FEI and Sina Sports seal partnership for equestrian growth in China

The Fédération Équestre Internationale (FEI), the world governing body for equestrian sport, and Sina Sports, the leading Chinese digital sports media platform, have today sealed a partnership that will significantly increase the footprint of the FEI and equestrian sport in China.

As part of this new collaboration, which currently runs until the end of 2018, Sina Sports will launch the “Official Website of FEI in China,” on its digital sports platform.

This new home for FEI on Sina Sports will house a rich variety of content dedicated to equestrian sport, including major FEI events, competition highlights, video interviews with high profile equestrian athletes, equestrian lifestyle content, images and news in Chinese from the FEI’s extensive portfolio of the world’s highest profile equestrian competitions, championships and series.

Sina Sports users will be able to enjoy content from the FEI’s massive portfolio of events around the world, including the prestigious Longines FEI World Cup™ Jumping Western European and North American Leagues, the iconic Furusiyya FEI Nations Cup™ Jumping – which is the oldest team Jumping series in the world - and wider FEI flagship events including the FEI European and FEI World Championships and the FEI World Equestrian Games™.

With just eleven days to the Rio 2016 Olympic Games, the FEI will also provide Sina Sports with exciting content from around the equestrian competitions at these first Games in South America.

Sina Sports will also support the FEI’s exposure in China through featured posts and targeted promotions on Sina Weibo.

The partnership with Sina Sports forms part of the FEI’s long-term strategy to further develop the Chinese market for equestrian sport, and comes on the back of the FEI’s successful introduction of the China League of the Longines FEI World Cup Jumping™ in 2011, and the FEI’s existing digital video and broadcast partnerships in China.

“Equestrian sport is growing rapidly in popularity in China and across the Asian continent, and this new partnership with Sina Sports marks another major step by the FEI to reach markets that are incredibly important to the future of our sport,” said FEI President Ingmar De Vos.

“We see massive potential in the Chinese market with a partner that understands our vision, and by having a dedicated place on Sina Sports and its incredibly popular social networking service, we will be able to have deeper conversations with our growing Chinese fan base.”

“Sina Sports is proud to be able to give equestrian sports a high profile platform in China,” said Arthur Wei, Vice President of Sina.com and General Manager of Sina Sports.

“We aim to put the spotlight on the global FEI events as well as our brilliant Chinese equestrian athletes, including the eventer Alex Hua Tian who will be China’s equestrian representative at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games and Jumping athletes like Zhiwen Zhao, who qualified for this year’s Longines FEI World Cup Jumping Final in Sweden through the China league.

“The FEI is highly respected as the world governing body for equestrian sport, and this partnership is a great honor for Sina Sports. We also see a lot of opportunity for growth for equestrian in China, and through this new partnership we are excited to play a significant role in creating a strong community for equestrian to flourish in China.”