In an agreement between Gol and Twitch, it has been discussed that nine La Liga matches during the 2021-22 season will be telecasted on the Amazon-owned online streaming platform.
Gol which is a free-to-air channel is presently the Laliga-rights-holder. It is owned by the Mediapro agency and production group. According to the rights acquired, Gol can stream one free-to-air fixture per match week.
Athletic Bilbao’s clash against Mallorca on Saturday will be the first match to be streamed. Spanish celeb and esports commentator Ibai Llanos will be the commentator for the match which will be streamed on official Twitch channels of Gol and LaLiga, plus his own channel.
It has been discussed that fans will be able to interact with the commentators with the help of the streaming chat.
This Twitch tie-up is not surprising as it has been used by a lot of other leagues and clubs to target a younger group of audience who are more active on Twitch.
The Basque derby between Real Sociedad and Athletic Bilbao was streamed free of charge on Twitch last season.
Lionel Messi’s long-awaited debut for PSG was also streamed free-to-view on Twitch by Llanos. The French league match reportedly became the most-watched match in Spanish viewing history. A remarkable audience of 2.21 million viewers for an 18.6-per-cent market share was observed by Mediaset-owned Telecinco’s broadcast.
The first Brazilian football club to stream a live Série A match on Twitch was, Athletico Paranaense as they streamed it in December last year. The match was between the home club and Vasco da Gama which saw the home club secure a 3-0 victory.
Recently, the French club Olympique de Marseille discussed an important extension to its relationship with Twitch and led to the club opening its own channel called “Om Official”.