Football-focused digital media company Dugout will distribute content from the Ekstraklasa in a deal with the Polish top flight.
As part of the agreement, bespoke Ekstraklasa content will be shown through Dugout’s embedded video player to global audiences (excluding Poland and the Balkans). The deal has been struck following the Ekstraklasa’s return to action on May 29.
Dugout has a global network of 85 premium publishers and holds deals with clubs such as AC Milan, Arsenal, Barcelona, Bayern Munich, Chelsea, Juventus, Liverpool, Manchester City, Paris Saint-Germain, and Real Madrid.
Elliot Richardson, Dugout co-founder and chairman, said: “In the last few years, Ekstraklasa has seen consistent growth in its number of viewers and popularity both within Poland and globally.
“The league has a great reputation for its outstanding production quality and we look forward to working alongside Ekstraklasa to further help them with their global expansion. Ekstraklasa’s large global audience will now receive bespoke content delivered through our publishing partners and through dedicated channels on Dugout.com.”
Ahead of its restart last week, the Ekstraklasa struck broadcast deals in key European markets, including the UK and Ireland (with free-to-air channel FreeSports); in Denmark, Norway and Sweden (with the Spring Media agency); and in Israel (with pay-television broadcaster Charlton). An existing deal in Germany, Austria and Switzerland with Sportdigital Fussball was also expanded.
The Ekstraklasa sells its international broadcast rights in-house and marketed rights to two fixtures per match round. The rights are non-exclusive, with matches also shown internationally on the league’s Ekstraklasa.tv OTT platform.
Dugout last month teamed up with Verizon Media in a tie-up that will provide new exclusive advertising packages through the latter’s sales teams and “self-serve Demand Side Platform”. Verizon’s Yahoo Sports platform also gains access to Dugout’s library of football-related videos from members.
In recent months, Dugout has also signed agreements with Maven, the publisher of Sports Illustrated, for football fans in the US and Canada, and struck similar agreements with Onefootball and Chinese sports streaming service PP Sports.