XPost: rec.autos.sport.indy
On 12/5/22 11:18, a425couple wrote:
from https://racingnews365.com/williams-awarded-ps26-million-in-court-case-against-former-sponsor?fbclid=IwAR3Np25QnWRgSUhmJMVQWOTZVXBhsIR3NjzVry9ERjDr2DK4TV8JIPOwTr8
Williams awarded £26 million in court case against former sponsor
(See Follow Up, these are same ones that left Calderion high and dry!)
see also
https://www.sportico.com/business/sponsorship/2022/rokit-nfl-nba-deals-1234690627/
Rokit Leaves Trail of Millions in Deserted Deals, Lawsuits and Bankruptcies
BY DANIEL LIBIT, EBEN NOVY-WILLIAMS
OCTOBER 10, 2022
In early 2019, the Oakland Raiders began courting an English-American
company called Rokit as a founding partner for their soon-to-be Las
Vegas home.
By then, Rokit, with its primary product lines in mobile phones and
alcohol, had a short but notable track record in the world of sports.
Within six months, it had secured multimillion-dollar deals with the Los Angeles Chargers and Formula One’s Williams Racing, and was the
inaugural jersey patch sponsor for the Houston Rockets, a high-profile partnership announced the previous fall.
Activity like that tends to raise antennas in front offices across the
sports industry, and representatives for the Raiders and Legends, the
team’s sales agent, made multiple trips to the company’s oceanfront
office in Pacific Palisades, Calif. Other franchises also took notice,
even though Rokit’s yearly revenue did not cover the big-ticket deals it
had already made.
The Raiders’ due diligence, two people familiar with the process told Sportico, focused on the financial heft of the prospective sponsor’s
biggest backer, Patrón Spirits Co.’s billionaire co-founder John Paul DeJoria, who’d just sold his 70% stake in the tequila giant to Bacardi
in a $5.1 billion deal. At the same time, DeJoria, who also co-founded
and runs the Paul Mitchell haircare juggernaut, was working with his
longtime British business partner, Jonathan Kendrick, to boost their
mercurial, 20-year-old ROK brand into Rokit.
DeJoria, though not an officer nor employee, was an active part of the
Rokit discussions with the Raiders, the sources said. They added that
his involvement, in addition to multiple conversations with counterparts
at the Rockets, Chargers and Williams Racing, made the Raiders
comfortable signing a long-term agreement with a relatively unknown entity.
The talks led to a 10-year deal worth more than $60 million, a sizable partnership even by NFL standards, which made Rokit the Raiders’
official phone and included naming rights to a 13,000-square-foot club
inside Allegiant Stadium. In March 2020, Raiders players and
cheerleaders participated in a photo shoot in Las Vegas to announce the
deal.
But it soon fell apart. Rokit owed the team $5.9 million for the first
year of the agreement, but it never paid. When Allegiant Stadium opened
later that year, the Rokit Field Club was nowhere to be found.
Representatives for the Raiders and Legends declined to comment on the
deal or its aftermath. Kendrick, who serves as Rokit’s CEO and chairman,
and the company’s public relations department did not respond to several requests for comment solicited last week. In an email, Alex Merino, a
Los Angeles-based attorney representing Kendrick and Rokit, wrote that
some of Sportico’s questions “are based on rumors and false
information,” but declined to comment or elaborate further. DeJoria did
not respond to multiple requests for comment sent to his assistant and a
Paul Mitchell spokesperson.
Sports sponsorship has been just a small part of Rokit’s sprawling
ambitions, which its co-founders have directed at everything from
e-bikes, apparel and water purification to nationwide internet
infrastructure, discount legal services and telemedicine. Despite its
varied interests, and a complex web of private limited companies to
pursue them, financial reports and interviews with former Rokit insiders chronicle a company that has never proven financially sustainable,
produced very few actual products, and failed to deliver on many of its business commitments. Rokit has shown itself to be quite adept at one
thing: attracting bold-faced names and high-profile companies, from
sports to Hollywood, into its orbit, only to leave many of its partners
feeling shortchanged.
Over the past few years, Rokit has been accused of bailing on sports promotional commitments totaling well more than $100 million, according
to court filings and bankruptcy documents reviewed by Sportico. A number
of these deals have since devolved into litigation, including a
particularly contentious legal battle between the company and Houston
Rockets owner Tilman Fertitta. Meanwhile, six subsidiaries inside what
Rokit refers to as its “Group of Companies” have filed for bankruptcy in the last 18 months, with teams of trustees and lawyers now trying to
sort how connected those entities are and who should pay for contracts
going unfulfilled.
Despite those setbacks, a number of sports entities are still doing
business with Rokit, particularly those in smaller racing circuits and
more niche sports such as equestrian, beach handball and snooker. Rokit
Venturi Racing finished second in this season’s Formula E team
standings, and DeJoria’s daughter Alexis is currently racing in NHRA
events sponsored by Rokit and one of its liquor labels. Snooker legend
Ronnie O’Sullivan is also a Rokit endorser, having agreed to respell his nickname, “Rocket,” as part of the sponsorship. It’s unclear why a few
of these deals appear active amid all the defaults and bankruptcy
filings. Representatives for all three didn’t respond to requests for comment.
--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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