Pay-television broadcaster Sky Italia has signed a rights deal with the World Padel Tour.
The agreement comes after Sky covered the WPT’s 2020 Sardegna Open, which took place in Cagliari from September 6-13.
Under the new deal, Sky will cover the Spanish organisation’s remaining tournaments in 2020, commencing with the Menorca Open, which opened yesterday (Wednesday) and runs through to Sunday. Sky will offer WPT coverage at weekends.
Italy is considered a developing market for the sport of padel, with newspaper Gazzetta dello Sport stating this month’s Sardegna Open became the WPT’s most-watched event with over 3.3 million live views on the Tour’s YouTube channel.
While padel courts in Italy were only said to number 50 four years ago, this figure has now risen to around 1,600.
At the start of the year, the Nordic Entertainment (Nent) Group acquired the World Padel Tour rights in a long-term agreement. Under the deal, Nent’s Viaplay streaming service will hold exclusive rights in the Nordic region for four seasons of the tour, from 2020 to 2023.