Ronaldo Wins UEFA Best Player Award

By Aduragbemi Omiyale The fitness campaign of a leading domestic payment cards and tokens brand, Verve, VerveLife, will get bigger this year as a leading global sportswear giant, adidas, has expressed its intention to be part of it. Six years ago, Verve started the initiative. It has grown to be one of the biggest fitness festivals on the African continent, attracting several participants. For VerveLife 6.0, adidas is coming to use the programme to grow its brand presence in Nigeria, according to the Commercial Director Africa at adidas, Mr Brett Burgess. “We are excited by our partnership with VerveLife as

By Precious Olisa The era of Nigerian athletes being treated by beggars may soon be over if the assurance given by the federal government is to be taken seriously. Earlier this week, the Minister of Sports Development, Mr John Enoh, during an interactive session with the Presidents and Secretaries of National Sports Federations, said efforts are being made to prioritise the welfare of athletes in the country. For several years, those who represent the country in different sporting activities across the globe have been abandoned even before and after tournaments, resulting in some of them switching allegiance to another country

By Adedapo Adesanya South African football club, Mamelodi Sundowns, have emerged as the first-ever champions of the African Football League (AFL) title, defeating top Moroccan side, Wydad Athletic Club, 2-0 in Pretoria on Sunday. Sundowns trailed 2-1 from the first leg played in Casablanca last weekend, and they ensured they won by a margin of two goals with a clean sheet to engrave their names in the books of history. The South African Premier Soccer League side sealed a 3-2 aggregate win to claim the top prize. Sundowns striker, Peter Shalulile, returning to the team after weeks out with injury,

Data analytics is transforming football predictions as tools and techniques are consistently being designed to enhance accuracy and precision in football betting. In this article, we uncover the huge impact of data analytics in football betting. The Power of Data in Football Predictions In football betting, data analytics is used to collect, analyse, and interpret data to make informed predictions. This includes several metrics, such as player stats, team performance, head-to-head results, and external factors like injuries, fatigue, and weather conditions. Data analytics in football predictions is useful in the following ways:  Transforming Raw Data to Useful Piece of Information

By Modupe Gbadeyanka The 2018 Social Media Week (SMW), Lagos, scheduled to take place from February 26 through to March 2, 2018 has received the huge backing of First Bank of Nigeria Limited. The programme, which is Africa’s largest tech and digital media event, takes place at the Landmark Event Centre, Victoria Island, Lagos. The Social Media Week is a platform where business leaders, global thinkers, entrepreneurs, Fintech firms, and media entrepreneurs converge to brainstorm. To make it bigger and better, First Bank is sponsoring the event for the third time to facilitate the evolution of technology in Africa with

By Adedapo Adesanya The Chinese e-commerce company, Alibaba, has announced plans to split its company into six business groups as part of efforts to raise funding and also push for an initial public offering (IPO). In an announcement on Tuesday, the Chinese e-commerce giant said that each business group will be managed by its own CEO and board of directors. Alibaba said in a statement that the move is “designed to unlock shareholder value and foster market competitiveness.” The move comes after a tough couple of years for Alibaba, which has faced slowing economic growth at home and tougher regulation

By Dipo Olowookere The suspension earlier placed on the trading in the shares of RT Briscoe Nigeria Plc has been lifted by the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE). The embargo, which was removed on Friday, now enables stocks of the company to be traded on the floor of the exchange. The hammer was initially slammed on the auto firm earlier this month because the company, along with five others, failed to submit its financial statements to the NSE as required. The five others suspended by the exchange were FTN Cocoa Processors, Medview Airline, Niger Insurance, Union Dicon and Capital Oil. After

By Ahmed Rahma The Dutch brewing giant, Heineken, has declared that it would reduce its workforce worldwide by 8,000 as sales dropped due to the global pandemic caused b COVID-19. The world’s number two brewer after Belgian-Brazilian AB InBev made the declaration to slash nearly 10 per cent of it workforce on Wednesday. Heineken had announced in October that restructuring was needed to reduce personnel costs but gave no figure for layoffs at the time. In a statement on Wednesday, the company said, “The overall restructuring programme will reduce our employee base by (about) 8,000 people. This includes cutting jobs

By Adedapo Adesanya The oil market fell by one per cent on Monday after expectations rose that the United States could ease sanctions on Venezuelan crude exports. Venezuela, a member of the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) could begin to heave a sigh of relief as government and opposition are set to return to political negotiations this week after nearly a year. This development weakened Brent crude by 1.4 per cent or $1.24 during the session to $89.65 a barrel, as the US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude dropped 1.2 per cent or $1.03 to finish at $86.66

By Dipo Olowookere It was another day in red for the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) as selloffs in highly capitalized stocks like Dangote Cement and MTN Nigeria pushed the market downward further by 0.66 percent on Thursday. The announcement of a N1 per share interim dividend by Stanbic IBTC Holdings for the half year ended June 30, 2019 did nothing to push the market northwards and at the close of day, the All-Share Index (ASI) went down by 181.45 points to settle at 27,425.57 points, while the market capitalization decreased by N88.3 billion to close at N13.342 trillion. Dangote Cement

By Adedapo Adesanya Top financial service company, Visa Incorporated, has announced that it plans to acquire financial platform, Plaid, in a deal believed to worth about $5.3 billion. The acquisition will see Visa become the owners of Plaid, a network that is used to securely connect financial accounts used to manage its financial lives. Already, both parties have signed a definitive agreement. Speaking on the acquisition of the service, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and chairman of Visa, Mr Al Kelly, stated that, “We are extremely excited about our acquisition of Plaid and how it enhances the growth trajectory of our

By Sodeinde Temidayo David Professional and consultancy service firm, PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) has called for Nigeria to publicize, embrace and enhance the initiative of Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) to the development of the country. This is coming after expanding the initiative of ESG services to help clients deal with growing demands for sustainability and climate risk reporting and assurance on their disclosures. This was made known by the partner and head of sustainability services of PwC Nigeria, Ms Rukaiya El-Rufai, at a virtual workshop for journalists organized by the firm. The ESG is a set of environmental, social and governance