NYSE-listed English football club Manchester United (NYSE:MANU) has announced a digital partnership with information technology services company HCL Technologies (NSE:HCLTECH).
The two will work together to explore and unveil a number of digital initiatives to sate the demand for information from the club's estimated 659mln fans worldwide.
To kick off, HCL will create a state-of-the-art United Xperience Lab at the so-called "Theatre of Dreams", Manchester United's football stadium at Old Trafford.
"With the introduction of the United Xperience lab at Old Trafford, we hope to demonstrate best practices within the industry to generate new ideas that leverage the latest technology available in the evolving digital landscape," said Manchester United;s group managing director, Richard Arnold.
Earlier today it was revealed that Manchester United was one of the companies that had bagged one of the new top level Internet domains: .fan.
The new domain extension is powered by London-quoted firm CentralNIC (LON:CNIC), and it is being fully launched today though trademark-only registration has already been possible.
dotFans, the company that owns the rights to the .fans domain, said it had been “blown away” by the response during the initial 60 day registration period.
After an indifferent start to the season, Manchester United lies in fifth place in the English Premier League table, five points behind bitter local rivals Manchester City, after four games of the 38-game season.