Japanese video game developer Konami has signed up as a global sponsor to the upcoming 2026 World Baseball Classic (WBC) national teams competition.
Under the agreement, Konami will once again promote the WBC across its fan base, having sponsored the last edition in 2023.
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The 2026 event will feature 20 teams competing in four first-round pools in Tokyo (Japan), San Juan (Puerto Rico), and US cities Houston and Miami, starting on March 4 and ending with the final at Miami’s LoanDepot Park on March 17.
Owned by North America’s Major League Baseball (MLB), via World Baseball Classic Inc., and operated alongside the MLB Players Association union, the tournament sees national teams compete against each other in a similar format to soccer’s FIFA World Cup.
Established in 2006 and now in its sixth season, the last edition in 2023 was won by Team Japan, led by LA Dodgers star Shohei Ohtani.
The new agreement builds on Konami’s global marketing partnership with MLB, struck last year, centered around its free-to-play mobile game, eBaseball: MLB Pro Spirit, and its ambassador partnership with Ohtani.
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By GlobalDataThe video game developer has also launched several baseball games in the last 30 years for the Japanese market, including Powerful Pro Baseball 2024-25 and Professional Baseball Spirits 2024-25, both Japanese language-only games.
Ahead of the competition, WBC organizers have worked to secure broadcast partners in baseball’s major markets, most recently with Sportdigital, the German sports-focused broadcaster, which will air 40 matches on its streaming service, and South Korea’s Tving, which will air all 47 matches live.
US rights to the tournament are held by media giant Fox, which has secured both English and Spanish-language rights earlier this year. Fox’s deal covers all 47 games, with Fox itself airing seven fixtures, including three Pool B games featuring a US team, two quarter-final games, and the final.
The remaining games will air on sports channels FS1 and FS2, as well as being streamed on the Fox Sports app, Fox One, and Tubi services. The Fox Deportes service, meanwhile, will broadcast 28 games in Spanish, including the quarter-finals, semi-finals, and final.
Rights in Japan, meanwhile, have been snapped up by global streaming giant Netflix, which will exclusively air all matches.
It will be Netflix’s first live sports event in Japan, with the streamer promising comprehensive coverage of the tournament after the previous edition saw six of the seven Team Japan games deliver over 30 million viewers in the country for broadcaster TV Asahi.
Pay-TV broadcaster TNT Sports has been listed by MLB as its UK broadcast partner for this year’s tournament, having secured rights for the previous edition to show select matches.
Other broadcasters listed as providing coverage of the 2026 edition include: Astro (Malaysia), SpoTV (Southeast Asia), Sportsnet (Canada), TelevisaUnivision (Mexico), ESPN (Netherlands), BeIN Sport (France, MENA), Sky Italia (Italy), Sport1 (Hungary), S Sport Plus (Turkey), and ESPN (Sub-Saharan Africa).
