Euroleague Basketball, the organizer of top European club competitions, has announced a new partnership with WSC Sports, the Israel-based sports video content provider.
Under the agreement, the continent’s two premier men’s basketball competitions, the EuroLeague and EuroCup, will make fully licensed footage available through the WSC Sports For Creators Program, “collaborating directly with creators to increase the online brand presence and engagement, while helping to reach new audiences outside of the existing fan base.”
The WSC Sports For Creators Program launched last year as a solution for both media rights holders and creators, allowing the latter access to an indexed video library and creation tools, which makes the creation and publishing of content easy while avoiding copyright infringement.
Utilizing WSC Sports’ AI-powered platform, creators and influencers will be able to access selected moments from the EuroLeague and EuroCup to automatically create and publish content, localized and customized by the creator for their audience.
Alex Ferrer Kristjansson, Euroleague Basketball marketing and communication senior director, said: “Euroleague Basketball is always looking for opportunities to innovate and expose more people to our outstanding and unique game experience.
“WSC Sports with its technology and innovations allows us to do this in a way that safeguards our content, whilst opening up new distribution channels and helping content creators expand their platforms, which is a win for basketball fans.”
Aviv Arnon, co-founder and chief business developer officer at WSC Sports, added: “Our goal is to see both Euroleague Basketball, and a host of hoops creators, elevate their content and make it available for fans to watch and engage with wherever they want to consume it.
“The Creators Program is a unique model that provides clear benefits to all. It enables rights holders to maximize the full value of their content by tapping into creators' highly engaged audiences, allowing them to easily generate and monetize more of the content fans want, without the risk of copyright infringements.”
Through the WSC Sports Creators Program, content creators are already accessing footage of several major valuable sports leagues and competitions. These include soccer’s German Bundesliga, Italian Serie A, and Argentine Primera División, Top Rank boxing events, One Championship MMA, and now basketball.
Meanwhile, Euroleague Basketball achieved significant growth across several key business metrics for the 2023-24 season, including television and digital audiences.
TV viewership experienced a huge rise, with a 27% increase compared to the 2022-23 season. A total of around 1.1 billion viewers tuned in to watch Euroleague content, whether live, delayed, or through highlights.
This growth was especially notable in several key markets, such as Turkey (up 155%), Serbia (35%), Greece (32%), Spain (13%), Lithuania (12%), and Italy (11%).
Additionally, the league's dedicated OTT platform, EuroLeague.TV, saw a 46% growth, reaching an all-time high of 85,900 subscribers.
The Euroleague’s digital platforms delivered record engagement levels, with double- and triple-digit increases.
Impressions hit a record of 1.8 billion across all social media platforms, representing a 79% increase compared to last season's numbers. Engagement numbers experienced an 89% increase.
Video content was one of the key growth drivers, with video views growing by 101% to a total of 747.4 million.
Euroleague Basketball had previously revealed record attendances at the end of the regular season, with average attendance rising to a record 10,383, and over three million spectators in person.
