A sports entertainment media company, Eleven Sports has been named as the exclusive distributor of ONE Championship live events and programming in Italy.
The UK based media company’s initial business strategy focused on acquiring major international sporting events rights in smaller countries. The corporation operates a network of linear television and/or digital facilities, broadcasting a mix of premium, niche-premium, longtail, and grassroots sports, as well as original programming, and offers live streaming services via SaaS (Software as a service).
The relationship kicked off on April 22, 2022, with ONE 156: Eersel vs. Sadikovic, and will last through 2022 and beyond, including the forthcoming ONE 157: Petchmorakot vs. Vienot event on May 20, 2022.
Carlo Di Blasi, President of ONE Championship Italy, stated: “ONE Championship is thrilled to partner with Eleven Sports as we look to bring our live events closer to fans in Italy. Europe continues to be a significant market for ONE, and with the recent growth of global media rights as more people consume both linear and OTT video content around the world, this landmark partnership is even more significant. With the help of Eleven Sports, our organisation will be able to reach a wider audience in the region. ONE Championship offers a unique martial arts experience fans can’t find anywhere else, and we are excited to showcase the absolute world’s greatest martial artists on a new platform.”
Giovanni Zurleni, Managing Director at Eleven Sports Italia, commented: “ONE Championship is a fantastic organisation that brings the best of Muay Thai, mixed martial arts, kickboxing, submission grappling, and other martial arts disciplines together under one umbrella. We are excited to be delivering live coverage of all the action in ONE Championship to combat sports fans throughout Italy and to be bringing them closer to the organization’s biggest stars with our slate of behind-the-scenes content.”
Eleven Sports is certainly trying to tune in more Italian viewers as ONE Championship has many fighters like Mauro “The Hammer” Cerilli who is an Italian MMA fighter and holds a record of 14-4-0. Mauro certainly has a huge fan base in Italy and the viewers will be able to see more of him and the rest of the fighters due to this agreement.