Chelsea were without a major sponsor for the first six games of the Premier League season. Photo: Getty Images/Rob Newell
Chelsea has received Premier League approval for sports data company Infinite Athlete to become the club's new official sponsor.
The deal is valued at around £40 million. has finally been given the green light for this season, with Infinite Athlete appearing on Chelsea shirts.
A formal announcement is expected to be made on Wednesday, when it could become clear how long the deal will last.
The news was a huge boost for Chelsea, who played their first six Premier League games of the season without a major sponsor.
It is understood the deal did not go through in time for the Infinite Athlete logo to appear on Chelsea's shirts against Brighton in the League Cup on Wednesday night, but it could be showcased in next Monday night's Premier League match against Fulham.
The agreement is for the Infinite Athlete logo to appear on the shirts of both the Chelsea men's and women's teams.
It remains to be seen whether Infinite Athlete will only be the main sponsor for this season or if the deal will continue beyond the current campaign. There is also the possibility that Infinite Athlete will become Chelsea's main sponsor this season, with the partnership taking another form after that.
Chelsea has met with Saudi Arabian airline Riyadh Air about potential sponsorship opportunities.
Infinite Athlete, which only launched in early August, is understood to have provided the Premier League with details of its funding and income in order to comply with fair market value rules and give the go-ahead for the company's logo to appear on Chelsea shirts «.
Sources say the original deal presented to the Premier League was not subject to any fundamental changes or significant revaluation under fair market value rules.
Infinite Athlete, a private company that syncs Every piece of sports data that allows people to create and develop new products, first looked at naming rights agreements for stadiums around the world before making an offer to become Chelsea's new official sponsor.
Infinite Athlete is believed to have told the Premier League that they have already raised hundreds of millions in investment and that the income received from their investors and sponsors is also in the hundreds of millions.
Chelsea started the Premier League season without sponsor on their shirts after their contract with Three expired in the summer. A proposed deal with Paramount was blocked by the Premier League, and the Blues refused preliminary talks with Stake.
Beyond simply determining the value of the deal and the company's financing, the Premier League looked at the investment ties between Infinite Athlete and Chelsea co-owners Todd Boehli and Behdad Eghbali.
Tempus Ex Machina, with whom Chelsea signed a seven-year product partnership in April, acquired Biocore and formed Infinite Management, which counts Silver Lake among its partners.
Silver Lake owns more than 18 percent of City Football Group and is an investor in Fanatics along with Eldridge, a company owned by Boehli. Clearlake Capital, which Eghbali co-owns, led a $700 million funding round for Fanatics last year.
But the Premier League were apparently satisfied with what they were offered, and Chelsea became the latest name on this list. Infinite Athlete stable, which already had deals with a number of sports leagues around the world, including the NFL, and the high-tech golf series founded by Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy, TGL, announced a partnership with the company.
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