The Infront Sports & Media agency has been appointed as the exclusive commercial partner for a new pan-European ice hockey club competition that is set to launch in August 2014.
Infront was selected by the board of the European Ice Hockey Club Competition (ECC), organisers of the as yet untitled tournament, following an international tender process.
Infront will be responsible for the worldwide distribution of media rights, the centralised marketing rights, merchandising rights as well as multimedia production of all games.
In addition, Infront will provide support to the ECC rights holders in the overall development of the new competition, delivering services in the area of digital media, branding, promotion and rights delivery.
Infront said that it has already entered into a partnership with the Sportsman Media Group agency, collaborating on media rights exploitation in German-speaking territories, the distribution of certain marketing rights as well as selected specialised services.
The new competition is fully owned and operated by the ECC, which counts top European clubs, six national leagues and the International Ice Hockey Federation as its shareholders.
In the inaugural season, 40 clubs from the national leagues in Austria, Czech Republic, Finland, Germany, Sweden and Switzerland will take part, including the respective national champions and regular season winners.