The United Rugby Championship is proud to announce that BKT, one of the world’s largest manufacturers of tires for agricultural, industrial and construction machines, has become the league’s northern-hemisphere title sponsor until 2025.
From today the league will be known as the ‘BKT United Rugby Championship’ in the northern-hemisphere and the news follows on from the league’s recent announcement that the 2021/22 season smashed broadcast records in reaching an audience of 34.6 million.
Alongside Vodacom, the league’s title sponsor in South Africa, BKT will hold naming rights for the league in all territories outside of South Africa and will play an integral role in the continued growth of the United Rugby Championship.
A global company in over 160 countries, with HQ in Mumbai, India, BKT is built on an ethos of ‘Growing Together’, that perfectly summarizes the importance of the team to achieve winning results. BKT has business units in Europe and North America that support distribution partners in local communities all across the world. BKT is known and renowned for being a massive supporter of worldwide sporting events and globally recognized for its passion for sports. Every BKT sport partnership is steered by guidelines and values characterizing all its activities: passion, determination, enthusiasm, commitment, teamwork, dedication to CSR and fans.
BKT’s partnership with the URC opens up its voice and connection with 16 teams across five countries to connect with the league’s audiences and establish themselves as a key supporter of rugby.
BKT’s sponsorships first started in the USA where its tires equip the iconic giant trucks of Monster Jam in all their incredible shows. Today its wide range of sponsorships include Rugby World Cup France 2023, cricket’s IPL (India) and the Big Bash League (Australia), European football leagues; La Liga (Spain), Serie BKT (Italy) and Ligue 2 (France) and also basketball’s Euroleague.
The partnership deal between URC and BKT has been facilitated by Havas Sports & Entertainment Italy (HSE), Havas Media Group’s team of sports marketing professionals.
Martin Anayi, United Rugby Championship CEO, said: “Attracting a global partner of BKT’s scale speaks to the appeal of rugby and to the diversity and identity of our league. The success of our debut season as URC caught the imagination of fans and the interest from potential partners has really come to life.
“BKT want to grow together and they believe in our vision of creating a league where world-class rugby is matched by an off-the-field purpose that connects with our fans and communities. As a brand BKT are passionate about teamwork and tradition while their forward thinking approach to research and development and international expansion is geared at keeping them at the top of their industry. These are fundamental values in rugby and establish a great foundation for us to create a game-changing partnership.”
Lucia Salmaso, BKT Europe CEO, said: “We are so proud to be Title Sponsor of URC, a league recognized around the world with a mission to grow rugby that reflects and promotes the values which are at the basis of our activities. BKT will support the URC and its fans with its positive attitude, its passion for sports and its enthusiastic ideas, by engaging and including the whole audience. We will do our best to ensure that this partnership could only be the beginning of a stimulating adventure to live and an opportunity for Growing Together. I think we are a great match and team”.
