Business
Walmart teams up with Spain’s La Liga, furthering the retailer’s investment in soccer
Real Madrid’s Spanish defender #20 Francisco Garcia fights for the ball with Barcelona’s Spanish forward #19 Lamine Yamal during the Spanish league football match between FC Barcelona and Real Madrid CF at Estadi Olimpic Lluis Companys in Barcelona, on May 11, 2025.
Lluis Gene | Afp | Getty Images
Walmart is bringing its brand to the biggest match in soccer.
The nation’s largest retailer plans to announce Thursday a partnership with Spanish soccer league La Liga as it looks to expand its foothold in soccer and capitalize on its growing fandom in the U.S.
Under the partnership, Walmart will become the first presenting partner of La Liga’s “El Clásico,” a rivalry matchup between its two powerhouse teams: FC Barcelona and Real Madrid CF.
“Teaming up with La Liga and El Clásico enables Walmart to fuel the energy create unforgettable experiences and give fans more ways to celebrate the game that they love,” Walmart Chief Marketing Officer William White told CNBC in an interview. “Ultimately, Walmart is looking to make it easier for fans to engage and participate in the game.”
The partnership will include a new logo featuring Walmart as the presenting partner for the rivalry matchup, which will be used across the U.S. and Canada and debut this season.
The rivalry game dates back to 1929 and has routinely attracted 650 million viewers across more than 180 countries, according to Walmart and La Liga.
The first El Clásico, which translates to “the classic” in Spanish, of the 2025-26 season is scheduled for Oct. 26 in Madrid, with the second match on May 10 in Barcelona.
Walmart and La Liga will launch the partnership ahead of the first match-up with a full weekend of fan events in Houston starting Oct. 24. The partnership will include large-scale viewing parties, concerts, meet-and-greets with former stars, co-branded merchandise and retail promotions.
“The U.S. is the top market for the league [La Liga] in terms of audience and business outside of Spain,” said Boris Gartner, partner and president at Relevant Sports, which together with La Liga formed the 50-50 venture La Liga North America to represent the Spanish league in the U.S., Canada, Mexico and Central America.
La Liga North America manages the league’s media rights and commercial agreements.
“This is not just about slapping two logos side by side. This is a true partnership with what we’re building,” Gartner said.
Spanish powerhouse clubs Real Madrid and Barcelona have been home to some of the biggest global names in soccer — including superstar Lionel Messi, who played for Barcelona until 2021 and now plays for Major League Soccer’s Inter Miami, and more recently the young French star Kylian Mbappe, who joined Real Madrid.
In the U.S., Disney’s ESPN airs La Liga games on its streaming platforms and TV networks. The company said in August the 2024-2025 season was its most successful for the league on ESPN platforms yet, with 5.4 billion minutes viewed across its networks and streaming services.
The Spanish league’s multi-year deal with Walmart is meant to build on this growing audience for La Liga soccer in the U.S., as well as the growing soccer fanbase ahead of the 2026 World Cup, which will take place across the U.S., Mexico and Canada.
“We came in knowing that the World Cup was happening in 2026 and that the sport was growing significantly in in the U.S., and that we needed to be part of that growth not just from a business perspective for the league in the large media market in the world, but also with the opportunity to help fuel the growth of the sport,” Gartner said.
In July, Walmart struck a multi-year deal with MLS to become an official sponsor and partner of the league. As of early May, MLS sponsorship revenue was up double-digits compared with 2024, CNBC reported earlier this year. Likewise, the U.S. soccer fanbase has surged, particularly since Messi joined the MLS ranks in 2023.
Paul SeddonPolitical reporter
Rachel Reeves has suggested she favours removing limits on benefits linked to family size at this month’s Budget.
The chancellor told the BBC it was not right that children in bigger families were “penalised” through “no fault of their own”.
The comments are a sign she could remove the two-child limit on working-age benefits introduced under the Conservatives in 2017.
Some Labour MPs have been calling for a full reversal of the policy, amid reports she was considering paring back payments after two children instead.
In September, the Guardian reported that Treasury officials were considering a tapered approach, under which parents would receive most benefits for their first child and less for subsequent children.
Other options under consideration included limiting additional benefits to three or four children, the newspaper reported.
But speaking to Matt Chorley on BBC Radio 5 Live, Reeves suggested she did not want to see benefits limited according to family size.
“I don’t think that it’s right that a child is penalised because they are in a bigger family, through no fault of their own,” she added.
“And so we will take action on child poverty. The last Labour government proudly reduced child poverty, and we will reduce child poverty as well.”
She added there were “plenty of reasons why” parents who decided to have three or four children could see their financial circumstances change.
Manifesto pledges
Elsewhere in her interview, she all but confirmed the government plans to break Labour’s manifesto pledge at last year’s general election not to raise income tax rates, VAT or National Insurance.
“It would of course be possible to stick with the manifesto commitments. But that would require things like deep cuts in capital spending,” she added.
“What I can promise now is I will always do what I think is right for our country. Not the politically easy choice, but the things that I think are necessary to put our country on the right path,” she added.
Labour’s 2024 election manifesto pledged not to raise the basic, higher, or additional rates of income tax, or National Insurance – prompting a row last autumn when Reeves announced a hike in the contributions paid by employers.
It also promised not to raise Value Added Tax (VAT), a sales tax, although the manifesto did not specify whether this applied to the rates, or which products are subject to the charge.
The chancellor has not ruled out continuing to freeze income tax thresholds beyond the 2028 date fixed by the last government, allowing more people to be dragged into higher bands as their wages rise over time.
Pressed on whether she could have avoided tax hikes through lower public spending, she said she was “not going to apologise” for increased funding for the NHS, adding that reducing waiting lists was one of her three Budget priorities.
She also claimed that some of the spending she unveiled at June’s spending review had been pencilled in, but not properly funded, by the Tories.
‘Same choices’
The two-child cap prevents households on universal or child tax credit from receiving payments for a third or subsequent child born after April 2017.
This is different to child benefit, which is paid to families where the highest-earning parent earns less than £80,000.
Separately, there is also an overall cap on the amount of benefits working-age families can claim, which has been in place since 2013.
The Institute for Fiscal Studies think tank estimates fully reversing the two-child benefit cap could take 630,000 children out of absolute poverty, defined as households with an income below 60% median average, at a cost of £3.6bn a year.
Pressure to ditch the limit increased during the recent Labour deputy leadership contest, where successful candidate Lucy Powell and runner-up Bridget Phillipson both indicated they favoured more action on child poverty.
Reform UK is pledging to scrap the limit for working British couples if it wins power, although the Conservatives say the cap should remain in place, forcing a symbolic vote on the issue in the House of Commons in September.
Speaking after the vote, Tory leader said her party believes “those on welfare should have to make the same choices as those who aren’t,” and Labour and Reform were expecting working people to pay for “unlimited handouts”.
Business
US stocks today: Markets rise on hopes of US govt shutdown ending; Nasdaq jumps over 440 points, S&P 500 gains 1% – The Times of India
Global stock markets rose sharply on Monday as investors showed optimism amid reports that the US government shutdown could soon be resolved, after a breakthrough in the record 40-day standoff.Dow was trading up 115 points or 0.25%, reaching 47,103. Nasdaq also inched 1.95% or 448 points, to trade at 23,452 at 8:50 PM IST. S&P 500 also jumped 1% to 6,804. A group of Senate Democrats joined Republicans in a procedural vote on Sunday evening, clearing the path for a formal debate after a bipartisan deal was reached to fund government operations through January. “The more risk-on mood means it’s pretty much a sea of green on the boards,” Neil Wilson, UK Investor Strategist at Saxo told AFP. The reopening could bring much-needed clarity on US inflation and the soft labour market, both critical to the Federal Reserve’s plans for potential interest rate cuts next month. “If all goes well, some federal agencies could reopen as soon as Friday,” said David Morrison, senior analyst at Trade Nation. He noted that both investors and the Fed have been “flying blind since the beginning of October, with a near-complete absence of data.” Morrison added, “Fed Chair Jerome Powell has played down the prospect of another rate cut in December, as it is far from obvious that inflation has peaked.” Investor focus on Monday was dominated by the prospect of a government reopening, as concerns mounted over the impact on low-income households reliant on food benefits and potential disruptions to air travel ahead of Thanksgiving. “Shutdowns haven’t typically had a big bearing on the economy or on financial markets. But, this one… looked as though it might start to cause some trouble,” said analysts at Capital Economics. Optimism was further boosted by Pfizer’s reported $10 billion victory in the bidding war for biotech obesity specialist Metsera over the weekend. Wall Street opened higher following a week of losses sparked by worries that the AI investment boom had inflated tech valuations to unsustainable levels. European markets also climbed, mirroring gains in Asia. Tensions between the US and China eased further after Beijing announced a one-year suspension of “special port fees” on US vessels, coinciding with Washington’s pause on levies targeting Chinese ships. In currency and commodity markets, the dollar steadied against the euro and pound while rising against the yen. Oil prices gained slightly after last week’s decline amid concerns over supply and global demand uncertainties.
New Delhi: India’s job market is facing a growing credibility crisis with a sharp rise in ghost job postings — fake or inactive listings shared by companies with no real intent to hire. A recent report by The Economic Times (ET) reveals that such misleading advertisements have increased by nearly 25 percent year-on-year, frustrating millions of job seekers.
These postings are commonly found on LinkedIn, Naukri, Indeed, and even official company portals. While they appear to signal active hiring, many exist purely for employer branding, resume collection, or market analysis. Firms often use ghost listings to gauge salary trends, talent availability, or simply to project an image of business expansion despite frozen hiring budgets.
Responding to concerns over fake listings, LinkedIn said it remains committed to protecting users from fraudulent job activity.
“We’re focused on helping recruiters find quality candidates quickly and jobseekers find their next role on LinkedIn. We use advanced technology and expert teams to proactively remove more than 99 percent of fake accounts and scams before they’re ever reported. Our policies are clear that every job a recruiter posts on LinkedIn should be authentic and accurately represented, and all listings on LinkedIn are automatically closed after 6 months,” the company said in a statement.
Despite such safeguards, ET’s report suggests that one in five online job ads could still be inactive or misleading, particularly in IT, retail, construction, and manufacturing sectors. Only about 20 percent of these listings ever result in an actual interview or offer.
Experts advise candidates to verify listings on official company websites, check posting dates, and connect with employees or HR representatives before applying. Ghost job postings, though convenient for short-term corporate branding, erode long-term trust. Strengthening transparency and authenticity in hiring will be crucial to restoring faith in India’s digital job market.
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