BKT EXPANDS URC DEAL THROUGH 2030 — AND BRINGS SOUTH AFRICA INTO GLOBAL SPONSORSHIP PLATFORM

By ASVG Media

The United Rugby Championship has secured long-term commercial certainty after BKT extended and expanded its partnership with the competition through 2030, transforming what began as a Northern Hemisphere agreement into a global sponsorship covering the URC's complete geographic footprint. BKT will remain title partner in Ireland, Italy, Scotland and Wales while becoming the competition's Official Global Tyre Partner, with South Africa incorporated into the agreement for the first time. The expansion gives BKT commercial presence across all five principal URC territories and alongside all 16 participating teams.

The South African inclusion is commercially important because the URC has created something relatively unusual in global sport: one league property connecting African and European consumer markets every week. BKT has now spent four years evaluating that audience and elected not merely to renew but to expand its rights—a strong signal that the platform is producing sufficient commercial value to justify deeper investment. For African rights holders, renewals of this kind matter: attracting a sponsor once demonstrates sales capability; persuading it to increase investment after years of measuring audience, activation and return demonstrates the underlying value of the property itself.