which the OEE engages aiming to foster cultural awareness, thought leadership and community alliances to promote and sustain educational equity and diversity initiatives.

• After suffering months of racial abuse on the field and off, Brazilian soccer star Vinícius Júnior had enough.
• Racism is normal in La Liga,” he tweeted in reference to the Spanish top division.

Deep roots of soccer racism

• Indeed, as soccer writer Franklin Foer has pointed out, in the early days of Brazilian soccer Black people were not allowed to play for professional clubs or the national team.
• While there has been great change since such times, the roots of subtle and overt racism facing Black soccer players run deep – be it in their home countries or playing for prestigious European clubs.

Soccer’s Black Lives Matter moment

• For example, in England, the Football Association has long partnered with anti-racist group Kick It Out to create programs and punishments for racist fan behavior.
• Meanwhile, the Royal Spanish Football Association has codes for applying financial penalties against clubs with racist fans.
• Indeed, after restarting a pandemic-struck season in June 2020, the English Premier League promoted an active Black Lives Matter campaign.
• This included “Black Lives Matter” patches on uniforms – although patches were later amended to read “No Room for Racism” – and allowing the taking of the knee before games.
• Soccer leagues in southern Europe tended to leave it to clubs and individuals to respond to the Black Lives Matter movement, rather than having any blanket policies akin to that of the English Football Association.

Counter-cosmopolitanism

• Continued racism in European soccer comes despite a rise in soccer’s “cosmopolitanism” culture.
• But modern-day fans have long become accustomed to supporting a racially diverse team.
• If the racial makeup of teams is not reflective of the fan base, it also isn’t reflected in management, or among the people who govern the sport.

Failing the Sterling standard

• Moreover, it does little to address more institutionalized racism in the game.
• And to date, anti-racism programs and fines have failed to stamp out racism in soccer.