As part of the discussions, club also considered proposals from betting companies for the rights to stream Brasileirao matches for their customers online. The clubs voted to approve the combined proposal of Zeus Sports Marketing (ZSM) and Stats Perform, official partner of Samba Digital, a sports digital agency – which aimed at international broadcasting for betting streams.
Last week, the CBF, CNC and representatives from 31 clubs in Brasileirao Series A and B met via videoconference to agree the first stage of the sale of international TV rights for the Brasileirao. Like most of the global football calendar, the Brasileirao is suspended until further notice, however, the 2020 league was not scheduled to start until May in any case, with play suspended during the state championships in March.
The companies were awarded the rights via a vote from each of the clubs, with the CBF mediating the vote. The CBF stressed publicly that it will not receive a fee related to the commercialisation of rights. The clubs have been discussing the proposals for around 10 months since receiving the bids of respective media companies in June 2019.
Stats Perform is a sports-related data and content company, while Zeus Sports operates in the consulting and advisory, global media rights, betting brokerage and data rights segments worldwide. The next stage of talks will focus on the commercialisation of these rights and securing the associated documentation.
In a press release, the CBF defines the second stage as, “When the selected companies will undergo work scope validation, compliance with governance and compliance standards, presentation of financial guarantees and formalisation of contractual instruments.”
Until this stage is completed, the commercialization of Brasileirão international rights is not considered completed. The teams’ preference is to sign a contract for four seasons, “with the main goal of increasing the visibility of the Brazilian Championship abroad, in addition to the financial return to the clubs involved,” concluded the CBF statement.
The rights negotiations have been fractious and convoluted. Last year, the CBF backed out of an agreement with a consortium made up of the Sport Promotion agency and Ecotonian, a UK-Swiss investment fund. The main sticking point was thought to be around demands including access to media rights for betting websites.
A year earlier, an international rights deal with BRNews also fell through, allegedly due to a series of missed payments. This led to an agreement with Sport Promotion and Ecotonian which was later rejected over associated rights packages. This deal was replaced by an OTT streaming deal for the 2019 season, with global broadcaster DAZN carrying some of the games live.
