World Carom Federation (UMB)-Five and Six-Innocean
Sign Memorandum of Understanding for Sports Marketing Collaboration
Expanding Global Sports Business Starting with Billiards
(From left) Lee Yong-woo, CEO of Innocean; Farooq Barkhi, Chairman of UMB; and Oh Seong-gyu, CEO of Five and Six, are taking a commemorative photo after signing a memorandum of understanding for sports marketing collaboration. Photo by Innocean.
Innocean announced on the 6th that it has signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) for sports marketing collaboration with the World Carom Billiards Federation (UMB) and Five & Six, which holds exclusive marketing rights for the 3-cushion world championship.
The MOU signing ceremony was attended by Lee Yong-woo, CEO of Innocean; Faruk Barkhi, president of the World Confederation of Billiards Sports (WCBS) and UMB; and Oh Sung-kyu, CEO of Five & Six. They agreed to collaborate across the entire spectrum of billiards-related sports business, including sponsorship acquisition, research, new tournament development, tournament operation, and broadcasting.
Founded in 1959, UMB is the only international carom billiards federation recognized by the International Olympic Committee (IOC). It is a global organization overseeing carom billiards, a cue sport played on pocketless tables including 3-cushion, 4-cushion, and balkline. World-class players such as Dick Jaspers from the Netherlands, Daniel Sanchez from Spain, and Kim Haeng-jik and Cho Myung-woo from South Korea are affiliated with UMB. Five & Six is the official media and marketing partner of UMB.
Leveraging this MOU with UMB and Five & Six, Innocean plans to further expand its billiards sports business through the operation of global 3-cushion tournaments, broadcasting rights sales, and intellectual property (IP) management, while establishing a new business foundation for integrated sports marketing that extends into other sports disciplines.
Lee Yong-woo, CEO of Innocean, said, "Innocean’s global network and marketing capabilities will create positive synergy with the direction UMB and Five & Six aim to pursue. Starting with this partnership, Innocean will expand its own sports business domain beyond the existing agency business model and ultimately become a specialized sports business company."
Meanwhile, the sports business marketing sector continues to grow. According to the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, domestic sports industry sales increased by 20.1%, from 52.9 trillion KRW in 2021 to 63.9 trillion KRW last year.
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