Olympia-Verlag

Annick Cochard to Lead Ringier Sports Sales

Ringier Advertising has created a new Head of Sports Sales & Strategic Partnerships role and appointed Annick Cochard to lead the company's sports monetization, strategic partnerships and cross-department projects for Ringier Medien Schweiz. Chiara Rusch will take over Cochard's previous team responsibilities for Food, Mobility and Travel while continuing as Head of Sales International. Cochard has been with Ringier Advertising since 2021 and previously led the Blick sales team from August 2023. The sports portfolio noted for further development includes brands such as Blick, kicker, sport.ch, blue News and DAZN. Thomas Passen, Managing Director of Ringier Advertising, commented on the appointments.

kicker Ventures takes stake in CoTrainer

kicker Ventures, the investment arm of the Nürnberg-based sports media house (Olympia-Verlag), has taken a 7.8% stake in sports-tech start-up CoTrainer via a cash-and-media investment, announced 29 July 2026. The deal combines capital with promotional support: CoTrainer will be promoted across the kicker channels as part of a media-for-equity arrangement. CoTrainer provides a B2B platform for amateur football clubs that centralizes club organization, training planning and player development. The start-up closed a seed round in June that included football professionals Maximilian Arnold and Svenja Huth as investors. kicker frames the move as a strategic effort to strengthen amateur football and deepen the media brand’s reach into relevant target audiences.

World Cup Drives Kicker to Record Traffic

The 2026 FIFA World Cup produced record digital traffic and subscription activity for the German sports publisher kicker. According to Olympia-Verlag, kicker recorded more than 3 billion page views and 450 million visits during the tournament — the highest figures for any sporting event in its history. In June 2026 kicker also set a monthly record with over 321 million visits and more than 125 million video views. Editorial Director Tobias Goldbrunner highlighted strong user demand for video content and said kicker will expand its video offerings. CEO Bärbel Schnell credited the publisher’s monetization strategy and cited the successful cooperative campaign with Magenta (Telekom). The tournament also drove higher and longer-lasting traffic peaks and a spike in subscriptions in June 2026.