Another covid affected year has ended as we have stepped into a new year. In these last two years, many businesses have been affected because of the global pandemic. Due to the restrictions and lockdowns, the valuation of some businesses have gone down and have been affected heavily.
However, it has been quite a good year for some organisations in the sports business industry, who have roped in some major clients and deals to increase their revenue. The companies, which signed some lucrative deals are related to sports broadcasting, NFT, and sports data.
So, let’s get into the top five list that will be informing you about the organisations that have inked some fruitful deals in the sports business arena:
1. Viacom18
At the top, we have one of the biggest broadcasting groups in India, Viacom18. The Mukesh Ambani-backed entity had inked some fruitful deals in 2021.
Viacom18 has roped in some major media rights deals of some of the biggest football leagues in the world. The broadcaster first announced landing the La Liga media rights in India, which was earlier handled by Facebook. The broadcasting group later acquired the media rights deal of Ligue 1 in India. It also added Serie A into its media rights portfolio this year.
Viacom18 has reportedly also bagged the media rights of FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022, the company will broadcast football’s biggest festival in India.
Adding to it, Viacom18 also won the broadcasting rights of the Abu Dhabi T10 league in India. The cherry on the top was penning down the National Basketball Association‘s rights deal in the last month of 2021. Viacom18 struck a multi-year agreement with NBA, which would allow the Indian basketball fans to enjoy the marquee basketball league through the Viacom18 network.
2. Socios.com
The trend of NFT and fan tokens have taken everyone by storm in 2021. Among those, there is Socios.com, which has landed some pretty big clients this year to grow their business worldwide.
The list of the clients includes several football clubs like, Arsenal, AC Milan, AS Monaco, Flamengo, Inter Milan, Valencia, Manchester City and there is also an ISL franchise Kerala Blasters. Apart from football clubs, it also has an association with Argentina’s national football team and it is also the fan token partner of the Spanish top-flight, La Liga.
Socios.com has also signed deals with several cricket franchises mainly in IPL such as Kolkata Knight Riders, Punjab Kings, and Royal Challengers Bangalore. It also joined hands with the Caribbean Premier League. Socios.com also has its mark in basketball as it has a deal with Chicago Bulls, LA Clippers, and Los Angeles Lakers.
3. Stats Perform
In the third place, we have a company investing in the rising business of sports data and sports betting, Stats Perform. The company signed a deal with Cricket West Indies. In this agreement, the sports data brand acquired the exclusive rights to distribute the stats and fast data of the West Indies Cricket team. It also extended its partnership with England & Wales Cricket Board, last year in July.
Moving ahead, the Badminton World Federation also joined hands with Stats Perform. BWF labelled it as the exclusive provider of live streams and real-time stats to licensed betting operators for the elite men’s, women’s, and mixed tournaments. Stats Perform also renewed its partnership with Orlando Magic, which is an NBA outfit.
The sports data brand entered into a partnership with Signify, as both the entities signed to detect online abuse. Stats Perform also signed a partnership extension with Eredivisie. The company is also the official data provider of Barclays Women’s Super League. It also signed a data rights deal with the Italian top-flight football league, Serie A.
The brand renewed the partnership with Borussia Dortmund as a scouting partner. Stats Perform teamed up with Red Bee Media to expand its metadata offering.
4. Sportradar
Following Stats Perform, we have its competitor, Sportradar. It is a Switzerland-based company, which has been in the industry for 20 years now.
Sportradar announced a partnership with the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) as an official partner. The company signed an eight-year partnership with AFC, becoming the official video and data distribution partner for the major AFC competitions.
Sportradar and Tamil Nadu Premier League inked a collaboration, the latter will be availing the former’s services of the Fraud Detection System. The company has got onboard the NBA legend Michael Jordan, as its special advisor back in September.
The ICC, which is the cricket governing body of global cricket, joined forces with Sportradar, labelling it as the official data distribution and live streaming partner.
In November, Sportradar became the first-ever gambling data partner of the UEFA, with the company landing a 1550 matches deal. Later, it also announced a multi-year agreement with NBA, which will start from the 2023-24 season. They struck an association with the International Hockey Federation. The deal will run for nine years and Sportradar will be the exclusive betting and gaming data rights partner. Lastly, Sportradar also inked a partnership extension with Bundesliga.
5. Rario
Rario has acquired the fifth spot on the list. The company has done well this year to grow its business in the booming NFT sector. The company mainly focuses on selling cricket-related NFTs and has roped in the former Indian cricketer Zaheer Khan and current Indian Women’s cricket star Smriti Mandhana as brand ambassadors. Later it added Rishabh Pant to its star-studded list of brand ambassadors.
The NFT platform also landed partnerships with two cricket leagues, Abu Dhabi T10 and Lanka Premier League.