Sport Industry Group

Boat Race gives sponsor naming rights- 20 Nov 2009 00:00:00

The University Boat Race is to make a significant commercial structural change after allowing its primary sponsor Xchanging to take over the naming rights to the prestigious annual race between Oxford and Cambridge.

After being run for 180 years as the University Boat Race, a decision has been taken with immediate effect, for the race to be known as the Xchanging Boat Race after the business services company which has been backing the event for the past four years.

The four-mile 374-yard test of strength and stamina from Putney to Mortlake is one of the oldest sporting events in the world and a blue riband fixture on the English sporting calendar.

Robert Gillespie, the chairman of the Boat Race Company, said: ‘This is a tidying-up of an ambiguous position. It’s better to have a partner stand beside you than a presenting sponsor who stands behind.’

Gillespie would not expand as to whether Xchanging were paying extra money to have their name emblazoned across the event, but the move is the latest in a trend towards providing more commercial opportunities for the race sponsors.

Boat Race crew members have recently been allowed to wear sponsor branding and five years ago organisers made a significant change against tradition by selling the TV rights to ITV after decades of the race being shown on the BBC, though the latter will resume coverage next April after winning back the rights.