BeIN Sports, the international pay-TV broadcaster, has secured exclusive rights to Premier Padel, the new worldwide tour organized by the International Padel Federation (FIP), across global 37 territories.
The agreement covers France, the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), Asia Pacific (APAC), the US, Canada, and Turkey.
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The Qatar-based broadcaster has agreed an initial one-year deal to show the 2022 season with the option of extending the deal further.
The rights in the US and Canada only include the inaugural Qatar Major, which gets underway today (March 28), while the entire debut campaign will be shown in the other territories.
In MENA, BeIN will air Premier Padel in Algeria, Bahrain, Chad, Djibouti, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco, Oman, Palestine, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, Syria, Tunisia, UAE, and Yemen.
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In the APAC region, the pay-TV operator will show the new tour in Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand, and Brunei.
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By GlobalDataIn addition to BeIN, Premier Padel has also landed new media rights deals with Viaplay, the streaming platform run by European media giant Nordic Entertainment Group (NENT), in 10 European markets, pay-TV broadcaster Charlton TV in Israel, and SuperSport in 54 countries across Sub-Saharan Africa.
Viaplay will stream the 2022 campaign across Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Finland, Iceland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, and the Netherlands.
Charlton TV’s two-year agreement covers the 2022 and 2023 seasons, while SuperSport will only show the Qatar Major.
Last week, Sky, the pan-European broadcasting giant, secured Premier Padel rights in the UK, Ireland, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, and Italy.
Earlier this month, meanwhile, ESPN secured a major set of Premier Padel rights, in a four-year arrangement covering close to 50 countries across South America, Central America, Mexico, and the Caribbean.
The organizers claim the new padel tour’s inaugural event in Qatar today will be seen in over 120 territories around the world.
The new competition was launched at the start of February with the backing of QSI and of the Professional Players Association (PPA) as a rival to the World Padel Tour (WPT), with the Premier Padel name and brand identity unveiled earlier this month.
The tour will feature at least 10 events in both 2022 and 2023, with the number of tournaments to ramp up to over 25 a year by 2024.
This year, there will be four ‘category 1’ events, with QSI and the FIP announcing that the three other category 1 events after Qatar will be revealed shortly with “significant interest” from cities across Europe and worldwide in hosting them.
Through their strategic partnership, the FIP and QSI have said they will form a new venture focused on key areas including the international organization of the tour, a new commercial business model (overhauling media, digital, and sponsorship rights revenues), a new global brand for the sport and its tours; sports infrastructure and prize money, and “revolutionizing the long-term commercial success and visibility of the game”.
The FIP has claimed this will be “the only official tour in the sport of paddle” – replacing the WPT – and “the only official tour under the governance and regulation of FIP.”
Not all has gone swimmingly with the launch of the new tour, however.
The WPT has reacted by trying to prevent its athletes from competing in other competitions, such as the new QSI-backed tour, threatening fines of up to €12.5 million ($14 million) for its players.
The PPA responded by stating that the potential fine “does not correspond to the values of sport” and added that it “will continue to work so that professional players can exercise their activity freely.”
The players association has already filed a lawsuit with the European Commission against the professional circuit.
