The World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC) governing body has announced a new long-term distribution partnership with global sports-focused OTT streaming service DAZN.

Through the eight-year global deal, DAZN will air WBSC content across all applicable markets, including game broadcasts from several WBSC competitions, such as the upcoming Premier12 international competition, the WBSC World Cups of baseball and softball, and baseball/softball qualifiers for the Olympic Games.

DAZN will be Premier12’s exclusive US broadcaster, and outside the US, it will place Premier12 games on its free content tier to expand access to baseball content in new markets.

Premier12 coverage will be in English, Spanish, Japanese, and Korean.

The 2024 edition of Premier12 will run from November 9 through November 24 and take place at venues in Mexico, Taiwan, and Japan. 

WBSC president Riccardo Fraccari added: “International baseball/softball is experiencing unprecedented popularity as the road to the Los Angeles 2028 Olympic Games begins and this new partnership using DAZN’s distribution expertise and network will allow more fans to enjoy the WBSC’s flagship tournament – the WBSC Premier12 – and the rest of our exciting portfolio of baseball, softball and [five-a-side five-inning format] baseball5 tournaments.” 

The WBSC is already working to expand its offering internationally, and earlier in 2024 its European arm appointed Norway-based sports streaming platform Joymo as its exclusive OTT partner in a five-year deal.

The partnership saw the creation of a new digital content platform that hosts broadcasts and content from a raft of WBSC Europe events such as the Baseball European Cup.