Woods to launch own sports drink brand

Gatorade said it will introduce "Gatorade Tiger" in March. Woods even picked out the flavours himself, with the drink available in a cherry blend, citrus blend and grape.

Tiger Woods will have his own brand of sports drink next year under an endorsement deal announced on Tuesday with Gatorade that marks a couple of firsts for the world's No 1 golfer, his first US deal with a beverage company and his first licensing agreement.

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Gatorade said it will introduce "Gatorade Tiger" in March, with more products to follow. Woods even picked out the flavours himself, with the drink available in a cherry blend, citrus blend and grape.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed, although Golfweek magazine reported last month it was for five years and could pay Woods as much as USD 100 million moving him closer to the USD 1 billion mark in career endorsements.

"There have been some licensing elements to things we've done," said Mark Steinberg, his agent at IMG, who cited video games produced by EA Sports as an example. "But everything he does with Gatorade is going to be creating new products. It's something Tiger and I and our licensing business has been looking at for some time."

Woods has endorsed everything from sports equipment and apparel (Nike) to financial services (Accenture) to automobiles (General Motors' Buick) to shaving products (Gillette). His first beverage deal comes after 11 years as a professional.

"We wanted to get away from a straight endorsement deal in the beverage category," Steinberg said.

Woods previously had an endorsement deal with Asahi Coffee in Japan.