Analysis

The current crop of cash-plus-equity betting rights deals agreed by US sports leagues at the start of the decade are likely to be the last of their kind, according to industry experts polled by SportBusiness for its new Betting Rights Report 2024.

The Professional Women’s Hockey League, the new top-tier women’s league for ice hockey in North America, prioritised exposure in its media rights deals for 2024 as it seeks to develop strong viewership for forthcoming seasons.

The Confederation of African Football completed a series of deals before Christmas which have put its precarious finances back on an even keel after several difficult years following the cancellation of its $1bn, 12-year contract with the Lagardère Sports agency.

Uefa and Fifa benefitted from the aggressive entry into the African sports-rights market of New World Television, the Togo-based pay-television operator, to enjoy strong uplifts for club competition and World Cup rights, respectively.

The Peruvian Football Federation (FPF) and its media rights agency partner, 1190 Sports, have emphasised the need for patience after the sheer costs involved in setting up a long-term media project were laid bare for all top-flight Liga 1 clubs to see.

Sub-Saharan Africa has become the hottest sports-rights market in the world, but that dynamism could be brought to an abrupt halt if the proposed merger between France’s Canal Plus and South Africa’s MultiChoice goes ahead.

The Pakistan Super League secured an increase for its international rights despite political, economic and sporting instability at home and competition from other global T20 leagues.

With China out of its post-pandemic lull and media rights deals expiring in all major markets this year, World Table Tennis is ready to roll out version 2.0 of its annual tour.

Pay-television broadcaster Sky Sports agreed to a flat fee to maintain its golf dominance in the UK market and retain rights to the Open Championship for another four years.

Pay-television broadcaster Foxtel agreed to a slight increase on its fee for Cricket South Africa rights over the next three seasons.

The streaming platform that Disney, Fox and Warner Bros. Discovery will jointly launch later this year is, experts say, effectively a part-migration of the bundle from cable to streaming.

Mediapro faces a legal claim from Canadian Soccer Business amounting to C$250m ($186m/€172m) over the premature end to the agency’s 10-year contract for the production, broadcast and distribution of Canadian football.

It’s still two months until the Bundesliga plans to auction its domestic media rights, but the timing of the publication of the packages that will be on offer to the market provided for plenty of water-cooler talk at the annual SpoBis conference in Hamburg last week.

Amazon’s proposed agreement with Diamond Sports Group to secure local streaming rights to US sports leagues has been hailed as a “brilliant, brilliant deal”, though approval of the plan is far from certain.

Mauro Balata, president of Italy’s second football division, Serie B, has called on football’s governing bodies to be more aware of the negative impact their constant expansion of competitions has on the value of domestic leagues.

South Korean media group CJ ENM has agreed to a three-fold increase in its fee to renew rights to the Australian Open for a further three years, from 2025 to 2027.