Henkel is the new sponsor of the M-Tel Beach Masters in Bulgaria. With Henkel, the young tournament, which only takes place for the second time this year, has an experienced sponsor supporting the event. Henkel has been sponsoring Beach Volleyball Grand Slam tournaments in Paris, France and Klagenfurt, Austria, for many years. The tremendous success of Henkel’s involvement in these two events was the main reason underlying the company’s decision to extend its sponsoring to the M-Tel Beach Masters in Bulgaria in 2008. The M-Tel Beach Masters competition commenced on May 23rd, and will continue in five different Bulgarian cities until September 7, 2008. The initial tournament from May 23-25, 2008 in Plovdiv was already a major success.

Düsseldorf, Germany – The M-Tel Beach Masters is a relatively new tournament which took place for the very first time in 2007. Following the successful launch of this event, the series of tournaments will continue in Bulgaria in 2008. For the first time, Henkel, the international producer of brand name consumer goods, will serve as the tournament’s sponsor this year. Accordingly, the Düsseldorf-based company is further expanding its sponsoring activities in the increasingly popular and trendy sport of beach volleyball. For the past few years, Henkel has already been supporting Beach Volleyball Grand Slam competitions in Klagenfurt, Austria and at the foot of the Eiffel Tower in France’s capital city of Paris. Last year, more than 250,000 fans attended these two top-notch events. The ties established to professional beach volleyball provides the manufacturer of brand name consumer products headquartered in Düsseldorf with the opportunity to exploit a national sporting event with broad-based appeal, in line with its sponsoring strategy. This is designed to increase awareness of Henkel as an umbrella brand, and simultaneously to further expand Henkel’s presence on the Bulgarian market. 

The first M-Tel Beach Masters tournament took place from May 23-25, 2008 in Plovdiv. The other four competitions will be held in Slantschev Brjag, Varna, Sozopol and Sofia. A total of 12 men and 12 women, the best players in Bulgaria, will participate in the finals on September 6-7, 2008, competing for 60,000 euros in tournament prize money.

Tournament schedule:

June 27-29, 2008: Slantschev Brjag
July 24-27, 2008:  Varna
August 8-10, 2008: Sozopol
September 5-7, 2008: Sofia

Beach volleyball, which attained the status of an Olympic sport in 1996, started as a recreational pastime on beaches. Since the 1980s, this “game played on sand“ has emerged as a highly popular sporting event, which appeals to a large audience today. Moreover, beach volleyball is considered to be a fair and “clean” sport, which has not been plagued by scandals or doping cases up until now. In addition to the playing surface, the main difference to indoor volleyball is the number of players on the team. In beach volleyball, each team consists of two players, not six as is the case with its indoor counterpart.

Henkel has been sponsoring national and international sports events for many years. Besides the Beach Volleyball Grand Slam tournaments in Paris and Klagenfurt, Henkel has also been involved with the Ice Hockey World Championship in Canada and the World Handball Championship in Germany last year.