The Business of Sport – July 2022

Every month, the team at SM22 brings you the key updates in the world of sports business.

The commercial growth of Women’s football post-Euro 2022

The UEFA Women’s Euro 2022 final between England and Germany was the UK’s most watched game in the history of women’s football. The game reached a peak UK viewing of 17.4m, attracting 5.9m streams across digital platforms.

The success of the Euro 2022 competition should bring a new dawn of commercial growth for the women’s game, across nations, clubs and individuals.

At the national level, the competition sold 500,000 from an available 700,000 tickets before the tournament began, far surpassing the 240,000 tickets that were sold for the previous tournament in the Netherlands in 2017. With an estimated £54m boost in economic activity for London, future tournaments are likely to be in high demand from host cities.

The tournament has generated significant interest in individual sponsorship. Norway star Ada Hegerberg recently signed a deal worth more than £1m with Nike, with Alessia Russo set to extend existing relationships with Pepsi and Nike up to £2.5m/year.

However, the true indicator of Euro 2022 success will be seen in the club game. The England Women’s Super League began a £8m/year broadcast deal with Sky and BBC, dwarfed by the Premier Leagues global media rights value of £10bn. It is likely that the next round rights will be significantly higher value, but will we be able to see the women’s game rival the value of the men’s?

LIV Golf confirms plans for expanded 2023 schedule

The controversial LIV Golf tour has announced plans for the expanded 2023-25 schedule, structured as a league format with a $405m total prize fund, backed by a total investment of $2bn.

The schedule includes 10 events in 2023, followed by 14 events in 2024/25. With specific dates to be confirmed later, tournaments will take place across Asia Pacific, the Middle East, Europe and North America.

Each tournament will be structured as 12 four-man teams, with each team captain tasked with building each franchise to attract fan and sponsor interest. The format will involve a promotion and relegation system from the LIV Asia Tour events, with full details yet to be released.

EA Sports deepens Serie A presence with Juventus deal

Electronic Arts and Juventus have signed a multi-year video game licensing agreement, replacing Konami and the contracted video game developer.

It’ll be the first time the historic Serie A club has featured in FIFA since the 2019 iteration of the game, during which EA has used ‘Piemonte Calcio’ to provide a covering structure for Juventus in the absence of a rights deal.

The relationship is deepened with former Juventus player Claudio Marchisio appearing in FIFA 2023 as a Hero Card for FIFA Ultimate Team. Lead striker Dusan Vlahovic has joined EA as a FIFA ambassador, due to play a significant role in promotional activities beginning to take shape in the next few weeks.

BT Sport and Eurosport Joint Venture approved by UK CMS

The complex process of the BT Sport and Eurosport Joint Venture had a significant boost last month with approval by the UK Competition and Markets Authority.

Following submission to the CMA, BT Group and Warner Bros. Discovery welcomed the decision to approve the BT Group agreement with Warner Bros. Discovery, Inc. to form a 50:50 Joint Venture company that will create a new sports offering for the UK & Ireland.      

BT Sport and Eurosport UK will retain their current branding before planned merger in the future.

Though the JV is structured as a 50:50 partnership, it seems that Discovery is the senior partner. It has paid BT £93m upfront, and will part with up to £540m if certain performance conditions are met.

Sky extends cricket broadcast deal until end of 2028

Sky Sports has secured a 4-year renewal of the England and Wales Cricket Board rights from 2025-28.

The current 5-year deal, agreed in 2017, runs until the end of 2024. The agreement is worth £220m/year for the 5-year cycle.

Following a 73% viewing increase in televised cricket since 2017, the new package will include 90 extra hours of live cricket each year, with coverage of The Hundred and increased prominence of the Vitality Blast.