Sportfive, the international sports marketing agency, will continue as the exclusive distributor of international media rights to Portuguese soccer’s top-tier Primeira Liga after renewing its contract for another two years.
The new agreement, covering the 2026-27 and 2027-28 seasons, will see Sportfive sell rights to the league, known as Liga Portugal Betclic for sponsorship reasons, in “global markets outside Portugal, with only limited territorial exceptions,” with the agency tasked with increasing the value of the league’s rights and global visibility.
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Thomas Klingebiel, president of media at Sportfive, said: “This renewal represents an important milestone in our long‑term relationship with the Portuguese Football League and with Sport TV.
“Moving to a global representation model reflects both the growing international appeal of Portuguese football and the trust placed in Sportfive to maximize its value worldwide. We are proud to continue building the league’s international presence over the coming seasons.”
The sales process was handled by Sport TV, the national pay-TV operator and dominant domestic rights-holder, which is the exclusive distributor of global media rights to Primeira Liga.
The renewal builds on the pair's original two-year agreement running from the 2020-21 through 2022-23 season, which covered global sales outside of Portugal and “selected territories.” The partnership was then extended to cover the 2023-24 to 2024-25 seasons.
Nuno Ferreira Pires, chief executive of Sport TV, added: “Sport TV is very pleased to extend this successful collaboration with Sportfive.
“Over the past seasons, we have seen strong international demand for Portuguese football, and this new agreement provides a solid platform to continue growing the League’s global footprint with an experienced and trusted partner.”
The renewal comes as governing body Liga Portugal prepares to move to a centralized rights model for the Primera Liga and second-tier Liga Portugal 2 from the 2028-29 season onwards, to help eradicate some of the wealth inequality between the league's top and bottom clubs.
Rights in the Primeira Liga are marketed by individual clubs rather than centrally by the league, with SportTV having rights to 17 of the 18 sides until the end of the 2025-26 season, with the only outlier being Benfica, whose games are shown by the in-house Benfica TV and distributed by the Nos platform.
Heavyweight teams in the top division, such as Sporting Lisbon, Benfica, and Porto, currently receive vastly more for broadcast rights covering their home games than any other sides.
Benfica’s current rights and channel distribution deal with telco Nos runs for a maximum of 10 seasons, from 2016-17 to 2025-26, and is worth up to €400 million ($467.8 million), an average of €40 million per season.
After years of calls to adopt the centralized system more commonly used in rival European leagues to better redistribute wealth, the Portuguese government approved the change in February 2021.
Liga Portugal and the country's soccer federation (the FPF) are now working on establishing a new body to handle these sales.
It was reported last month that Liga Portugal is considering selling off a stake in the new commercial vehicle, with the governing body hiring the Oakvale Capital advisory and consultancy firm to advise on the sale.
Citing sources, news outlet Bloomberg said Liga Portugal plans on taking presentations from interested parties at an investor day towards the end of April. In response to the report, Oakvale confirmed it was working alongside Liga Portugal but declined to provide additional details.
