Sina Sports Secures European Tour
February 13, 2019
The European Tour has reached a long-term deal with Chinese platform Sina Sports for the exclusive digital broadcast rights to all European Tour events.
Sina Sports will live-stream all European Tour tournaments exclusively on all Sina Sports platforms effective immediately until the end of the 2021 season.
The European Tour features two of the most exciting Chinese golfers, Li Haotong, the first Chinese golfer to be ranked in the top 50 world ranking, and three time European Tour winner Wu Ashun.
Sina Sports’ newly-created in-house digital media agency will manage the European Tour’s official social media assets in China, including its Weibo and WeChat mobile accounts, for the duration of the live-streaming deal.
Sina Sports is the largest content creator on Weibo with over 100 million followers on their 80 Weibo accounts. The in-house agency will provide multi-faceted digital media services for athletes, federations and clubs as well as to seek marketing and sponsorship opportunities with Chinese companies.
Sina Golf is the most followed golf-related account on Weibo with over 1.3 million followers.
Sina Sports began exclusive live broadcasts of the European Tour in early November, with the Turkish Airlines Open reaching 210,000 views on Sina Golf’s Weibo account alone.
Sina Corporation Senior Vice President and Sina Sports General Manager Arthur Wei said: “With the growing presence of Chinese golfers and optimal viewing time, the European Tour is positioned to become a very popular sports property for Chinese fans and we are excited to partner with the European Tour for the next three-plus years.
“The possibility of large numbers of fans in China rooting for Chinese players regularly competing for titles at convenient viewing times is intriguing.”
Rufus Hack, Chief Content Officer at the European Tour, said: “The European Tour is delighted to agree this new partnership with Sina Sports, which will give golf fans across China access to every event on the European Tour as well as great additional content in their own language on WeChat and Weibo.
“With exciting Chinese players like Li Haotong and Wu Ashun continuing to make an impression on the Race to Dubai, we’re looking forward to working with a progressive media partner like Sina Sports to help continue the growth of the European Tour across the region.”