Lagardère Sports, the sports marketing division of conglomerate Lagardère, has agreed an exclusive deal to sell global media rights to pan-European club basketball competition the VTB United League.
The deal will run for three seasons, from 2016-17 to 2018-19, and excludes the league’s participating countries. Fourteen clubs from Russia, Kazakhstan, Belarus, Estonia and Latvia are currently set to compete in the 2016-17 VTB United League campaign.
Stefan Felsing, executive vice-president of media, global sales and acquisitions at Lagardère Sports, said: “With more and more clubs competing it’s an exciting time for the league, and we’re certain there will be big interest in media rights across the world.”
The deal was announced today (Tuesday) after VTB United League honorary president Sergey Ivanov last month said the competition had agreed its first-ever deal for overseas and betting broadcast rights.
Ivanov said the deal for the 2016-17 season would be worth €1m ($1.1m) to the league, although he did not identify who had acquired the rights.
The 2016-17 VTB United League season is due to tip-off in October and will run through to June. CSKA Moscow is the defending champion.