Eleven Sports, the international sports subscription broadcaster, has today announced that it has secured streaming rights to the EuroLeague, basketball’s elite European clubs competition, in Italy until the end of the 2024-25 season.
The rights agreement struck with organiser Euroleague Basketball also includes the second-tier EuroCup.
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Eleven will serve as the OTT platform broadcaster of the competitions in Italy from the upcoming season and show more than 500 fixtures.
The Euroleague campaign begins on 30 September, while the EuroCup starts on 19 October.
Eleven will share streaming rights in Italy with Sky Italia after the pay-TV operator recently acquired exclusive linear rights and non-exclusive digital rights for the competitions for the same four-year period.
Euroleague Basketball said it has achieved “solid and continuous growth” in Italy in recent years, with fan interest increasing 36 per cent and TV audience growing 390 per cent over the last three seasons.
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By GlobalDataAlex Ferrer Kristjansson, Euroleague Basketball marketing and communication senior director, said: “We are very proud to welcome Eleven Sports to the Euroleague Basketball broadcasters family, widening the options for our Italian fans to watch all our games.
“Italy, a traditional basketball market, has experienced renewed interest in our sport over the last years, and it is our intention to bring our games as close as possible to all our fans.”
Giovanni Zurleni, delegate administrator of Eleven Sports Italy, added: “We are very proud of broadcasting these two top competitions and this is a demonstration of the growth of Eleven while becoming a big media destination for both local and international sports.
“We have a big focus on premium rights, maintaining an important space for lower-level championships. We want to involve, satisfy and entertain all the fans on a global sports community.”
The EuroLeague features one Italian team in AX Armani Exchange Milan, while the EuroCup has three with Dolomiti Energia Trento, Umana Reyer Venice and Virtus Segafredo Bologna.
Meanwhile, TV3 Group, the prominent media company in the Baltic states owned by Providence Equity Partners, has agreed a rights deal in the region with the ACB, the organiser of the top Spanish basketball league.
Under an exclusive multi-year agreement, TV3 will broadcast all ACB competitions, including the top-flight Liga Endesa, the Copa del Rey, the knockout clubs competition and the Supercopa, in Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia.
Coverage will be shown on the linear TV3 Sport Open channel, as well as its Go3 OTT platform.
Additionally, local commentaries will be provided, as well as shoulder programming.
The ACB deal adds to TV3‘s basketball portfolio which already includes North America’s NBA, the EuroLeague and EuroCup, Basketball Champions League, and FIBA national team competitions.
Just yesterday, the ACB signed an exclusive rights deal with FuboTV, the over-the-top live television and sporting streaming service, in the US for the next two seasons.
In recent weeks, it has also renewed deals with pay-TV broadcasters Sportklub, D-Smart and Charlton in Poland, Turkey and Israel, respectively.
In other ACB developments, social media giant Facebook has acquired rights to the Supercopa in 52 countries across Central and Sub-saharan Africa.
The broadcasts will be carried out simultaneously both from the ACB’s official Facebook page and Facebook’s sports page.
The social network will provide live coverage of all three games – the two semi-finals and the final.
The 52 countries include Angola, Cameroon, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Guinea, Kenya, Mali, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, South Africa, and Zimbabwe.
The 2021-2022 ACB season will feature 18 players of African descent.
