The International Handball Federation (IHF) has extended its existing global commercial and media rights partnership with Sportfive, the international sports marketing agency.
The new deal means Sportfive will have global media and sponsorship sales and distribution rights to all IHF World Championships until 2031, a six-year extension of the previous deal it had struck with the IHF, which runs through 2025.
In addition, the deal covers not only the IHF World Championships for the next nine years, but also the advertising and marketing rights to five Senior World Championships, the qualification tournaments before the Los Angeles 2028 Olympic Games, the junior and youth World Championships, and top-tier beach handball competitions and World Championships until 2031.
The extended deal has been described as a “unique, comprehensive” partnership. Previously, the IHF had marketed commercial rights to some of these competitions in-house, or entered into “cooperation agreements with different federations for selective rights.”
Sportfive has said it will now “provide the IHF with its vast service portfolio alongside distribution, production, and commercialization.”
The agency has said it can now “take advantage of the complete value chain [through its existing TV rights for the World Championships] and offer partners all services from a single source to make the most out of a sponsorship … to make the World Championships the perfect platform for international brands.”
Robert Müller von Vultejus, chief growth officer at Sportfive, said: “We are more than proud that the IHF has entrusted us with this exciting new challenge. We have set ourselves ambitious goals: We not only want to lift the world's most important handball tournaments to a new level but to make handball one of the most popular sports in the world after soccer.”
Dr. Hassan Moustafa, the IHF’s president, added: “We are now looking forward to the next level of our partnership and are convinced that Sportfive, with its huge experience and vast network, will give handball the worldwide attention that this unique sport deserves.”
The first World Championships the new deal will cover will be the 2023 event in Sweden and Poland.
