B2C e-commerce company Jingdong has become the exclusive online retail partner of the Chinese Super League (CSL), in a five-year deal, reports SportBusiness. The agreement, brokered by the CSL's marketing partner IMG, follows the arrival of Carlsberg as the league's exclusive beer partner earlier this month and continues the New York-headquartered media giant's push to capitalise on the popularity of soccer in China.

Yu Hongchen, CSL chairman and vice chairman of the Chinese Football Association (CFA), which runs the league, said: "We are delighted to be working with Jingdong again. Jingdong was an official partner of the CSL back in 2010. Now it's coming back and signed a major five-year deal with us. This shows that it has faith in the CSL and its future development.

"We will carry out more marketing initiatives with Jingdong, such as marketing CSL merchandise products on JD.com in the future." Jingdong founder and chief executive Richard Liu added: "CSL is one of the most popular sports leagues in China and we are very excited to be working with the CSL again.

"This new platform CSL provides will help us connect with our consumers and football fans. We look forward to having more innovative marketing campaigns through this partnership across the country."