Organisers of the European Cricket League have furthered their plans to develop the sport in Europe through the launch of the European Cricket Series.
The new series, which has attracted Indian fantasy sports platform Dream11 as title sponsor, will consist of 400 ten-over matches over 100 matchdays across Europe.
Dream11 was a sponsor of last year’s inaugural European Cricket League with shirt sponsorship rights and branding around pitchside LED boards.
The addition of the Dream11 European Cricket Series creates additional content that organisers can stream on the European Cricket Network, the digital content hub created to show the annual European Cricket League and domestic qualifiers for the competition.
SportBusiness also understands that Sportz Interactive, the India-based sports content and technology firm, has been appointed by the European Cricket League to build its website and app and work together on data analytics and visualisation.
The first ECS event will be hosted by Cricket España, the sport’s governing body in Spain, between March 2 and 6. It will be staged at the Woodbridge Oval in Albir and will feature domestic sides Sporting Alfas, Intellectuals (Alicante), La Manga, Levante (Valencia), Madrid United and the Pinatar Pirates.
FanCode, the ad-free digital platform launched by Dream11 last year and that holds ECL streaming rights, will stream ECS coverage across the Indian sub-continent. The European Cricket Network’s global streaming will therefore be geo-blocked in that region.
Daniel Weston, the Australian businessman who founded the ECL, said: “The European Cricket League will remain as the ‘Champions League of European cricket’ and the new Dream11 European Cricket Series will definitely ignite domestic European cricket as well.”
Having secured backing from former Team Marketing executives Thomas Klooz and Frank Leenders, the first edition of the ECL was held at La Manga last year and will return this summer from May 31 to June 7.
In preparation for the first ECL event, Weston led negotiations to secure the media and data rights from eight national associations (in Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Romania, Russia and Spain).
That model licenses the ECL rights to broadcast any club matches under the auspices of each federation, along with matches in the Champions League-style ECL tournament itself. Teams from a further seven nations – in Belgium, England, Finland, Ireland, Norway, Scotland and Sweden – have been added for the 2020 ECL as the competition doubles in size to 32 matches over eight days.
This brings with it increased inventory to sell – albeit broadcast rights are distributed free of charge or for minimal fees – plus an improved prize purse of €100,000 ($108,500), up from €20,000. However, the cost of producing the larger event, including travel and accommodation costs for teams, has risen to around €1 million.
The involvement of Klooz, Leenders and chief executive Roger Feiner, previously of Fifa and Swiss pay-television broadcaster Teleclub, has given credence to the project in industry circles. The pooling together of data and broadcast rights to create a year-round proposition for cricket fans and generating sizeable online audiences to draw in sponsors is the backbone of the commercial blueprint.
Much of the advertising revenue share comes from highlights or archive footage given YouTube is, as Weston notes, an “incredible platform but not great for monetising live content”.
Asked about how the challenges for European Cricket League and Spring Media, the Stockholm-based agency that distributes its media rights, in monetising the broadcast interest, Weston told SportBusiness: “It’s hard in countries where cricket isn’t on the radar, be it Belgium, Italy, France or Spain [for example]. It can be hard to get a broadcaster from each of those countries to say they want to take it.
“But Spring Media has got some discussions going on with local domestic broadcasters.
“That’s why our European Cricket Network is going to be a free model. There will be ads running on the web, app and YouTube but it’s very much about getting as much awareness and people watching as we can.
“It’s not going to be an instant big win on the broadcasting side in some of these places where cricket has not existed before.”
Weston is confident of “some good things happening” on the broadcast front in the UK and Ireland now that those countries have representation in the ECL. The England and Wales Cricket Board recently granted permission for East Anglia’s Swardeston Cricket Club to become the first English club to take part in the ECL.
Weston is also encouraged by the likes of TV3, the Catalan public broadcaster, having taken the signal last year and added their own commentary.
A series of one-year broadcast deals were agreed for the 2019 ECL as distribution was secured with 43 broadcasters across 120 territories. Weston said that he is confident of increased distribution for the 2020 tournament.
Profitability a ‘multi-year’ goal
In an exclusive interview with SportBusiness, Weston underlined the need to establish the quality of the ECL product before thinking about a financial return.
He said: “We want to establish a great product. Chipping away to profitability is a multi-year story which is the same as creating a better product year in, year out. The level of the product will get better each year, increasing the monetisation of the partnerships.
“It was never about being profitable in year one or year two. It was always about creating a wonderful product because we can’t become profitable without it. And you can’t have a wonderful product without having a few years under your belt to make it a wonderful product.
“It’s the chicken and egg [scenario] but I’m confident they’ll both match up in the early years.”
On the sponsorship side, he expressed a desire for the ECL to have a ‘powered by’ sponsor at some stage, and with many of the current agreements only contra deals or value-in-kind agreement, is now looking to ramp up the search for commercial support.
He remarked: “It’s about creating a great product and having long-term deals. We want to do it well and that will attract great sponsors. But it will take some time and won’t happen overnight because the sponsors will need to trust that it’s a sustainable and strong product that’s adding good value.”
Along with sportswear company New Balance, which will return to supply the ECL kits again this year, the series also has deals with official fantasy partner Dream11 and cricket equipment firm Kookaburra in place. The other ECL ‘Partners’ are host venue La Manga Club, host broadcast company NEP and LED provider Sportsevision. Suppliers include Payntr (cricket shoes), Loka Lifestyle (trophy), Sticky Wicket (stumps) and Veen (water).