World Rugby chairman Bill Beaumont hailed rugby sevens successful introduction to the Olympics as a potential game-changer for the sports global popularity.The games abbreviated version was a smash hit in Rio as Fiji won their first ever Olympic medal by claiming the mens title and Australia won the womens competition.Research for World Rugby, the games governing body, has revealed the first Olympic rugby tournament since 1924 attracted nearly 17 million new fans in six core markets.Speaking to the Press Association at World Rugbys annual conference in London, Beaumont said: The Olympic tournament was a phenomenal success and we are already seeing the results at grass-roots.The key now is to build on the increased interest in our sport and well be spending 20 percent more on developing the game in the next four-year cycle -- sevens will be a massive part of that.Sevens can be a great introduction to 15-a-side rugby, and fifteens can be a great way into sevens, but we know sevens is the ideal vehicle to grow the game.The former England captain said his next challenge will be to make sure rugby sevens maintains its Olympic status, as it was introduced -- along with golf -- on a two-Games basis in 2009.Beaumont met senior International Olympic Committee staff in Japan last month when he was visiting the hosts of the next Rugby World Cup in 2019 and the next Summer Olympics a year later.A decision on whether to add rugby sevens to the core programme will be made by the IOC in Peru next September, with Beaumont confident that the IOC will approve the permanent addition of two 12-team tournaments for 2024 and beyond.We are not presumptuous about our place in the schedule at all but I think we delivered a great event in Rio, the 64-year-old Englishman said.Whenever I met an IOC member in a hotel restaurant or lift during the first week in Rio they would quickly look down at my accreditation to see who I was and usually say nothing. But after Fiji won, well, everybody wanted to congratulate me on the amazing tournament.World Rugbys Rio impact research was conducted by Nielsen Sports in Australia, France, Germany, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States, and was based on online surveys before and after the Games.It found that Olympic status had grown the sports reach, particularly with women and the 18-24 age group. It also found that rugby outperformed other sports on the Olympic programme in terms of growth in interest after Rio 2016, with an average increase of 10 percent.In terms of the television, nearly four in 10 18-24s in the UK watched as Great Britains men claimed a silver medal and the women lost the bronze medal match in Rio, while World Rugbys social media fan-base grew by 670,000 during 2016. Jamie Benn Stars Jersey . Ibaka equaled a career high with 20 rebounds, adding four blocked shots and 15 points as the Thunder smothered the Milwaukee Bucks offence in a 92-79 victory Saturday night. 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Now, with Game 6 set for Fenway Park and an 8:07 p.m. ET first pitch, the Detroit Tigers face the unenviable task of having to beat the Boston Red Sox twice, on the road, to advance to the World Series. div .games-story2 li { list-style-type:disc; list-style-position:inside; }NO PURCHASE NECESSARY. VOID WHERE PROHIBITED BY LAW. THE FOLLOWING PROMOTION IS INTENDED FOR VIEWING IN THE UNITED STATES AND THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA ONLY (EXCLUDING PUERTO RICO, OTHER U.S. TERRITORIES AND FOREIGN TERRITORIES) AND SHALL BE CONSTRUED AND EVALUATED ACCORDING TO UNITED STATES LAW. DO NOT PROCEED WITH THIS PROMOTION IF YOU ARE NOT LOCATED IN THE UNITED STATES OR THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA.1. ELIGIBILITY: Eliminator Challenge (the Promotion) is open to legal residents of the 50 United States and the District of Columbia (EXCLUDING PUERTO RICO, OTHER UNITED STATES TERRITORIES, AND FOREIGN TERRITORIES), who are thirteen (13) years or older as of the date of entry, and are registered members of ESPN.com. (Registration is further described below in Section 4.) The following are not eligible for the Promotion: (i) employees and agents of Sponsor and Promoter and their respective parent, subsidiary and affiliated companies, and each of their respective advertising/promotion agencies; and (ii) the immediate family members and/or household members of any of the persons set forth in (i) above. Immediate family members shall mean parents, step-parents, children, step-children, siblings or spouses. Household members shall mean people who share the same residence at least three (3) months a year. Participation in the Promotion constitutes Entrants full and unconditional agreement to these Official Rules and to Sponsors decisions. The decisions of the Sponsor regarding all matters relating to the Promotion are final and binding. Winning a prize is contingent upon fulfilling all requirements set forth herein. From all eligible entries received, the winners will be determined based on their ability to accumulate the most points in this Promotion. This Promotion is void in all U.S. Territories, (e.g., Puerto Rico and Guam) and where prohibited or restricted by law and subject to all applicable federal, state, local and municipal laws and regulations.2. SPONSOR; PROMOTERS. This Promotion is sponsored by ESPN Internet Ventures (the Sponsor). Any advertisers associated with the Promotion shall be deemed a Promoter for purposes of these Official Rules.3. ENTRY PAGE. To access and/or enter the Promotion, log-on to the Eliminator Challenge Frontpage during the Promotion Period and complete your entry by clicking on the Create Entry button.4. ESPN.COM REGISTRATION. To enter the Promotion, you must be a registered member of ESPN.com (or one of Sponsors affiliated websites, e.g., ABC.com, ABCNews.com, DisneyOnline.com and Family.com). Registration is free.a. Not yet a Member. You may register by clicking on the applicable link on the entry page for the Promotion, and following the instructions. You will be asked to provide your e-mail address, name, birth date, gender, country of residence (collectively User Information) and to select a username and password. You will also be asked if you wish to receive promotional emails or offers. You do not need to consent to receive these emails or offers in order to become a member. Even if you consent, you may subsequently opt-out of receiving such emails or offers by clicking on the myESPN link on any ESPN.com Fantasy Game page, then clicking on the Newsletters link and following the instructions.b. Already a Member. If you are already a member (or if you are a member of one of the Sponsors affiliated websites), then you do not need to register again. You may enter the Promotion by logging in on ESPN.com with your current username and password.c. Survey Questions or Promotional Email. You may be asked to answer survey questions or to consent to receive promotional emails or offers. This is optional. You are not required to answer questions or to give consent to receive such emails or offers in order to be eligible to play in the Promotion.d. Password. You are responsible for the secrecy of your password. Sponsor, Promoters and other third parties are not responsible or liable for any actions taken using your password.5. TIMING. Registration for the Promotion begins on Thursday, August 18, 2016 at 3:00pm Eastern Time. The Promotion begins on Thursday, September 8, 2016 and ends on Sunday, January 1, 2017 at 7:59pm (or upon the completion of the last game from that day) (the Promotion Period). For purposes of these official rules (the Official Rules) all times are Eastern Time (ET).6. HOW TO PLAY.a. General. The objective of the Promotion is to correctly select a Winning Pick for one U.S. professional football game each week during the Promotion Period. Each week, an entrant must select one team which he/she believes will be the winner of a scheduled U.S. professional football game being played that week. If, during the first week of the U.S. professional football season, the entrant makes a correct selection (i.e. the team selected does win its game), entrant will be credited with a Winning Pick and will remain in the pool of potential winners. If an entrants pick for that week loses its game, or entrant fails to make a valid selection for a given week, entrant will be credited with a Losing Pick and will no longer be eligible for a prize unless all remaining entrants make Losing Picks in the same week. Entrants will not be able to select any team more than once throughout the Promotion Period. The last remaining eligible entrant, once verified, will be Grand Prize Winner. If more than one entrant goes through the entire U.S. professional football regular season (currently scheduled for seventeen (17) weeks) without making a Losing Pick, or if all remaining entrants make Losing Picks in the same week, a Tiebreaker will be used to determine the Grand Prize Winner and the Second Prize Winner. If there is only one entrant that completes the Promotion without being credited with a Losing Pick AND does not win the Grand Prize because of the Tiebreaker, then that entrant, if eligible, will be the Second Prize Winner. b. Selections. You may enter your selections online by following the instructions in the How to Play section of the game. c. Scoring. You receive one (1) point for each correct winning pick on a valid entry. You do not receive or lose points for incorrect picks. You accumulate points from the date of your first winning pick. You may begin playing after the start of the Promotion but you will not receive any points for the football games you have missed. In the event a scheduled professional football game listed does not occur as scheduled (e.g., a game is cancelled) no points will be awarded. Ties will be broken in accordance with the tie-breaker procedure below.d. Lock-time. The kick-off of the first U.S. professional football game is currently scheduled for 8:30 PM ET on Thursday, September 8, 2016. The kick-off for the last game of the first week of the U.S. professional football season is currently scheduled for 10:20 PM ET on Monday, September 12, 2016. Making a selection before the first game of a given week increases the number of teams available for selection. Entry selections will lock at the scheduled kick-off of each regularly scheduled U.S. professional football game. Entrants must make sure their picks are submitted by the scheduled locktime each week. You will not be able to make selections for games that have already locked. Selections submitted after the deadline are considered invalid, and will not be counted as Winning Picks. Entrants who submit selections after the lock time or do not submit an entry for the week will be credited with a Losing Pick.e. Tie Games. In the event a game should end in a tie after overtime, and is declared a tie by U.S. professional football officials, entrants that had selected teams in the game as their picks for that week in the Promotion will neither be recorded with a Winning Pick or a Losing Pick. All active streaks will continue to the next week.f. Tiebreaker. Entrants participate in the Promotion until an entry outlasts all other entries or the U.S. professional football regular season comes to an end. At the end of the U.S. professional football regular season, if there is more than one eligible entry remaining or if all remaining entries are eliminated in the same week, a tiebreaker will be used to determine the Grand Prize Winner and Second Place Winner.OVERALL TIEBREAKERS: (Entrants will be eliminated at each step, until a winner is determined)Tiebreaker #1 - The entrant who has made the most Winning Picks among the remaining entries will be considered the winner.Tiebreaker #2 - The entrant whose Winning Picks have the largest aggregate total score difference over the course of the season.For example: Week 1: Win 45-14 (31pts) Week 2: Win 31-10 (21) Week 3: Win 17-14 (3) The aggregate total would be 31+21+3 = 55 points. Tiebreaker #3 - The entrant whose date of entry creation was recorded in the system the earliest. Tiebreaker #4 - Random drawing of all remaining entries.7. ENTRY. There is no entry fee required to participate in the Promotion. ONE (1) ENTRY PER PERSON PER UNIQUE ESPN.COM USER ACCOUNT (REGARDLESS OF THE NUMBER OF EMAIL ADDRESSES OR REGISTERED MEMBER ACCOUNTS). Only entries received online in accordance with these Official Rules will be accepted. No other forms of entry - fax, mail, email, phone or other - will be accepted. Entry materials/data that have been tampered with or altered are void. Winners will be determined on or about Monday, January 2, 2017.8. PRIZES. The approximate retail value (ARV) of all prizes is $5,000.00.Sponsor will award one (1) Grand Prize and one (1) 2nd Place Prize. Odds of winning prizes depend on the total number of eligible entries received. Sponsor will also award ten (10) Random Drawing prizes.a. Overal Prizes: One (1) Grand Prize - $3,000 Amazon.com gift card (ARV $3,000.00). One (1) 2nd Place Prize - $1,000 Amazon.com gift card (ARV $1,000.00)Total ARV for Overall Prizes: $4,000.00b. Random Drawing Prizes: Ten (10) $100 Amazon.com gift cards (ARV $1,000.00). At the end of the Promotion period, a drawing will take place to select ten (10) randomly drawn winners. Each point accumulated throughout the Promotion Period counts as one (1) chance in the random drawing. For example, if you receive 10 points you will have 10 chances to win in the random drawing. The random drawing will take place on or about Monday, January 2, 2017.Total ARV for Random Drawing Prizes: $1,000.00c. Prize Restrictions: If a winner is a minor in his/her jurisdiction of primary residence, winners parent/legal guardian must execute all documents and agree to all obligations and undertakings required of the potential winner in these Official Rules, both on behalf of himself/herself and the winning minor. Prize may be awarded in the name of, or to, parent/legal guardian. Winning a prize is contingent upon fulfilling all requirements set forth herein. Winners are solely responsible for any and all expenses, relative to participation in the Promotion (including accepttance of any prize) not specified herein.dddddddddddd No cash or other prize substitution, assignment or transfer of prizes permitted, except at Sponsors sole discretion due to prize unavailability. Sponsor reserves the right to substitute a prize with one of comparable value or greater value (e.g., Sponsor may opt instead to award the cash equivalent of any prize in lieu of the prize itself). THE WINNER IS SOLELY RESPONSIBLE FOR ALL FEDERAL, STATE AND LOCAL TAXES ASSOCIATED WITH THE RECEIPT OR USE OF ANY PRIZE. Prize winners should allow up to 6-8 weeks after they return their signed, notarized affidavit to receive their prize.9. ENTRY ERRORS/ NO RETURN OF ENTRIES; DISPUTES. Neither Sponsor nor Promoters are responsible for lost, late, incomplete, damaged, stolen, invalid, unintelligible or misdirected entries, which will be disqualified. Neither Sponsor nor Promoters are responsible for any unavailability of or interruptions to any service or equipment used in connection with the Promotion, including, without limitation, (1) interruptions to any network, server, Internet, website, telephone, satellite, computer or other connections (2) failures of any telephone, satellite, hardware, software or other equipment, (3) garbled, misdirected or jumbled transmissions, or traffic congestion, or (4) other errors of any kind, whether human, technical, mechanical or electronic, or (5) the incorrect or inaccurate capture of entry or other information or the failure to capture any such information. Once submitted, entries become the sole property of Sponsor and will not be acknowledged or returned. In the event of a dispute as to any entry, the authorized account holder, i.e., natural person associated with the entry, will be deemed to be the registrant. Potential winners may be required to show proof of identification, and Sponsor may require that the potential winner provide proof that his/her identification matches the User Information associated with the winning entry (both at the time of entry and at the time of verification of a potential winner). SPONSOR RESERVES THE RIGHT TO DISQUALIFY ANY POTENTIAL WINNER IF IT DETERMINES, IN ITS SOLE DISCRETION, THAT ANY USER INFORMATION WAS CHANGED OR FALSIFIED IN ORDER TO MEET ELIGIBILITY REQUIREMENTS.10. POTENTIAL WINNERS. ALL POTENTIAL WINNING PLAYS ARE SUBJECT TO VERIFICATION BY SPONSOR, WHOSE DECISIONS ARE FINAL. SPONSOR SHALL SOLELY DETERMINE ANY FORM OF VERIFICATION. AN ENTRANT IS NOT A WINNER OF ANY PRIZE UNLESS AND UNTIL ENTRANTS ELIGIBILITY AND THE POTENTIAL WINNING ENTRY HAS BEEN VERIFIED AND ENTRANT HAS BEEN NOTIFIED THAT VERIFICATION IS COMPLETE. SPONSOR WILL NOT ACCEPT SCREEN SHOTS, AFFIDAVITS OR OTHER EVIDENCE OF WINNING IN LIEU OF ITS VALIDATION PROCESS. ANY ENTRY THAT OCCURS AFTER THE SYSTEM HAS FAILED FOR ANY REASON MAY BE DEEMED A DEFECTIVE ENTRY AND VOID.Potential winners will be notified via email (or overnight mail) sent within fifteen (15) business days following the end of the Promotion Period. It is the sole responsibility of the entrant to notify the Sponsor during the Promotion Period if his or her e-mail address has changed. To do so, click on the myESPN link on any ESPN.com page fantasy game page, then click on the Account Information link and follow the instructions. A potential winner will be disqualified and an alternate potential winner will be selected if (i) he/she does not comply with these rules (or is otherwise determined to be ineligible), (ii) he/she does not respond to the prize notice within five (5) days of its transmission (or receipt, if mailed), or if the emailed prize notice, after three (3) attempts, is returned as undeliverable, or (iii) the prize is undeliverable for any reason. If Sponsor notifies, or seeks to deliver a prize to or otherwise attempts to contact an alternate potential winner, and such alternate potential winner is subsequently disqualified then Sponsor shall use its reasonable business judgment to determine, in its sole discretion, the disposition of the prize (e.g., may choose another alternate potential winner in a manner consistent with these rules or donate the prize to another entity, at its sole discretion).11. AFFIDAVIT OF ELIGIBILITY/LIABILITY RELEASE. As a condition of receiving a prize, potential winners may be required to complete, sign and return an Affidavit of Eligibility, a Liability Release, and, except where prohibited, a Publicity Release, within fifteen (15) days of the date stated on the prize notice. Except where prohibited, participation in this Promotion constitutes winners consent to Sponsors and Promoters, and any of their respective agents use of winners name, likeness, voice, opinions and biographical information for publicity, advertising, trade or promotional purposes in any media or manner, now known or hereafter devised, worldwide, without further payment, consideration, notice or approval.12. CONDITIONS OF PARTICIPATION. Participation constitutes entrants full and unconditional agreement to these official rules and to Sponsors decisions. The decisions of the Sponsor in regards to all matters of this Promotion are final and binding. Sponsor reserves the right in its sole discretion, to modify, cancel, terminate, and/or suspend the Promotion and to disqualify any individual who tampers with the entry process, violates these Official Rules, or acts in a disruptive or unsportsmanlike manner. Without limiting the foregoing, Sponsor may lock out an entrant who, in Sponsors sole judgment, has been disqualified, has questionable eligibility or is otherwise ineligible to enter. CAUTION: A PERSON WHO ATTEMPTS DELIBERATELY TO UNDERMINE THE LEGITIMATE OPERATION OF THIS PROMOTION OR TO ALTER OR DAMAGE A WEBSITE MAY BE SUBJECT TO CIVIL AND/OR CRIMINAL PENALTIES AND FINES; AND SPONSOR RESERVES THE RIGHT TO SEEK DAMAGES FROM ANY SUCH PERSON TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW. Without limiting the foregoing, Sponsor may modify, cancel, terminate, and/or suspend the Promotion if, in the Sponsors sole opinion, an incident of any kind occurs to corrupt or impair the administration, security, integrity, fairness or play (as intended) of the Promotion, including without limitation: (a) viruses, bugs, unauthorized human intervention, fraud or technical failure; or (b) earthquake, flood, fire, storm or other natural disaster, act of God; or (c) labor controversy or threat thereof, civil disturbance or commotion, disruption of the public markets, war or armed conflict (whether or not officially declared). In the event that the U.S. professional football season is postponed, terminated early, or cancelled for any reason (such as a strike or lockout), Sponsor reserves the right to award prizes based on scores at the time the season is disrupted, or to cancel, modify or suspend the Promotion at its discretion. In the event of a cancellation or termination by the Sponsor the entrant who has accumulated the highest point total (and who wins any pending tiebreakers) at the time of any said action will be awarded the prizes, or the prizes will be awarded in such other manner deemed fair and appropriate by Sponsor.13. RELEASE AND INDEMNITY. 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DISPUTES/CHOICE OF LAW. Except where prohibited, each entrant agrees that: (1) any and all disputes, claims and causes of action arising out of or connected with this Promotion or any prize awarded shall be resolved individually, without resort to any form of class action, and exclusively by state or federal courts situated in New York county, New York state, i.e., Manhattan; (2) any and all claims, judgments and awards shall be limited to actual out-of-pocket costs incurred, but in no event attorneys fees; and (3) no punitive, incidental, special, consequential or other damages, including without limitation lost profits may be awarded (collectively, Special Damages), and (4) entrant hereby waives all rights to claim Special Damages and all rights to have such damages multiplied or increased. New York law, without reference to New Yorks choice of law rules, governs the Promotion and all aspects related thereto.17. PRIVACY. 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