• by Wayne Friedman , July 21, 2017

Verizon Communications’ Oath division -- which owns more than 50 digital media brands, including Yahoo, AOL, HuffPost, Tumblr Engadget and AOL -- has inked a digital media/sponsorship deal with professional cycling team owned by Slipstream Sports.

The team, which goes under the team name Cannondale-Drapac, its two major sponsors, is one of 18 UCI World Tour cycling teams competing in the Tour de France. Oath will have access to team races across the world for the 2018 season.

As part of the deal, being a media company, Oath will create and distribute exclusive video content for the team.

Jonathan Vaughters, CEO of Slipstream Sports, stated: "This partnership will allow us to open up the team in terms of content well beyond what most of the world audience sees.”

Oath says professional cycling is one of the fastest-growing sports globally. It has more than 3.5 billion cumulative global TV viewers watching the World Tour races in 190 countries. Starting January 1, Slipstream and Oath will begin sharing cycling content.

Oath will gain brand awareness through signage on team cycling clothing, vehicles and other areas. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Verizon created Oath last month, as a division for all its media brands.

Vaughters has long called for professional cycling teams to gain what other professional sports teams have around the world -- a share of TV revenues. For cycling, this would come from race organizers. He believes the share of revenue could stabilize financial conditions at cycling teams.