User:BC1278/sandbox/Infront

Infront Sports & Media is a sports marketing company based in Zug, Switzerland. The company handles the media and marketing rights for international sports events and federations and also provides sports services such as advertising and sponsorships.

Overview
The company has about 1000 employees in 14 countries, as of 2019. The company provides media production, media rights distribution, marketing and sponsorship sales for sporting events. (host broadcasting, post production and archive management).

Infront's subsidiary, Host Broadcast Services (HBS), manages television and radio signals for broadcasters at sports events such as the FIFA World Cup.

In addition to working with FIFA, Infront has supported the German Football Association (DFB) with their national team and DFB Cup, the Italian Lega Serie A , the Italian Football Federation, and the Indonesia Super League.

History
Infront Sports & Media was founded in October 2002 in part, to sell the television and radio broadcasts for the 2002 FIFA World Cup. The company originated from a merger of two existing Swiss-based marketing companies, CWL and Prisma Sports & Media. CWL was founded by Cesar Lüthi, who sold the business to the Kirch Group. In 2005 the company lost the right to resell the TV and radio rights for FIFA in Europe, though it retained the ability to sell Asian rights, as part of a division of the rights by FIFA. Infront subsidy HBS won the contract to manage the TV and radio broadcast production. Two months later, the company hired President and CEO Phillippe Blatter, to replace departing chief Oscar Frei. The appointment of Blatter, who is the nephew of Sepp Blatter, the then President of FIFA, was criticized by author Andrew Jennings and Transparency International. During this time as chief executive, Philippe Blatter was able to grow the company's revenues.

Infront subsidiary, Omnigon helps sports and media companies, such as NASCAR, to develop mobile apps and websites. Omnigon projects have included digital services to the Serie A and mobile app development for the German Football Association’s DFB Cup. In 2019, Omnigon was re-branded as iX.co.

Until 2011 it was owned by a consortium of shareholders. In September 2011 – European private equity firm Bridgepoint reached an agreement to acquire the company. In February 2015, Chinese conglomerate Dalian Wanda won an auction to purchase Infront from Bridgepoint for more than €1 billion. In November of that same year, it was announced that Infront would merge with the World Triathlon Corporation (including the latter's Ironman brand) to form the Wanda Sports division.

In summer sports, it works with the EHF EURO in handball and the CEV European Championships in Volleyball. As of May 2018, the EHF (European Handball Federation) extended its partnership with Infront to 2030. In China, Infront represents the Chinese Basketball Association tournament and the national team, Team China Basketball.

The company represented six of the seven Olympic winter sport federations in 2011. It managed the IIHF for ice hockey as of 2011 and it controlled the media and/or marketing rights to most of the FIS World Cup events, as of 2013. It obtained the marketing rights to the Eurpoean 26-team Champions Hockey League in 2016. In 2018, it acquired all media and marketing rights for the FIS World Ski Championships until 2025. Infront also has media and marketing agreements with the International Ski Mountaineering Federation (ISMF) until 2021 and the International Bobsleigh & Skeleton Federation (IBSF) until 2022.

The company started supporting mass participation and endurance sports in 2011, including Ironman events and the UCI World Championships in cycling. Infront marketed the BMW Berlin-Marathon as of 2012, the Frankfurt marathon as of 2015, the ITU World Triathlon Series as of 2018, as well as the European corporate running series B2Run, which it owns. Companies Infront has acquired in the running and fitness space include Threshold, BARMER Women's Run, XLETIX Challenge and Muddy Angel Run. It acquired Megamarsch, a Germany-based company that organizes extreme hiking challenges, in May 2019.