Reds Agree Gloops Deal

Japanese company gloops is the club’s first social gaming partner

(NYSE:MANU) Manchester United, one of the most popular and successful sports teams in the world, today (Thursday) hosted a launch event to celebrate its new sponsorship agreement with gloops, Japan’s leading social gaming company.

The new two-year regional sponsorship will see gloops become the club’s first Official Social Gaming Partner, allowing them the right to create and distribute a statistical-based battle card social game in Japan.

Manchester United has almost four million followers in Japan and the addition of gloops to the club’s family of sponsors follows on from a number of sponsorship agreements with some of the country’s most successful brands.

Founded in 2005, gloops was originally an advertising agency before diversifying into the online social gaming industry. Much like Manchester United, the company started from humble beginnings, employing just six people. Now, just eight years on, they employ over 600 across offices in Japan, the U.S. and Vietnam.

gloops has an annual turnover of ¥2.4 billion and produces 19 different games, boasting over 18 million members in Japan. The company has also been awarded one of the most prestigious social gaming awards in Japan.

Manchester United commercial director Richard Arnold comments:

"Our partnership with gloops is a first for the club and we are delighted that they are now part of the Manchester United family.

"gloops is a market leader in what is still very much an emerging industry. They are at the forefront of social gaming’s development in Japan and we believe they can help the club deepen our engagement with many of our four million followers in Japan.

"This is a very important territory for us, which is one of the reasons we chose to visit Japan as part of our Tour 2013, and we are very pleased to be able to offer fans innovative digital content from gloops.

"We are delighted to see this partnership bring Manchester United closer to a greater number of people through the distribution of new games and joint corporate social responsibility (CSR) projects. I know the Manchester United Foundation is keen to explore ways that it can work with gloops in this important area."

gloops president Shinsuke Kawakata comments:

"We are delighted to be launching our partnership with Manchester United, to create new game titles for the club’s millions of Japanese fans.

"As well as providing sports themed content to our 18 million users, gloops has also been an avid supporter of sports fans and athletes through our CSR programme, which was launched last year.

"Through our CSR programme we have already offered our local community tickets to baseball matches, as well as making donations to the TOMODACHI Project, a Japan-US initiative under the public and private sector partnership."