German sports broadcaster Sport1 has agreed a deal with sports and betting-related services company Sportradar to acquire rights for this seasons eFootball.Pro League in Germany, Austria and Switzerland.
Sport1 launched a dedicated esports channel in January, eSports1, and coverage of the eFootball.Pro League will add to a current portfolio that includes rights to events from esport organisations ESL and Blizzard Entertainment.
Sport1’s coverage of the eFootball.Pro League will begin on February 23, with live coverage on eSports1 as well as on YouTube and the Sport1’s OTT platform, Sport1.de. Coverage of the league begins halfway through the season, which kicked-off in December, however it has also picked up archive rights allowing it to exploit previous match-weeks.
The eFootball.Pro League was founded by Barcelona football player Gerard Piqué, and owned by his esports company Esports Media Rights. EMR works with entertainment and gaming company Konami, which developed Pro Evolution Soccer, the game which the eFootball.Pro League is based on.
EMR and Konami agreed a deal in February 2018 with Sportradar for the later to distribute global media rights to all EMR events – including the eFootball.Pro League.