Photo credit: Joella Marano / CC of 2.0
Jay-Z’s Roc Nation Sports enters into a “strategic partnership” with Italian soccer league “Serie A”, expanding the league’s reach in North America through digital content, marketing and events.
Jay-Z’s Roc Nation Sports have signed a “strategic partnership deal” with Italy’s top football division. A league. The agreement was entered into with a focus on expanding the reach of the Italian league in North America, with the two companies looking to engage with existing and new fans through digital content, marketing activities and events.
Roc Nation and Serie A had a working time partnership Since 2019 and into 2020, Roc Nation signed a deal with Serie A club AC Milan to host an event to rally support for workers during the height of the COVID pandemic. The event was hosted by DJ Khaled and included performances by the likes of Alicia Keys and Kelly Rowland. All proceeds went to charity.
“We are extremely excited to help Serie A grow their brand across America while helping to build meaningful commercial partnerships and enhanced brand visibility that will result in continued growth for one of the world’s premier soccer leagues,” said Michael Yormark, President of Roc Nation.
Roc Nation also represents many leading European soccer players such as Romelu Lukaku, one of Serie A’s biggest names who Jay-Z encouraged to join Inter Milan Serie A.
“We spent some time together in New York and then he pushed me to come back to Inter,” Lukaku said. “He’s a person who follows football a lot; He always follows Inter. He’s really a nice person.”
Roc Nation have been vocal about issues in Italian football, such as widespread racism against the league’s black players. When Lukaku faced racist abuse from opposition fans last season, Roc Nation President Michael Yormark released a statement:
“The Italian authorities must seize this opportunity to fight racism instead of punishing the abuse victim. I’m sure the football world shares the same opinion.”
Serie A is considered one of the most competitive football leagues in the world with traditional clubs like AC and Inter Milan, Juventus and Napoli, the former team of Diego Maradona. In the USA, Paramount+ is the home of Serie A, where all 380 games of the season are broadcast live.