07
November
2019
|
19:04
Europe/London

Red Lioness opens doors to women’s football

  • BT Sport & Greene King team up to open The Red Lioness, a home for women’s football

  • 750 Greene King pubs sign up to The Red Lioness Pledge and commit to showing Women’s Football

  • The Red Lioness opens today and BT Sport call on pubs across the UK to sign up to the pledge

BT Sport is today opening the doors of The Red Lioness pub, which aims to inspire pubs, bars, clubs and hotels nationwide to show more women’s football and help create support for the game.

Usually known as the Red Lion in the City of London, the pub has been remodelled to celebrate and showcase the storylines, personalities and milestones of women’s football. For the next ten days, the venue will celebrate and promote women’s football, featuring memorabilia from WSL clubs, iconic photography of legends of the game and trophies.

The pub is one of 750 Greene King venues to sign up to a new BT Sport pledge aimed at increasing the profile of women’s football. The Red Lioness Pledge asks pubs and clubs around the UK to commit to screening all women’s football matches live, from the FA WSL through to internationals featuring England’s Lionesses* as well as creating inclusive and welcoming environments for women’s football fans. BT Sport will provide advice and point of sale materials for BT Sport commercial venues backing the pledge.

Over the next ten days, and building to the FA’s Women’s Football Weekend, The Red Lioness will host a number of events to celebrate and promote women’s football with BT Sport’s women’s football experts. These include a screening of the Tottenham Hotspur v Arsenal Women match on 17 November, the first WSL match to be played at the new Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.

Pete Jeavons, marketing communications director, BT, said: “Today’s launch further supports our ambition to be a national champion and builds on our recently-announced long-term partnerships with the four UK football associations. BT is proud to have broadcast women’s football since 2013 and we are committed to helping grow the women’s game. We would encourage any football fans to visit the Red Lioness and take in some fantastic experiences over the coming ten days.”

Opening the pub on 7 November were Arsenal striker Danielle Carter, Reading midfielder Fara Williams plus BT Sport’s women’s football experts Clare Balding, Rachel Brown-Finnis, Claire Rafferty and Reshmin Chowdhury. Balding said: “I love the new branding of the Red Lion as the Red Lioness as it amplifies the support for the Lionesses as they expand their fan base. The sold out game at Wembley is just the start of a major wave of support for the women’s game in this country. Pubs have always been a place where people congregate to watch football and I hope many more will join the Red Lioness Pledge.”

This season is BT Sport’s biggest season of women’s football yet, with more matches than ever before. Over the whole season, BT Sport will broadcast at least 30 live women’s football matches including the Lionesses, Barclays FA Women’s Super League, FA Women’s Continental League Cup and the Women’s FA Cup. BT Sport will also make selected Barclays FA WSL matches available to anyone in the UK for free, on btsport.com, the BT Sport App, the BT Sport Twitter feed (@btsport) and Virgin TV. BT Sport’s women’s football coverage is led by presenters Clare Balding, Jules Breach and Reshmin Chowdhury, alongside former England internationals Karen Carney, Rachel Brown Finnis and Sue Smith, with commentators including Adam Summerton and Lucy Ward.

Creative, data and tech agency, Wunderman Thompson UK, in conjunction with BT, conceived the idea and led the execution with Pitch Marketing Group responsible for publicity and event planning.

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NOTES

*Some women’s football matches are on BT Sport and require a subscription

About BT Sport

Launched in 2013, BT Sport broadcasts in the UK and Republic of Ireland with around five million subscribers. BT Sport offers five linear TV channels BT Sport 1, BT Sport 2, BT Sport 3, BT Sport

ESPN, BT Sport Ultimate, six interactive BT Sport Extra channels and is available on BT TV, Sky, Virgin and Talk Talk. BT Sport is also available online and via the App on mobile and large screen devices and operates pay per view channel, BT Sport Box Office. BT Sport has a track record of innovation, operating from one of industry’s most sophisticated sports TV studios, and delivering world-firsts around Virtual Reality, Dolby Atmos, 4K UHD and remote production. Its achievements have been recognized with awards from IBC, Promax, Music Week and more.

As well as being the sole UK rights holder for all of the UEFA Champions League and UEFA Europa League, BT Sport offers live sport programming including the English Premier League, Emirates FA Cup, Scottish Premiership, boxing, FA WSL, Gallagher Premiership Rugby, Heineken Champions Cup, MotoGP and WTA.

About BT

BT’s purpose is to use the power of communications to make a better world. It is one of the world’s leading providers of communications services and solutions, serving customers in 180 countries. Its principal activities include the provision of networked IT services globally; local, national and international telecommunications services to its customers for use at home, at work and on the move; broadband, TV and internet products and services; and converged fixed-mobile products and services. BT consists of four customer-facing units: Consumer, Enterprise, Global and Openreach.

For the year ended 31 March 2019, BT Group’s reported revenue was £23,428m with reported profit before taxation of £2,666m. British Telecommunications plc (BT) is a wholly-owned subsidiary of BT Group plc and encompasses virtually all businesses and assets of the BT Group. BT Group plc is listed on the London stock exchange. For more information, visit www.btplc.com