ESPN Announces Sponsors for 2011 ESPY Awards

Capital One and Castrol EDGE Return as Presenting Sponsors

ESPN announces the sponsor roster for the 19th annual ESPY Awards, which will once again be presented by Capital One and Castrol EDGE. This year's event, featuring more sponsors than ever, will be hosted by Saturday Night Live's head writer and "Weekend Update" anchor Seth Meyers, who will be joined by an all-star lineup of top athletes and entertainers to celebrate the best sports stories of the past 12 months.

The 2011 ESPYs will be televised live, Wednesday, July 13, at 9 p.m. ET on ESPN/ESPNHD from Nokia Theatre L.A. LIVE in Los Angeles. Additional unique content will be available on a variety of ESPN multimedia platforms including ESPN.com, WatchESPN, ESPN Mobile, ESPN Deportes and ESPN International.

Co-presenting sponsors Capital One and Castrol EDGE will also serve as co-presenters of the nomination show and ESPY voting. Each entity supports an individual award as well - the Capital One Cup, recognizing excellence in collegiate athletics, and the Castrol EDGE "NFL Strongest Performance" award.

Returning associate sponsors include EA SPORTS, Gatorade, GMC, Hennessy, MGD64, and SuperCuts. First-time associate sponsors include Jack Daniel's Tennessee Honey, K-Swiss, HP and 20th Century Fox. Hennessy will again sponsor ESPN's Tuesday night pre-party - "Vault of Secrets" hosted by Serena Williams - and MGD64 will return as presenting sponsor of the official ESPYs Post Party. HP will present the official Social Media Lounge at the ESPY Style Studio.

In addition to on-site hospitality opportunities, sponsorship benefits include media components across many of ESPN's screens, including ESPN, ESPN2, ESPN Deportes, ESPN.com and ESPN's Mobile web site, as well as ESPN Radio and ESPN The Magazine. Sponsors also participate in the ESPY Celebrity Golf Classic benefitting the Jimmy V Foundation.

The ESPYs

The ESPYs gather top celebrities from sports and entertainment to commemorate the past year in sports by recognizing major sports achievements, reliving unforgettable moments and saluting the leading performers and performances. The 2011 ESPYs will recognize both sport-specific achievements, such as "Best MLB Player" and "Best WNBA Player," and best-in-sport winners, such as "Best Team" or "Best Female Athlete" that pit nominees from different sports against each other. The ESPYs honor ESPN's commitment to The V Foundation for Cancer Research, a partnership launched with the late Jim Valvano at the inaugural ESPYs in 1993.

Fans will determine the winners in all categories (except the Arthur Ashe Courage Award and other special awards) by voting online at http://www.espn.com/espys, ESPN Mobile Web at http://espn.mobi and at www.facebook.com/ESPN starting June 24th through July 9th. Follow the show on Twitter at @espys.

A limited amount of ESPYs tickets are available for public purchase through www.ticketmaster.com.