The NHL hosts annual regular season games in markets such as Finland, Sweden, and Czechia. (Gabriel Kuchta/Getty Images)

North American ice hockey’s elite NHL has opened an office in Zurich, Switzerland, possibly preempting an expansion of its presence in Europe, and has launched a hiring search for two senior management roles for the office.

The league is seeking a director of business development for Europe, as well as a senior manager for broadcast sales and relationships for the continent.

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Both roles will be based out of the Zurich office, with the director of business development reporting directly to the NHL’s vice president of global business development Jason Jazayeri, and focusing on developing the league’s business presence across Europe through commercial deals and partner relations.

The senior manager for broadcast sales and relationships, meanwhile, will work in tandem with the senior vice president for international Jaka Lednik to manage the league’s broadcast contracts in Europe and enhance the league’s presentation and overall presence in these TV markets.

Across Europe the NHL has a number of key media rights deals in place, mostly with pay-TV providers and OTT services such as Viaplay, which holds the rights to the NHL across its biggest European markets, the Baltics and the Nordic countries, while in other major markets like Czechia Nova Sport holds rights, and in the new office’s base, Switzerland, the league is broadcast by MySports.  

The NHL also holds prominent commercial partnerships across the region, including with sports betting firms Veikkaus and Unibet in the priority markets of Finland and Sweden, respectively, owing to the competition’s popularity, particularly in central and northern Europe.

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Since 2017 (with a break in 2020 and 2021 due to the Covid-19 pandemic) the NHL has staged annual regular season games in Europe, mostly across the Nordics (Sweden and Finland in particular) as well as Czechia, while Switzerland and Germany also hosted NHL pre-season friendly matches in that time.

In 2022, the league agreed an international distribution partnership with Australian telecoms giant Telstra, which is using its international Global Media Network (GMN) to deliver as many as 1,400 NHL games annually to rightsholding networks across Europe, the Middle East, and Africa, while plans exist to increase distribution to partners in other worldwide markets eventually.