A junior basketball game this week between the Philippines and China generated a record online audience for a FIBA youth game of 1.5 million streaming views.

The 25^th FIBA Under-18 Asian Championship group phase game (the Filipino team won) on August 8 in Nonthaburi, Thailand, racked up the impressive total on a combination of platforms, including FIBA’s Facebook, YouTube and Sina accounts in addition to viewers of the Sports5 Philippines Facebook page and Tencent and other sites.

Nicolas Chapart, FIBA Head of Digital, reacted enthusiastically to the result. “It’s a record for us for any youth game,” he said. “Last year, the biggest streaming audience for a FIBA youth game was 800,000. So it’s a big advance.”

He added: “We don’t necessarily try to bring people to one place for streaming. Our strategy is to distribute widely, in order to reach them where they are. They might watch live on Facebook or YouTube or a national federation page.”

FIBA boasts an aggregated digital audience of 16-17 million viewers. 

As of August 8, FIBA had 386,085 Twitter followers, 5.461 million Facebook fans, 470,764 YouTube subscribers for its own channel and 601,751 Instagram followers. The digital total actually aggregates a much wider range of social media partners and pages.

“Our is to grow that total to 20 million by the end of the year,” Chapart said

Asia looms very large in the digital picture. “The Asia markets love basketball and they are digitally savvy,” he said.

On the day (August 10) the new English Premier League season kicks off, beIN SPORTS announced that it is extending its broadcast partnership with the league and will continue to broadcast exclusively all EPL matches in the Middle East and North Africa through 2021-22. 
 
beIN SPORTS already has exclusive rights in the region for 2018-19 and the new deal adds three more seasons. The agreement was signed in London on August 9 by Richard Scudamore, Executive Chairman of the Premier League, and Nasser Al-Khelaifi, Chairman and CEO of Qatar-based beIN Media Group.

Premier League fans in MENA will be able to watch all 380 games per season exclusively live on beIN, in addition to having access to comprehensive magazine programming, including pre- and post-match shows, as well as daily highlights and weekly wrap-up programmes. 

Subscribers to beIN’s market-leading OTT service beIN CONNECT will be able to watch all Premier League content, including the live streaming of matches, across web, tablet and mobile devices.
 
“We know there are many passionate fans of Premier League clubs right across the Middle East and North Africa, and that beIN SPORTS does an excellent job making the competition available to them,” Scudamore said. “beIN is a long-term partner of the League and its first-rate coverage has helped to grow interest in our clubs across many countries. We look forward to continuing to work with them to make the best Premier League action available to fans in the region for the next four seasons.”

Al-Khelaifi, who is also president of French club Paris Saint-Germain, said: “The Premier League has trusted beIN MEDIA GROUP and beIN SPORTS again to be the official and exclusive broadcaster, champion and custodian of its product in the Middle East and North Africa. Nothing brings people together and excites passions and emotions like sport; particularly football. The Premier League is one of the most exhilarating of all leagues in world football, attracting the best talent on and off the pitch and providing the most captivating entertainment. We are delighted to be able to exclusively offer this premium sports content to our subscribers, bringing them closer to the Premier League for many more years to come, together with our unparalleled library of movies, drama, entertainment, comedy and children’s programming. We are happy to extend our long-term partnership with the Premier League and to continue promoting the brand and growing its fan-base in the Middle East and North Africa.”

English Premier League club Cardiff City FC has named 1XBET as its Global Betting Partner for the coming season and the 2019-20 campaign.

The partnership is intended to help 1XBET, which holds a Russian gaming license, to expand its reach across Europe, Africa, the Middle East, North Africa and the Americas.

Russia currently licenses about a dozen online betting companies. 1XBET ranks among the most popular brands with market leader LigaStavok, Fonbet, Leon and Bingo-Boom.

Launched in 2007, 1XBET claims to be among the top three most-visited betting and gaming websites in the world with over 1,000 markets, and a strong emphasis on localization. The platform is translated into over 50 languages and offers 24/7 support in half of those.

“This is the first association, we have agreed within the Premier League, and we are delighted to make our step into it with a hardworking partner such as Cardiff City FC, said Eugene Kiryukhin, 1XBET’s Director for Development of International Partners

Cardiff City Executive Director & CEO, Ken Choo said: “We are excited by our cooperation with 1XBET. They are a forward-thinking, progressive business with a large global footprint.”

In terms of the number of competing athletes (over 16,000) and nations (45), the 2018 Asian Games in Indonesia will be the biggest sports competition of the summer.

The Games begin formally with an Opening Ceremony on Saturday August 18, but competition actually starts Friday August 9 with men’s group stage football at the Patriot Stadium in West Java. Broadcast preparations for covering the kick-off are complete, lines have been tested with Telkom Indonesia, graphics are in place and commentary circuits are live.

The bulk of the Games events, running for a fortnight until September 2, will take place in Jakarta (which hosted the 1962 edition) and Palembang, the first time the multi-sport event will be hosted in two cities.

Television production is being handled by IGBS, a joint venture between Infront subsidiary HBS and IMG Media. The company was formerly Doha Asian Games Broadcast Services, set up in September 2004 with the mission of being the Host Broadcaster of the Asian Games in Doha 2006. Since then it has delivered the SEA Games Singapore 2015, and provided production teams for the Asian Games Guangzhou 2010 and the Asian Games Incheon 2014.

The World Broadcaster Meeting, where IGBS presented final plans, took place in Jakarta on Monday with 14 organisations present.

The brands line-up of the Games will feature a cluttered array of sponsor and partner logos, overwhelmingly from the host nation, including only a few global brands and one Olympic TOP sponsor.

Of the 13 TOP sponsors, five are Asian companies, but South Korea’s Samsung, an Official Sponsor of the Asian Games, will be the only TOP partner taking part.

The Asian Games boast Mastercard as one of the six Official Sponsors. Arch-rival Visa is a TOP sponsor.

There are a dozen Official Prestige Partners (the top tier), with three foreign companies: Qatar airlines, Tissot watches and Chinese sportswear group 361°.

There are four Official Partners, including Japan’s Canon, which will also be a Gold Partner of the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo.

Among the Supporting Sponsors is Japanese tech group NEC, and the 31 Official Licensing partners include American brands KFC and Polo (Ralph Lauren) and Hong Kong-owned international retailer Giordano.

The 40 different sports on display will include esports as a demonstration sport for the first time in a competition sanctioned by National Olympic Committees. Esports will become a medal sport in 2022 at the Asian Games in Hangzhou, China.

 

The synergy between sports and popular music came into sharp focus this week when baseball’s Cleveland Indians unveiled the logo for next year’s MLB All-Star Game.

The guitar-shaped symbol puts a spotlight on Cleveland as the home of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. The body of the guitar is bordered by the red stitches of a baseball with the MLB logo at the head of the guitar.

MLB Deputy Commissioner Tony Petitti, on hand at Progressive Field to unveil the image for one of the sport’s most popular events, said: “You can see from the logo what we think the tie-in should be in Cleveland. We try to do something unique in every market we’re in, so music is what you can expect to see in 2019.”

The music connection is one that iSportconnect will bring into focus at the 2018 Brands Masterclass on September 18 in London. Streaming service Spotify will be on the programme with Sarah Keifer, Director of Business Marketing, EMEA, among the thought-leading speakers taking part.

MLB and the Indians are talking to the Rock Hall about taking part in the festivities around the All-Star Game.

Greg Harris, President of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, is a baseball man. He used to an executive at the Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum.

In 2016, when the Indians played in the World Series, they held a gala event at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

When the Serie A season kicks off on August 18, games will be available in more than 20 countries around the world via a new OTT service created by IMG. The company has revealed that it will launch Serie A Pass, a global OTT subscription service delivering live coverage of every game from the top Italian League to fans in India and other key markets.

Serie A Pass will be launched with a full content offering including all live games, match replays and additional magazine and archive programming.

The new service – www.seriea-pass.com – will be available on desktop, tablet and mobile and via Apps on IOS and Android devices to include Chromecast and Apple airplay.

Pricing for the service will vary geographically with the initial launch in euros, dollars and rupees as appropriate. Monthly charges will be €7.99 or $8.99 or 299 rupees (about half the euros price). Season-long passes will cost €49.99 or $59.99 and or 999 rupees.

IMG has created three new magazine shows for the coming season: Inside Serie A, Serie A – Full Impact and The Serie A Highlights Show.