Rebranding of agencies, transformation of federations, new athlete dynamics and the rise of outdoor sports: sport continues to reinvent itself at all levels. From LEVELED to Sport Vitalité, including the arrival of Mathieu Blanchard at Kiprun and AXA’s commitment to women’s rugby, an overview of the 5 major news stories of the week.
Com’over changes name
The French agency Com’Over announces its rebranding and becomes LEVELEDmarking a strategic transformation after 15 years of activity in sports, culture and entertainment. This change goes beyond the simple name: it reflects an evolution towards a more integrated, ambitious and “360°” oriented agency, capable of designing and executing high-impact experiences.
This repositioning is part of the merger with North Communication, strengthening expertise in influence and media relations. LEVELED thus affirms a new vision centered on the elevation of ideas, brands and experiences, while retaining its DNA based on passion.
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Mathieu Blanchard arrives at Kiprun
L’ultra-traileur Mathieu Blanchard joined Kiprun as part of a partnership that goes beyond traditional sponsorship. The athlete positions himself not only as an ambassador, but as a co-actor in product development, in line with his engineering profile and the requirements of long-distance trail running.
This choice reflects a career evolution: after nearly ten years at the highest level, Blanchard wishes to broaden his impact beyond sporting performance to leave a lasting imprint.
For Kiprun, this collaboration is part of a strategy of moving upmarket and strengthening its credibility in technical segments. The integration of an athlete involved in the design aims to accelerate the link between field use and product innovation.
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The FFEPGV changes its name
The French Federation of Physical Education and Voluntary Gymnastics (FFEPGV) officially changed its name in March 2026 to become the French Sports Federation Vitality.
This rebranding, adopted by nearly 88% by the clubs, aims to better reflect the mission of the federation: to promote accessible physical activity, focused on well-being, health and pleasure rather than performance.
The new name, more modern and explicit, should also make it possible to broaden the audience and strengthen the attractiveness of the network, while remaining faithful to its historical values of sport for all and daily vitality.
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1 in 2 French people guided by the outdoors when choosing their vacation
Nearly one in two French people (46%) now include outdoor activities in their choice of destination, according to an Ifop study for Airbnb. Outdoor sport no longer constitutes a simple complement to your stay: it becomes a real travel trigger.
This shift is already reflected in behavior: 30% of French people say they have chosen a destination specifically to practice an outdoor activity, with an over-representation of the younger generations (59% among Gen Z).
Despite a still moderate budget (€98 on average), the impact is structuring: outdoor activities redefine the criteria for the attractiveness of territories and promote more experiential stays, often oriented towards alternative accommodation.
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Women’s rugby supported by AXA
AXA France, accompanied by Publicis Conseil, is deploying a major campaign in favor of women’s rugby, with a manifesto film broadcast during the Six Nations Tournament. Designed as a lever for transformation, this media system highlights the progression of the discipline and the persistent obstacles.
Beyond speaking out, the insurer is making a long-term commitment by supporting the entire ecosystem, from amateurs to high levels, and by launching concrete initiatives to facilitate the practice.
The campaign plays on a contrast between historical stereotypes and the current reality of women’s rugby, promoting athletes who have become role models for new generations.
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The post What do we remember from the week? first appeared on Sport Strategies.
PakarPBN
A Private Blog Network (PBN) is a collection of websites that are controlled by a single individual or organization and used primarily to build backlinks to a “money site” in order to influence its ranking in search engines such as Google. The core idea behind a PBN is based on the importance of backlinks in Google’s ranking algorithm. Since Google views backlinks as signals of authority and trust, some website owners attempt to artificially create these signals through a controlled network of sites.
In a typical PBN setup, the owner acquires expired or aged domains that already have existing authority, backlinks, and history. These domains are rebuilt with new content and hosted separately, often using different IP addresses, hosting providers, themes, and ownership details to make them appear unrelated. Within the content published on these sites, links are strategically placed that point to the main website the owner wants to rank higher. By doing this, the owner attempts to pass link equity (also known as “link juice”) from the PBN sites to the target website.
The purpose of a PBN is to give the impression that the target website is naturally earning links from multiple independent sources. If done effectively, this can temporarily improve keyword rankings, increase organic visibility, and drive more traffic from search results.
