The DFB, German soccer’s governing body, has appointed the experienced Lasse Eckartsberg as its new head of international media rights.
Eckartsberg, 42, will primarily be responsible for selling and distributing rights in international markets to the DFB-Pokal, German soccer’s premier cup competition, as well as to some friendly games involving the German national teams (both men’s and women’s).
His last role was as managing partner at IFCS Media GmbH between November 2019 and May 2021, while he has also previously worked at major sports agencies including Content Arena, Spring Media and Team Marketing (the agency which distributes commercial and broadcast rights for European soccer’s governing body Uefa).
In addition, he spent almost five years as head of global media sales at Kentaro Group between 2009 and 2014.
At Content Arena, the service which aims to facilitate media rights sales for small- to mid-tier sports properties, Eckartsberg was the director of business development, while during his five years at Stockholm-based Spring Media he was a commercial director.
Eckartsberg, who has posted on LinkedIn that he is “super excited to join the media rights unit”, will work closely with Holger Blask, the DFB’s executive marketing and sales director, and with Kay Dammholz, the governing body’s media rights department head.
Blask, former director of audiovisual rights at German soccer’s top-tier Bundesliga, joined the DFB in August 2020, while the highly experienced Dammholz, who previously worked for global over-the-top streaming platform DAZN, came on board in June this year.
The DFB is likely to have brought Eckartsberg in to help with the most recent tender for international DFB-Pokal rights, with rights to four years of the competition. starting with the 2022-23 season, having gone to tender in April.
The DFB is now marketing all media rights to the competition itself having last year split with Infront, the international sports marketing agency, bringing to an end a 40-year relationship between the organisations.
