Eleven Sports has secured live and exclusive rights to all matches of the UEFA Champions League and LaLiga Santander in Portugal, where it will now launch.
The agreements for the two football competitions start from the beginning of the 2018/19 season and will run for three years until the end of the 2020/21 season.
The UEFA Champions League deal includes 138 matches per season, from the final qualifying round and group stages to the final. It also includes the UEFA Super Cup – the annual tie between the winners of the UEFA Champions League and the UEFA Europa League.
The agreement with LaLiga includes every match from Spain’s top flight.
Portugal will become Eleven Sports’ tenth market and follows the recent acquisition of LaLiga rights in the UK and Ireland. Eleven has built a successful partnership with the Spanish league in Poland, Belgium and Luxembourg where it has held the rights since 2015.
Eleven Sports will announce details in the coming weeks about the innovative ways in which it will package and distribute the action for fans in Portugal.
“We are very proud to secure UEFA Champions League and LaLiga rights in Portugal, two of the world’s biggest football competitions in a nation that has a huge passion for the game,” said Danny Menken, Group Managing Director, Eleven Sports.
“Today’s news, which signals our entry into another major European market and our tenth market globally, helps drive our momentum of serving dedicated sports fans everywhere. We look forward to serving up thrilling live football in innovative ways that enable fans to engage with the action that features some of the world’s greatest rivalries, biggest teams and best players.”
“Eleven Sports are an excellent partner for LaLiga in various markets across Europe. We are excited to expand our relationship with Eleven Sports to bring the spectacle of LaLiga Santander to our fans in Portugal,” said LaLiga President Javier Tebas.
Guy-Laurent Epstein, UEFA Director of Marketing said: “We are delighted to welcome Eleven Sports as a broadcast partner of the UEFA Champions League in Portugal for the 2018-21 cycle. Eleven Sports has proven to be an ambitious global broadcaster and we look forward to the exciting ways in which it will make the competition available to fans in the territory.”
Eleven Sports already has rights to LaLiga in the UK, Poland, Belgium and Luxembourg; Serie A in Italy, Poland, Belgium, Luxembourg and Taiwan; Premier League in Taiwan; Formula One in Poland; UFC in Belgium and Luxembourg; NBA in Belgium, Singapore and Taiwan; and NFL in Belgium.
