Bet365 Snags England-Ukraine Football Broadcast Rights

Top-rated online sportsbook, Bet365, was on the ball recently (excuse
the pun) when it snapped up the rights to broadcast the Ukraine-England World
Cup football qualifier on Saturday, October 10. As the match will not be
televised, Bet365’s live-streaming servers will be bursting at the seams.

The internet broadcast rights to broadcast the match – which most English
football fans and their dogs will likely clamor to watch – were put up for sale
by the Perform Group, a company that sells live sports content to the highest
bidder. Its UK target market comprises publishing firms, ISPs and online
sportsbooks.

Bet365 will be one of just 4 online platforms that have been licensed to
broadcast the match, the others being the websites of leading UK daily
newspapers, The Sun and The Times, as well as Perform Group’s own pay-per-view
site, UkrainevEngland.com. But Bet365 has a trick up its sleeve to attract
viewers.

Unlike the other sites, it will allow its registered account holders to watch
the match for free. This piece of news will undoubtedly have English and
Ukrainian football fans alike clamoring to join up with Bet365, an online sports
betting site that is continuing to grow from strength to strength amongst
serious betting fans.

Although England has already qualified for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa,
there will be no shortage of English football fans eager to watch Saturday’s
match which is what Bet365 will be betting on. Executives at the sportsbook will
be keen to see how the live football game translates into online betting
revenues.

Said Bet365 CEO, John Coates, ‘We stream over 5,000 events live a year, so when
good quality matches become available, we’ll look to see if we can secure them.
In addition, the fact that none of the television companies in the United
Kingdom snapped up the rights will make the broadcast more significant.’

Originally the rights to all of England’s group games were acquired by Irish
sports TV channel, Setanta. But after the broadcaster went bust, they all
reverted back to Swiss firm Kentaro, one of the world’s leading football rights
agencies, which negotiated a live pay-per-view internet agreement with Perform
Group.