All live matches from Italian basketball’s Serie A are to be marketed to international broadcasters for the first time in the two-year agreement with SN1 Trading, the rights arm of Munich-based consultancy SN1 Consulting.
SN1 recently defeated one other offer for the international rights in the invitation to tender process run by Lega Basket Serie A, the governing body of the top-tier of Italian domestic basketball.
The agreement covers the 2020-21 and 2021-22 seasons and is subject to final regulatory approval from Italy’s competition regulator, which the league and SN1 expect “in the next couple of days”.
Rights acquired by SN1 Trading include the exclusive international media rights to the Serie A, Coppa Italia and Super Cup. International betting rights are not included in the deal.
International rights were previously held by media group Discovery.
Umberto Gandini, the president of Lega Basket Serie A, said today (Friday): “The deal with SN1 Trading is great news for our League and shows the increasing interest for our Championship, especially thanks to the number of great players signed by our clubs. We are sure that SN1 Trading will provide our clubs, sponsors and partners with an outstanding TV coverage.”
Sascha Kojic, founder of SN1 Trading, remarked: “We’re excited to start this collaboration. LBA Serie A UnipolSai is one of the top domestic basketball leagues in Europe and we are thankful for having the opportunity to implement our commercial strategy which will boost the international coverage of the LBA Serie A and deliver the global coverage this great league deserves.”
SN1 Consulting is best known for its work in advising the European Handball Federation on its international broadcast and sponsorship rights sales process (from 2020 to 2030).
The 2020-21 Serie A season tips off tomorrow as Treviso face Trentino at 8:30pm (CET).
Lega Basket Serie A also this week signed off on its three-year agreement with Infront that affords the agency the title of exclusive marketing, sponsorship and digital rights partner. Infront is to exclusively sell Lega Basket’s sponsorship rights from 2020-21 to 2022-23.
Ratification of the Infront contract came after the Italian basketball league completed its domestic media-rights sales process by agreeing a two-season renewal for its free-to-air rights with Italian public broadcaster Rai.
The free-to-air and radio rights acquired by Rai cover the 2020-21 and 2021-22 seasons and followed on from the sale of the league’s pay-television rights to Discovery-owned pan-European sports broadcaster Eurosport in late August.
An in-depth SportBusiness Media feature on the value of the league’s recent domestic and international rights sales can be found here.