Great news. Hopefully some extra cash for RL.

Hopefully some decent RL betting offers for the cup

DO you want to bet

Great News this.
Ladbrokes is a name that everyone knows and they have major High street coverage with wiki declaring 2,400 outlets across England Ireland (and Belgium and Spain??).
If it is, as I suspect, part cash up front and part % of bets, then let's hope that the RL community get behind this and if we are placing bets, we will do so through our new partner.
Just fished my Ladbrokes account card out of an old wallet.....let's hope they offer decent/competitive odds

I just read that the 2015 challenge cup final will be on 29th August which will be 120 years to the day that rugby league was founded in Huddersfield. Perfect opportunity for Ladbrokes to market the event and hopefully the extra significance can get some more people to the final, lets try to fill Wembley this year!

I agree it's good news to get a new household name on board, let's hope we can persuade them to do some RL themed TV ads

Sod Ladbrokes.
The RFL should be all over this like bees on Honey.
Friday May 1st...120 days to go until the 120th anniversary of TGG. Get your CC Final tickets now and be in with a chance to win a Box for you and 4 Friends at the 1st Kiwis Test in October....put a countdown clock on the RFL site.
Synergies like this are a marketing persons wet dream.

Supposedly worth £1m per season. Pretty good in my book. To give some context the FA cup is likely to run without a principal sponsor this year; the previous deal was worth £8m per year.

Good sponsorship deal if the alleged £1 million per season is correct.

A 3 year deal from 2015 to 2017 whilst the CC is still broadcast on terrestrial BBC makes sense.

Such a shame that this historically significant and prestigious cup competition which has been treated with such indifference and contempt during the SL-era will soon belong to Sky from 2018 onwards

At best 1/10th of those who watched on the bbc will be watch on Sky. Taking the challenge cup and internationals from the bbc is an absolute disaster and a stupid short term is decision.

The first round draw takes place at Wembley Stadium and will involve 40 teams from Aberdeen to London, students, police and the armed forces. In some ways this is the most exciting part of the CC - the start of the Road to Wembley! I know they're all amateur outfits but a half decent marketing team should be able to make something of it. I haven't heard anything about it, nothing on the BBC website for instance. Bit late now, it's scheduled for 12:45 tomorrow!

Absolutely spot on.

Can you see Sky dedicating a traditional Saturday afternoon date to the Wembley CC Final event?

I can't.

It'll be shunted to a Thursday night, or at best a Saturday or Sunday slot with a kick off around 6pm with just a paltry 100k converted moonies tuning into the ghetto of Sky Sports 3 or 4.

It's a disaster in the making and I don't believe it's an exaggeration to envisage the termination of the competition within a few years of Sky's less-than-enthusiastic coverage.

The haste with which the latest TV deal was signed last year was utterly obscene.

My guess is that the RFL will do so regardless. Whether Sky choose to screen it is a separate issue but to be honest whether they do or whether they don't matters little. In fact a refusal to do so might well deliver a boost to the gate while having a negligible impact on the cup's future profile.

Have missed something, or isn't the CC Final still classified as a protected event?