Multi-national technology company Amazon will step in as a new sponsor for Jumbo-Visma.
The news was first reported by Dutch marketer Chris Woerts on the television show Vandaag Inside and supported by a source speaking to Escape Collective.
UPDATE September 29: Sources indicated to Escape Collective on Friday morning that the €15 million figure cited by Woerts is in fact for media value, and that Amazon is not a title or co-sponsor. Jumbo-Visma has not yet responded to our request for comment and clarification on this story.
This would of course keep the potential merger between Soudal-Quick-Step and Jumbo-Visma as a viable option. We have a more detailed story on this coming soon.
Amazon is one of the world’s largest companies and operates in e-commerce, cloud computing, online advertising, digital streaming, and artificial intelligence. The company is so enormous and globally dominant that we definitely did not need that previous sentence.
Amazon is expected to put in approximately €15 million, according to Woerts, helping to fill a budget gap of roughly €25 million left by the departure of grocery chain Jumbo. Another €7 million could come from the sale of Primož Roglič’s contract.
A Jumbo-Visma representative has not yet returned a request for comment.
Wielerflits reports that the new sponsor will apply to the entity born out of a merger between Patrick Lefevere’s Soudal-Quick-Step team and Jumbo-Visma, and that Amazon will not be a title sponsor, but rather a co-sponsor.
The team has worked with Amazon’s streaming division in the past, producing a documentary with them last year.
This story is developing, check back for more.
Jonny Long and Kate Wagner contributed reporting to this story.
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