The Cannondale-Drapac pro cycling team is likely to have many more followers next year.
Its managing organization, Slipstream Sports, has partnered with Oath, Verizon’s media organization that is home to brands such as AOL, Huffington Post and Tumblr, according to a statement. Set to take effect Jan. 1, 2018, the marriage of these companies will beget exclusive and insider content that could help Slipstream reach one billion people across the world, the statement claimed.
Slipstream currently employs a website for the Cannondale-Drapac team that features interviews, profiles and news hits such as the recent second-place finish of a Cannondale-Drapac rider in the Tour de France. It appears that the partnership with Oath will greatly increase video output in a sport with 3.5 billion total TV viewers in 190 countries, according to the statement.
“Our mission at Oath is to build brands people love. There’s untapped potential to grow the global audience in professional cycling. Through our diverse portfolio, we can provide unique content experiences and engaging stories,” Stacy Lambatos, Oath’s vice president of brand experiences, said in a statement. Lambatos also hinted at the technologies Oath could employ to help Slipstream tell those stories, including virtual reality and 360-degree video.
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Oath will benefit from having its name on the 2018 Cannondale-Drapac kits and bikes as the team rides across 240 countries in next year’s World Tour, according to the statement. But Oath is one of only a number of high-profile partners and sponsors to support the team—notable examples include New Balance, Garmin, and fi’zi:k (pronounced like physique). The team itself is named for Cannondale, which creates handcrafted bikes and other biking products, and Drapac Capital Partners, which manages property funds and became part of the team just last year.
“Professional cycling is rich with stories, only a fraction of which are actually told,” Slipstream CEO Jonathan Vaughters said in a statement. “This partnership will allow us to open up the team in terms of content well beyond what most of the world audience sees. Oath has the platforms, skill and ambition to tell the story of cycling in myriad ways. We want people to see us better, to get to know the riders, the staff, and what it takes to be in pro cycling. And we want to use our position as professionals in the realm of the everyday cyclist, too. This partnership gives us a chance to do all those things.”