National Lottery to sponsor Rugby Union teams

There’s no denying that the current pandemic has had a huge detrimental impact to many industries. But some good news for Great Britain’s Rugby Union teams as they have just signed a sponsorship deal with The National Lottery to support the Rugby Seven’s programme.

Covid Impact on Sports Industry

For the sports industry, we’ve seen fixtures cancelled nationwide, major sporting events including the Olympic Games, postponed and now, even though fixtures have restarted, they’re taking place in empty stadiums.  Venues in tier 4 areas will not be allowed any spectators at all and those in Tier 3 have strict limitations. Racecourses for example, are allowed a maximum of 45 spectators. This has impacted revenue immensely, so the news of a sponsorship has been welcomed with open arms.

National Lottery Sponsorship

The National Lottery have announced their partnership deals with The Rugby Football Union, The Welsh Rugby Union and The Scottish Rugby Union, to sponsor and support both their men’s and women’s Rugby Sevens teams for the 2021 season.

This sponsorship is ahead of the Tokyo Olympics due to take place later that year after being postponed in 2020. It hopes to improve the chances of Great Britain winning a medal and creating a much bigger impact on the sport.

Scottish Rugby Director Jim Mallinder spoke of the news saying  “The opportunity for our players to be able to put their hands up for potential Olympic selection is something we very much welcome as part of a GB Sevens squad.”

The National Lottery’s Chief Executive, Nigel Railton also commented:  “This partnership demonstrates how by working together we can have a real impact on a sport and boost the chances of gold in Tokyo next summer. The loss of spectators and cancellation of events has had such an impact on various sports; I am proud we are able to support the GB Sevens programme after a difficult year.”