An invitation to tender has been issued for international betting video rights to Spanish football’s Copa del Rey and Supercopa tournaments between 2019-20 and 2021-22.
The Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) is looking for a swift turnaround from bidders after issuing a deadline of midday (GMT) on December 11 for submission of offers.
The ITT is the latest to be issued by the RFEF as it continues its sale of centralised domestic and international broadcast rights to both the Copa del Rey and the Supercopa. The federation announced last month that it had raised a total of nearly €80m ($88.6m) – or €26.7m per season – from the sale of domestic and ‘selected’ international rights to the Copa del Rey over the next three seasons.
Along with a total of 65 matches from Spain’s knockout clubs tournament, the inventory on offer in the betting tender includes three games per Supercopa edition. A total of 16 games from the Copa del Rey first round are included. This season’s first round will take place from December 17 to 19.
The Supercopa has switched to a ‘Final Four’ format instead of the traditional meeting of the reigning LaLiga and Copa del Rey champions on the eve of the domestic season. The RFEF has attracted widespread criticism by awarding the hosting rights to Saudi Arabia for the next three seasons.
Companies likely to be interested in acquiring the betting rights to sell on to their bookmaker clients will include market heavyweights IMG Arena, Sportradar and Stats Perform. Genius Sports also recently moved into the betting video space by launching its OTT solutions service, although is not thought to be prioritising top-tier football rights.
Sportradar has been advising the RFEF on its international media rights auctions for both the Copa del Rey and Supercopa. As a result, it has been precluded from bidding for those rights. However, the sports betting, data and media rights company is not referenced in the RFEF’s betting rights ITT document and would appear to be free to take part.
One single package of international betting video rights (excluding Spain) is being offered by the RFEF, which will not consider joint bids.
Rights restrictions designed to protect the value of the live media rights are also in effect. These include the broadcast by betting operators in standard definition only, viewers having an “open and active” account with the betting provider, and the stream limited to one third of the screen size (or not more than half of a smartphone screen).
The ITT also states that licensees will not be able to use the rights to “create any type of data products related to the events”.
Offers for the rights should be submitted to the RFEF via email (betting@concursos.rfef.es).
Luis Rubiales, the controversial and outspoken RFEF president, recently claimed that Copa del Rey media-rights fees generated would exceed those previously raised for the tournament by LaLiga, which governs the top two leagues of Spanish professional football.
The RFEF previously only marketed rights to the final as LaLiga sold the bulk of the competition. The 2019-22 cycle marks the first time that the RFEF has sold the rights as a whole package.
In response to the RFEF’s announcement last month, Mediapro, the Spanish production group and agency, said that it offered a total of €100.5m for domestic and international rights to the Copa del Rey over three years.