World Rugby and Two Circles have agreed an expansion of their partnership, with the ambition of accelerating fan-centric global commercial revenue growth. The deal is central to World Rugby’s mission to drive the long-term sustainable growth of the sport by increasing fan accessibility and relevance.
The new deal sees an expansion of Two Circles’ bespoke services, including active sales representation for World Rugby’s sponsorship and digital rights, as well as extending the service provider’s current successful role in growing the federation’s audience share globally.
The deal represents the first time that World Rugby has partnered with a single capability partner aimed at driving increased revenue growth for reinvestment in a growing, global sport.
With a runway stacked with exciting content in the coming years, Two Circles will collaborate closely with World Rugby’s in-house commercial teams to support the renewal of existing partner relationships and accelerate the establishment of new partnerships across World Rugby’s tournaments, media platforms and programmes. Two Circles will also leverage its consumer funnel expertise to offer audience-led propositions to prospective brand partners, earmarked to deliver both transformation and significant growth within World Rugby’s sponsorship and digital models.
The relationship covers World Rugby’s strong portfolio of competitions, media channels and content portfolio globally, leveraging Two Circles’ presence and capabilities in key hosting and growth markets for rugby, including the UK, Australia and USA. This aligns with World Rugby’s new Rugby World Cup hosting strategy, which kicks off with an era-defining landmark Women’s Rugby World Cup England 2025, an event attracting new partnerships for the sport.
World Rugby Chief Revenue Officer Michel Poussau said: “World Rugby’s strategic purpose is to grow rugby worldwide by making it more relevant and accessible, growing our audience share with a super-competitive sports and entertainment marketplace. Two Circles’ track record, creative approach and audience expertise are exactly what we believe is needed to support our growth strategy, as our sport becomes ever more global in scale and as our footprint more digital in nature. In partnership with Two Circles, we can significantly grow the commercial value of our rights and media channels – through Rugby World Cups, but also through rights we operate in the USA, via our RugbyPass platforms, and through underutilised commercial opportunities we see across the game.”
Gareth Balch, CEO and Co-founder at Two Circles, commented: “We are incredibly humbled by the trust that World Rugby continues to place in Two Circles, and excited by what we will achieve together in the coming cycles. Our partnership has been focused on growing rugby fans and allowing that engagement to grow the value of this marvellous sport. World Rugby’s vision to own direct relationships that scale to drive global competitions, engage rugby fans with brands in innovative ways and create the biggest platform for consuming the sport is inspiring.”
The relationship will also build on and leverage the success of World Rugby’s global fan growth strategy, which Two Circles continues to support across marketing technology, content, campaigns, creative services, and data capabilities. This has seen World Rugby more than double its direct fan relationships within 18 months, triple the social engagement around Men’s Rugby World Cup, and attract over 40 per cent more users across its portfolio of web and app platforms – delivering early results against the sport’s ambitious long-term growth plans.
Show Boat
The same whistle is blown at the start of each world cup – This is without a doubt one of our favourite rugby facts. Welsh referee Gil Evans used the same whistle to preside over Rugby games for 20 years, donating it to the New Zealand Rugby Museum in 1969. The tradition was revived for the 1987 Rugby World Cup, and the whistle has been used for every tournament since. Best not to think about how hygienic that 100-year-old whistle is.
Marshmallow
Sport Trivia: Who was the first woman swimmer to win both the 100m and 200m breaststroke at the Olympics? Answer: Penny Heyns. She won both the 100m and 200m breaststroke events at the 1996 Olympics, the first woman to do so. She broke the world and Olympic records for the 100m breaststroke and broke the Olympic record for the 200m breaststroke. In 1999 she held 5 out of a possible 6 world breaststroke records, the first time this had ever been achieved (50m, 100m and 200m, plus same distances in 25m short course pool) — the one she \”missed\” was the 200m short course.