American football league the NFL has entered into a partnership with global sports marketing company Bruin Sports Capital and advertising and public relations giant WPP in order to drive expansion of its Game Pass over-the-top service throughout Europe.
Through the agreement, Bruin and WPP have formed a new company that, through its strategic license from the NFL, will evolve the Game Pass business as part of the league’s international growth strategy. The new company will be headquartered in London with its name, chief executive and executive team to be announced shortly.
It has also been announced today (Monday) that sports media and technology firm Deltatre, a Bruin company, will now power NFL Game Pass across a combined 61 European countries and territories. This includes the development of a new product optimised for cross-platform viewing. Deltatre will also manage end-to-end technology delivery, streaming, user-facing applications, back-end support, payments and customer service.
Digital media services will be led by data-driven sports marketing agency, Two Circles, which is part of GroupM’s ESP Properties and supported by fellow WPP agencies MEC and Ogilvy. Two Circles will work alongside Bruin and Deltatre to grow NFL Game Pass’ European subscriber base.
“As the NFL continues to prioritise Game Pass, we sought out key experts to unlock the significant potential across Europe,” Mark Waller, executive vice-president of international and events at the NFL, said. “Bruin and WPP have a proven track record of innovation and success and we believe they are the best companies to help take Game Pass to the next level in Europe, technologically, operationally and in terms of growing the user base.”
WPP recently established a dedicated sports practice to act as a global point of entry to the group’s collective sports services and expertise.
WPP chief executive Martin Sorrell said: “There is a confluence of key global trends informing our digital strategy, including the rapid global improvement of digital infrastructure and the growing importance of online video. We feel that Game Pass is well positioned for success given these trends.”