LMC Seals International Official Sports Drink Deal

Nigeria Professional Football League (NPFL) broke into the international sponsorship market with the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the League Management Company (LMC) and United Kingdom’s leading global sport drinks maker, iPro Sport International Limited (ISIL),

 Isotonic drinks replace nutrients and fluids quickly, helping to prevent exercise-related injuries and illness that may arise from loss of important minerals, dehydration and heat stroke due to sweating during physical exercises. Isotonic fluids are also known to have six to eight percent carbohydrates, including glucose, the human body’s preferred energy source for exercise

The MoU, which is  subject to sign off of national distributors agreements and other regulatory approvals was executed in London on Wednesday, June 7 with the LMC represented by its Chairman, Shehu Dikko and iProsport represented by the Managing Director, Mr. Thomas Garrad.

The deal is said to be the biggest natural ingredients sports drink football sponsorship in the African continent and NPFL is the first league on the continent to be associated with iProsport all natural ingredients Sports drink. The tenure of the MOU is for five years.

 It is considered a major breakthrough and an international recognition and endorsement of the steady growth recorded by the LMC in the revival of the Nigeria Professional Football League, improved quality of administration, the quantum leap in followership around the arenas and the media.

 Nigerian businesses have starved local football of patronage necessary to revive the game and allow it reach its potentials of being a vibrant sub sector employing thousands of young Nigerians. Last year, it is estimated that over N40 billion was funneled out by Nigerian corporate organizations to sponsor foreign clubs and foreign league broadcasts.

Mr Dikko describes iProsports’ entry as “a strong message to businesses in Nigeria to embrace the ‘Buy Nigeria’ campaign. It can stimulate the economy and create more jobs through the football industry. It certainly will add impetus to bringing back the lost glory of our football”.

“The possibilities in this deal is huge because the NPFL will stand to gain incremental fees for every bottle of iProsport drink sold in the Nigerian market and the beauty is that this is coming from a company that is yet to start operations in the country when we have those reaping big profits from the Nigerian market taking out money abroad to fund clubs and create jobs there”, Dikko said further of the deal.

iPro Sport International Limited’s leading sports drink product, iProsport will thus become the Official Supplier of isotonic sport drinks to the NPFL and the 20 NPFL clubs for a fee.

Meanwhile, the growing appeal of the NPFL has been captured in the steady growth of its online followership on the website alone which totaled 39,545,924 from January to May 2016 with the highest traffic recorded in May with over 7m hits.

The Google Analytic report showed that interest in the NPFL outside Africa is higher in the USA (992, 865) and Britain (284, 436). South Africa (438, 492) and Ghana (60, 018) top the list of African countries with online followership of the NPFL during the period under review. In Nigeria alone, there are over 4.7m followers.

On the social media, the NPFL twitter handle with a total of over 35, 000 followers recorded total 5, 230,000 impressions for the month of May with a daily impression of 168, 700. On Facebook, the total reach from May 6 – June 2, 2016 was 68, 528 and a total page view of 32, 568 within the same period.

The British company’s MD, Garrad said iProsport International Limited is interested in the Nigerian market and has found the NPFL as the vehicle to drive their entry and acceptance to the new business territory. iProsport drink, a natural isotonic drink is the official sport drink of English and Scottish Premier League clubs, Norwich and Dundee United and a host of English Premiership, Championship and League 1 clubs. iPro Sport also has the naming rights to the Derby County stadium and is involved in the sponsorship of several sports such as a Rugby, Marathon, Athletics, UK School Sports and is the official sport drink of the UK Army.