German Bundesliga Deal for Italian Digital Platforms

Italian fans of German premier league football will no longer have to wait for recaps of the matches. German gambling news sources reported that Deutsche Fussball Liga (DFL, The German Football League) has signed a partnership deal with media group PERFORM.

The digital sports expert will market live coverage and highlights from the 2012/13 season of Bundesliga (professional football league in Germany) to online and mobile platforms in Italy.

The DFL is responsible for the operation of German Bundesliga football league matches as a subsidiary of the league association, Die Liga – Fussballverband.

The partnership, fully compliant with the German gambling laws, will see the sales arm of DFL Sports Enterprise enter a new distribution model. The agreement allows streaming one live match per week for free for news sites and sport portals, as well as on PERFORM’s own website Goal. According to a company spokesperson, Goal alone reaches monthly 1.6 million fans in Italy.

DFL will give access to highlight clips via a Bundesliga channel on PERFORM’s sports VOD broadcast platform ePlayer. The platform reaches 8 million fans in Italy and embedded on publisher sites and portals, and via PERFORM’s LIVESPORT application on LG and Toshiba connected TV’s.

The partnership allows PERFORM to sell advertising on live and on demand Bundesliga content in Italy. Ads of German internet casino enterprises and other forms of e-gambling are not mentioned in the deal.

DFL Sports Enterprise is looking forward to evaluating the experience and insight from the pilot to steer further projects in the digital media.

Jacopo Tonoli, managing director of PERFORM in Southern Europe commented: “This is the first time a major football competition like the Bundesliga has adopted such an exciting distribution strategy. It is one of the world’s leading club football competitions and we are excited to be able to use our market leading products and partners to ensure fans of the Bundesliga can stay in touch with all the news and action.”