The betting and data rights are now being sold separately to the international broadcast rights and have attracted interested from some leading industry players. Ahead of the issuing of the reworked rights inventory a month ago, the clubs and the CBF had attracted four different proposals for the rights.
These included offers from the IMG agency, a joint proposal from the Brazilian streaming platform TVN Sports and Stats Perform and a bid by Brazilian betting operator Betsul. At least three of the offers were to cover five seasons (2020 to 2024). The Lagardère Sports agency has since entered the race for the rights, it is understood. Pitch International, the agency that works with the CBF on national team rights, was also thought to be looking at the rights.
In the middle of March, bidders were informed of the reworked rights inventory on offer. SportBusiness understands that the rights were then split up into: International television rights (free-to-air, pay-television and pay-per-view); international streaming rights; international betting streaming rights; and data rights.
The offer made by Global Sports Rights Management (GSRM) is the most attractive proposal for clubs, among the three that will be discussed this Friday (17), in a videoconference starting at 3 pm. The amount to be paid should be U $ 10 million per year, which would be divided as follows: 75% among Serie A clubs, 20% for Serie B teams and another 5% for Nacional Serie C teams. The winner's definition meeting is on Friday at 3 pm, again by videoconference.
GSRM was set up by Hernán Donnari, previously a leading figure at Fox Sports Latin America; Matias and Raul Rivera, the co-founders of the Fanatiz streaming platform; David Belmar, president of 1190 Sport, a Latin American sports rights management company; and Juan Arciniegas from Miami-based private investment firm 777 Sports. The executives behind GSRM also recently targeted the Argentinian Superliga international rights during a controversial invitation-to-tender process.
Clubs are still trying to improve the values with a counterproposal. Within the total value, there are variables according to what the winner company is able to sell worldwide. Percentage is foreseen for Serie B and Serie C clubs. These models are still being discussed with the two favorite companies.
The possibility of receiving this money in cash is the main reason that makes clubs accelerate the process of choosing the winner of this competition. The three proposals that are considering the clubs comprise the same duration: four years of contract, until the end of the 2023 Brasileirão championship. In addition to the sale of broadcasting rights, gambling bets will also be another product negotiated by clubs.
The need to receive the payment in cash made the clubs put aside projects that had better known companies in the international rights market, but that did not offer a guaranteed minimum value to clubs, as was the IMG project, according to SportBusiness. The amount to be given to each club when signing the contract was also what caused the TV NSports project to be discarded, the only one that had investment from a Brazilian company.
Athletico-PR does not want to participate in the sale of international rights. The club did not even participate in the meeting on the topic, although it also extended his vacation for another 10 days. Athletico president Mario Celso Petraglia disagrees with the figures presented.
With the shutdown of football and the uncertainty regarding the beginning of the 2020 Brasileirão, payments of local broadcasting rights, the main source of revenue for most clubs, are suspended. Therefore, more important than the expansion project of the Brasileirão brand abroad, is how much each team should receive as a minimum contract guarantee at that time. This decision was made by the clubs in the middle of March, when football was paralyzed.
The offer, by the way, is still considered low (in each year of contract, a Serie A club would receive less than R$ 3 million -US$ 376k- for the slice it is entitled to, out of a total of around R$ 8 million -US$ 1.53M-). But there is an understanding that it is the initial step, a "tasting" for potential customers. After four years, they renegotiate for other values. Some clubs, like Flamengo, pointed out that at first even the value not being ideal can be important for the visibility of clubs outside Brazil.
Publicly, clubs have praised the technical choice to be made. As the sale project is for an interval of just four years, the expectation is that, with the Brazilian Championship more valued, it will be possible to get more money in a renegotiation of the contract, four years from now. This if the need for cash allows clubs to finally think about a medium-term project, something that was ruled out in what is the third international sale bid.
Source: GMB / Globoesporte / Máquina do Esporte
