Highlight Reel: Could DAZN’s EFL bid spell the end for the 3pm blackout? 📺
This week's top stories feature DAZN, EFL, Kings League, Neymar, FC Barcelona, and Spotify.
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Welcome to the Highlight Reel, where keeping up to date with sports business news is as effortless as a Roger Federer forehand.
This week's lineup includes…
DAZN’s EFL bid and the 3pm blackout 📺
Kings League’s Brazilian expansion 🇧🇷
Opportunity for digitally connected shirts 🎽
HEADLINE
DAZN launch bid for all EFL matches in UK and abroad ⚽️
DAZN is seeking to remove the 3pm Saturday blackout rule in order to broadcast all 1671 of the English Football League (EFL) matches live from 2024-25.
Currently, Sky Sports holds the EFL rights and pays £119m annually for exclusive broadcasting of 138 games each season.
However, new players like DAZN and Viaplay are set to compete with Sky Sports and BT Sport for the rights from 2024-25, with prices expected to increase.
To achieve this, the FA would need to remove Article 48 of the UEFA Statutes that prohibits live broadcasts between 2:45 pm and 5:15 pm on Saturday afternoons. DAZN sees the rule as "medieval" and suggests that it promotes piracy among fans.
FEATURE
Neymar Jr. becomes president of second King's League team in Brazil 🇧🇷
Neymar is set to join Ronaldinho in becoming a team owner for the King’s League’s new Brazilian edition.
Hours ahead of the final, Pique used the occasion to announce Neymar’s involvement in unique fashion in front of 92,000 fans at Barcelona’s Nou Camp (i.e. via a kidnapping video, of course).
The league has quickly gained popularity with a mix of football and influencer "owners" for each team, including Sergio Aguero, Iker Casillas, and Ibai Llanos.
The Brazilian league is set to follow the blueprint of the highly successful Spanish edition, which only started at the beginning of the year. A Mexican edition is also being touted for the near future.
(See: Opportunity for investors/ content creators/ leagues here)
EXPLORE
Here’s a few other interesting stories from across the week… 👇
Los Angeles Chargers owner Dea Spanos Berberian is looking to sell 24% of the team 🏈
Premier League clubs set to ban front-of-shirt gambling sponsorships after government pressure ⚽️
The New York Yankees are investing into A1 Padel, a competitor to Pickleball 🎾
Formula Equal, a team consisting of an equal gender split workforce, unveils plans to join Formula 1 in 2026 🏎
Ticketmaster debuts NFT-gated ticket sales, starting with Avenged Sevenfold 💀
Major League Table Tennis has launched as the first professional table tennis league in the US 🏓
Mark Wahlberg has been named Chief Brand Officer of fitness firm F45 🏋️♀️
What stories have I missed? Let me know by replying to this email.
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BIG IDEA
Creating connection: Did Barcelona and Spotify miss a chance to tune into their fans? 🎽📲
For the second time this season, FC Barcelona marked the El Classico by wearing a special-edition kit.
The Catalan club, which adorned a shirt featuring Drake’s ‘OVO Sound’ logo in October, linked up with another musician –Rosalia– for its March 19 showdown with Real Madrid.
The move to replace the team's usual sponsor logo with Rosalia's ‘Motomami’ logo comes as part of the $296 million sponsorship agreement Barcelona signed with Spotify in 2022. That pact allows the streaming giant to highlight a chosen artist on the kit, in lieu of its own logo, for certain matches.
1899 shirts were made available to fans via the club’s official store for $422.
Fans could buy an even more limited-edition version of both the men's and women's teams' kits (numbered to 11) that were signed by the players for $2116. Those have sold out.
For all the praise that the activation received, Matt Hymers (founder, Connected Fanatics) believes it reflects a missed opportunity to digitally connect the kits.
“Through each piece of kit, [clubs] can drive a direct connection to a verified fan. [Clubs] can enable them to add memories to the kit, [clubs] can provide them digital versions of the kit, and [clubs] can offer all sorts of different experiences and access to things.”
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QUICK QUESTION…
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JOB BOARD
Director of Football - Forest Green Rovers (Stroud, UK)
General Manager - AFL Europe (London, UK)
Lead Consultant, Motorsport - Two Circles (London, UK)
Sponsorship and Events Manager - Santander (Milton Keynes, UK)
Manager, Bilingual Field Marketing & Events - New York Red Bulls (New York, US)
Marketing Manager - So-Fi Stadium (Los Angeles, US)
Strategy Lead - AFL (Melbourne, Aus)
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