Eleven Sports was a multinational

sports Sport is a physical activity or game, often competitive and organized, that maintains or improves physical ability and skills. Sport may provide enjoyment to participants and entertainment to spectators. The number of participants in ...

and

entertainment Entertainment is a form of activity that holds the attention and Interest (emotion), interest of an audience or gives pleasure and delight. It can be an idea or a task, but it is more likely to be one of the activities or events that have deve ...

media group A media conglomerate, media company, media group, or media institution is a company that owns numerous companies involved in mass media enterprises, such as music, television, radio, publishing, motion pictures, video games, amusement parks, or ...

headquartered in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

. Eleven Sports' business model initially centred around the acquisition of major international sports rights in smaller countries. The company operates a network of linear television and/or digital services, broadcasting a mix of premium, niche, and grassroots sports as well as original programming, and provided

SaaS Software as a service (SaaS ) is a cloud computing service model where the provider offers use of application software to a client and manages all needed physical and software resources. SaaS is usually accessed via a web application. Unlike oth ...

livestreaming Livestreaming, live-streaming, or live streaming is the streaming of video or audio in real time or near real time. While often referred to simply as ''streaming'', the real-time nature of livestreaming differentiates it from other non- liv ...

services. In September 2022, Eleven Sports was acquired by

DAZN Group DAZN (; pronounced "da zone") is a British Over-the-top media service, over-the-top sports Sports broadcasting, streaming and entertainment platform. Founded in 2007 as Perform Group via the merger of Premium TV Limited and Inform Group, it is o ...

. Its business operations were subsequently integrated into relevant operations of its own sports streaming platform DAZN.

History

Eleven Sports first launched in

Belgium Belgium, officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. Situated in a coastal lowland region known as the Low Countries, it is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeas ...

and

Luxembourg Luxembourg, officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, is a landlocked country in Western Europe. It is bordered by Belgium to the west and north, Germany to the east, and France on the south. Its capital and most populous city, Luxembour ...

in 2015 with a linear and OTT service. In February 2016, Eleven Sports acquired Polish rights to

Formula One Formula One (F1) is the highest class of worldwide racing for open-wheel single-seater formula Auto racing, racing cars sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). The FIA Formula One World Championship has been one ...

. In July 2016, Eleven Sports acquired rights to the

English Premier League The Premier League is a professional association football league in England and the highest level of the English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Football Lea ...

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia. The main geography of Taiwan, island of Taiwan, also known as ''Formosa'', lies between the East China Sea, East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocea ...

. Both of the properties were marketed by Radrizzani's sister company MP & Silva. On 16 March 2017, Eleven Sports announced that it had acquired "certain distribution assets" of the fledgling U.S. international sports channel

One World Sports One World Sports (stylized ONE World Sports) was an American sports-oriented cable and satellite television channel. Owned by One Media Corporation, which was led by Seamus O'Brien, the network was primarily devoted to international sports, i ...

, which had been replaced by a U.S. version of Eleven Sports Network in advance of the announcement. Financial details of the sale were not disclosed. In May 2017, Eleven Sports acquired a majority share of Italian provider Sportube, which was renamed in September of that year. As of 2021, Eleven Sports Italy offers

Serie C The Serie C (), officially known as Serie C NOW for sponsorship purposes, is the third-highest division in the Italian football league system after the Serie B and Serie A. The Lega Italiana Calcio Professionistico (Lega Pro) is the governing ...

volleyball Volleyball is a team sport in which two teams of six players are separated by a net. Each team tries to score points by grounding a ball on the other team's court under organized rules. It has been a part of the official program of the Summ ...

, waterpolo, handball, basketball and more to fans. On 9 January 2018, Eleven announced that it would televise 120 games in the

2017–18 NBA G League season The 2017–18 NBA G League season was the 17th season of the NBA G League (formerly the NBA D-League), the minor league for the National Basketball Association (NBA). It is the first season after the league rebranded to become the NBA G League as ...

in the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

. In May 2018, Eleven Sports secured a three-year deal to broadcast

La Liga The Campeonato Nacional de Liga de Primera División, commonly known as the Primera División or La Liga, and officially known as LaLiga EA Sports for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Spain and the highest ...

football matches in the UK and Ireland, which had been previously broadcast on

Sky Sports Sky Sports is a group of British broadcasting of sports events, subscription sports channels operated by the satellite television, satellite pay television company Sky Group (a division of Comcast), and is the dominant subscription television ...

. Two months later, they secured exclusive UK three-year deals to screen

Serie A The Serie A (), officially known as Serie A Enilive in Italy and Serie A Made in Italy abroad for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Italy and the highest tier of the Italian football league system. Establish ...

matches, previously broadcast by

BT Sport TNT Sports (formerly BT Sport) is a group of pay television sports channels in the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Now owned by Warner Bros. Discovery Sports Europe, Warner Bros. Discovery and BT Group, they first launched as B ...

, the

Eredivisie The Eredivisie (; "Honour Division" or "Premier Division") is a professional association football league in the Netherlands and the highest level of the Dutch football league system. The league was founded in 1956, two years after the start o ...

and the

Chinese Super League The Chinese Football Super League (), commonly known as the Chinese Super League or the CSL (), also known as the China Resources Beverage Chinese Football Super League for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Ch ...

(both previously televised by

) and Sweden's

Allsvenskan Allsvenskan (; ), also known as Fotbollsallsvenskan (, ) is a professional association football league in Sweden and the highest level of the Swedish football league system. Founded in 1924, it operates on a system of promotion and relegatio ...

but in January 2019, Eleven Sports dropped its rights to Serie A and Eredivisie football, passing on the rights to Premier Sports. Premier Sports also won the rights to the Chinese Super League and Swedish Allsvenskan, leaving Eleven with exclusive La Liga, Segunda Division play-offs, Copa del Rey, and Supercopa rights until at least the end of the season. Also in May 2018, Eleven sold a 50% stake in its Polish operations to

Telewizja Polsat Telewizja Polsat is a Polish media company and broadcaster of television channels mainly under the ''Polsat'' brand. In November 2010 Cyfrowy Polsat announced that has acquired 100% of the Telewizja Polsat shares. Channels Entertainment *Polsat / ...

for around €38 million. In 2018, Eleven Sports launched services in Myanmar under the brand MY Sports, which broadcasts fixtures of Myanmar national team, U-23, U-21, U-18 teams and also exclusively broadcast

Myanmar National League The Myanmar National League (abbreviated MNL) is the premier national professional football league of Myanmar. In 2009, the league replaced the Myanmar Premier League, which consisted only of 14 Yangon-based football clubs, with eight profession ...

, General Aung San Shield,

FA Cup The Football Association Challenge Cup, more commonly known as the FA Cup, is an annual Single-elimination tournament, knockout association football, football competition in domestic Football in England, English football. First played during ...

and

. They also have partnerships with MRTV-4, Channel 7,

MRTV Myanmar Radio and Television (, abbreviated MRTV), formerly the Burma Broadcasting Service (BBS), is the parent of the state-run Myanmar Radio National Service and the MRTV television channel. The television channels are broadcasting from its ...

, Mizzima TV and Fortune TV for broadcasting football matches under MY Sports. In March 2019, Eleven renewed its rights to Formula One in Poland through 2022, also sub-licensing highlights to Polsat and race replays to TVP. It also launched services in Japan as its eleventh market, streaming games from NPB Farm League teams with associated digital coverage. In July 2019, nearly the remainder of Eleven Sports Poland was sold to Polsat, with Radrizzani maintaining a single share. In July 2019, Eleven Sports UK began to wind down operations, with Radrizzani admitting that trying to compete with the existing duopoly of

and

was a "mistake". In June 2020, Eleven acquired rights to Pro League, Division B, and Women's

Super League Super League (also known as the Betfred Super League for sponsorship reasons, and legally Super League Europe Ltd.) is a professional rugby league competition, and the highest level of the British rugby league system, which consists of twelve t ...

football in Belgium through the 2024–25 season, and later announced a partnership with

Mediapro Mediaproducción, S.L.U., better known as Mediapro, is a multimedia communications group in Spain founded in April 1994 in Barcelona. The company is well involved in movie and television production. The company holds branch offices in Madrid, S ...

for the rights as part of a larger series of projects. In August 2020, the company announced a repositioning referred to as "Eleven 2.0", including a refocus (initially in Belgium, Italy, and

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic, is a country on the Iberian Peninsula in Southwestern Europe. Featuring Cabo da Roca, the westernmost point in continental Europe, Portugal borders Spain to its north and east, with which it share ...

) to include more "premium" sports rights, and also launching new verticals for women's sports, local sports ("Eleven Next"), and

esports Esports (), short for electronic sports, is a form of competition using video games. Esports often takes the form of organized, multiplayer video game competitions, particularly between professional players, played individually or as teams. ...

. A new logo rebranding the broadcaster as "Eleven" was also introduced. In October 2020, Eleven acquired rights to the

Football Association of Thailand The Football Association of Thailand, under the Patronage of His Majesty the King (), or FA Thailand (FAT) for short, is the governing body of association football, futsal and beach soccer in Thailand. It was founded on 25 April 1916. The associ ...

for the remainder of the calendar year. In November 2020, Eleven acquired MyCujoo, which was integrated in 2021 to form a larger consumer streaming business. In March 2021, Eleven acquired Team Whistle, an American digital media company focused on sports-related content. In April 2022, Eleven announced that they would be supporting the delivery of the

FIFA The Fédération Internationale de Football Association (), more commonly known by its acronym FIFA ( ), is the international self-regulatory governing body of association football, beach soccer, and futsal. It was founded on 21 May 1904 to o ...

OTT platform FIFA+. In September 2022,

announced that it would acquire Eleven's sports media businesses, in a sale completed 15 February 2023. The agreement did not include its operations in Japan (where the service transitioned to the brand Easy Sports), and its Polish operations (which Polsat acquired the remaining share of later that year). The company began to merge Eleven's operations into the

DAZN DAZN (; pronounced "da zone") is a British Over-the-top media service, over-the-top sports Sports broadcasting, streaming and entertainment platform. Founded in 2007 as Perform Group via the merger of Premium TV Limited and Inform Group, it is o ...

business in 2023, and used its existing customer base to launch the DAZN service in Belgium, Portugal, and Taiwan.

References

{{reflist Mass media companies established in 2015 Mass media companies disestablished in 2023 Internet television channels Sports television networks 2015 establishments in England 2015 establishments in the United Kingdom DAZN Television channels and stations established in 2015 Television channels and stations disestablished in 2023

History

See also

References