Woods dropped by EA Sports

ELECTRONIC ARTS (EA) has discontinued its relationship with Tiger Woods after 15 years of partnership.

The videogames giant is the latest company to dump the superstar since his extra-marital affairs became public in 2009. Accenutre, AT&T, Gatorade and Tag Heurer have also all left the American since the scandal broke.

Woods lent his name to the Tiger Woods PGA Tour  game series which some estimate made EA more than £480 million over the years.

Woods's agent, Mark Steinberg, said: "We had an incredible run. Outside of [John] Madden, you would be hard pressed to find a sports figure that meant as much to a video game company as Tiger meant to EA. But times are changing and EA had to re-evaluate the partnership and frankly so did we."

“We've always been big fans of Tiger and we wish him continued success in all his future endeavors," said EA vice-president and general manager Daryl Holt.

EA have previsouly stood by the American although they did begin to put other stars on the cover such as Rory McIlroy. The last game, PGA Tour 14, saw Woods share the cover with golfing legend Arnold Palmer. His first cover was in 1998 when he won his first major.

Woods now has only two sponsors in the bag compared to those he had in 2009 – Nike and plane-sharing company NetJets.  

��