AIBA signs MOU with Alibaba Sports Group, Alisports, ahead of strategic partnership initiatives

Lausanne, January 23, 2016: International Boxing Association (AIBA) announced today the signature of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Alibaba Sports Group (Alisports) to cooperate on a number of projects in order to support and enhance the development of boxing especially in the emerging countries and to increase the value of all AIBA Boxing competitions. This strategic MOU agreement brings together two highly complementary world-class entities and will establish a model for cross-border investments and cooperation between the largest online and mobile commerce company in the world and the International Boxing Association.

CK Wu, President of AIBA and Jack Ma, Founder of Alibaba Groupin the Olympic Museum of Lausanne, January 23, 2016.

AIBA, celebrating it’s 70 years in 2016, will benefit from this strategic partnership that corresponds to the vision of AIBA’s President, Dr Ching-Kuo Wu in numerous ways. "We are very proud to partner with Alisports, their proven track record and ambitions will enable AIBA to make a giant step forward in terms of digital based activities for our sport" highlighted Dr Ching-Kuo Wu. "We aim to build on their domestic successes and study a worldwide roll out of their capacities for the benefit of our National Federation members".

Established in September 2015, Alisports, mostly invested by Alibaba Group, is devoted to building a base platform for international community sports economy with digital marketing model and maximizing the value of sporting events by using digital technology to transform the entire industrial chain of the traditional sports industry. Alisports is articulated around a value chain of 5 pillars, Event staging, Venue commercialization, Sports Media Outlets, Gaming and E-commerce. Through this agreement, Alisports intends to promote boxing as part of a healthy lifestyle and encourage more people, including women, to take up regular physical activities and make sport a central part of their personal environment.

A strategic partnership across all AIBA Boxing competitions

Alisports strategy is to work closely with AIBA to pursue the development of boxing in all its forms and ensure that Boxing remains one of the most entertaining and appealing sport the world over. Mr. Zhang Dazhong, CEO of Alisports explained," The nature of sports and Internet completely matches the objectives of AIBA’s mission, referring to marketing, entertainment and fairness. We hope to further promote boxing, inspiring more people to practice this unique sport. By providing fundamental technology infrastructures and marketing reach we will help AIBA leverage the power of the internet and establish an unprecedented online presence whilst conducting commerce with hundreds of millions of consumers and other businesses."

For more information please contact:

AIBA PR & Communications Department

+41 21 321 27 77

communication@aiba.org

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