Sport Industry Group

Alpari unveils World Match Racing Tour deal- 28 Feb 2012 00:00:00

Alpari has announced a new five-year title partnership with the World Match Racing Tour, which will see the professional sailing series become the Alpari World Match Racing Tour from February 2012.

Jim O’Toole, CEO of the Alpari World Match Racing Tour, joined David Stuart from Alpari - a global association of companies providing online foreign exchange, precious metals and CFD trading services -  in the City of London to announce the title sponsorship. 

To mark the start of the partnership a unique 3D street art project, recreating a match racing scene of two boats going head to head was revealed in the City, where passing commuters had their photos taken “on board” one of the boats. 

As a global sports series with events in North America, Asia and Europe, the multimillion-dollar partnership creating the Alpari World Match Racing Tour will help Alpari reach out to more people across the continents and promote online trading to an even wider audience.  

Matt Strachan, sales director, Alpari World Match Racing Tour, said: ‘The fit between Alpari's business objectives and the Tour's brand building vision made the partnership an easy decision for both parties. Alpari's ambitious marketing plans and its commitment to activating the sponsorship will have a significant impact on the Tour. We look forward to working together to deliver that vision with some exciting activation initiatives.’

David Stuart from Alpari added: ‘We are very happy to announce our partnership with the World Match Racing Tour. The Tour and Alpari have so much in common and we’ll both be strengthening our brands by entering into this partnership. The Tour appeals to an international audience and specifically to people who are ambitious and self-motivated. These are essential attributes of successful traders so Alpari’s services should excite them.’

The world’s best match racers will compete for the ISAF Match Racing World Championship and the largest prize purse in the world of sailing (US$1.75 million).

Britain has enjoyed back-to-back success with triple Olympic gold medallist Ben Ainslie winning in 2010, followed by Ian Williams who captured his third world title in 2011. 

The sponsorship announcement also coincides with the unveiling of the 2012 Tour Calendar which now includes a new event, the Chicago Match Cup in the US, to complement the other regattas in Germany, Korea, Portugal, Sweden, Switzerland, France, Bermuda and Malaysia.   

Commenting on the race calendar and list of competing teams, O’Toole added: ‘2012 will be a major landmark in the delivery of our owner’s vision for the Tour with the title sponsorship relationship with Alpari, our new venue in Chicago and an exciting line-up of Tour Card Holders including multiple World Champions seeking to break records and rookies hoping to make the big breakthrough. It promises to be a dramatic season all round. We can’t wait for our first race, Match Race Germany, to start!’