Frank Dunne

New sports-rights agency Interregional Sports Group beat rival offers from betting rights specialists Sportradar and Perform to pick up domestic betting rights to Italy’s Serie A.

The sublicensing deals agreed this week by Discovery Communications with public-service broadcasters in Slovakia and Slovenia for the 2018 and 2020 Olympic Games fit the pattern of others agreed so far in Europe: public-service broadcasters paying higher fees for fewer rights than they had in 2014 and 2016.

England’s Premier League clubs will enjoy much greater freedom from the 2016-17 season in how they can exploit content globally on social media. The benefits could be considerable in terms of expanding the reach of a club’s brand and could also help drive revenues for the biggest clubs.

A group of Italian MPs from the coalition government has submitted an amendment to the Melandri Law which would require one live Serie A match per week to be shown on free-to-air television.

Sheikh Salman bin Ebrahim al-Khalifa, the president of the Asian Football Confederation, is planning to set up an ad-hoc committee of experts to evaluate the AFC’s options for its rights beyond 2020.

Italian premium sports channel Fox Sports acquired rights in the country to two editions of the Africa Cup of Nations in a deal with the Lagardère Sports and Entertainment agency.

Chinese internet company Tencent has agreed a six-season deal for digital rights to North America’s National Hockey League.

UK commercial channel Dave continued its move into live sport with a deal for rights to this year’s Caribbean Premier League Twenty20 cricket series.

Romania’s public-service broadcaster TVR and general entertainment channel Antena 1 failed in a last-gasp attempt to block a deal by commercial broadcaster Pro TV for free-to-air rights to 23 Euro 2016 matches.

Basketball’s Euroleague said this week the complaint it lodged at the European Commission against the International Basketball Federation (Fiba) in February could have far-reaching consequences.