Sky Deutschland’s WOW to show Virtual Bundesliga

Source: DFL

Sky Deutschland has struck a deal with German football league, the DFL, to make its OTT streamer WOW the partner of the Virtual Bundesliga.

WOW will now appear with a partner logo on all digital communication platforms of the WOW Virtual Bundesliga (VBL) as well as in all offline events of the VBL and its competition parts. In addition, the company is acquiring an extensive rights package and will, among other things, present selected broadcasting segments and content formats from the eFootball competition organized by the DFL.

In May 2022, the DFL general meeting anchored the VBL in the DFL statutes as an eFootball competition for the Bundesliga and 2nd Bundesliga. The DFL had cooperated with EA Sports to launch an eSports competiton as far back as 2012, and the VBL Open by WOW competition, which is accessible to all individual players, is integrated with the EA Sports FC game.

WOW already carries all Bundesliga games on Saturday and all matches in the 2nd Bundesliga.

Caterina Preti, SVP OTT at Sky Deutschland, said: “Through the partnership with the Virtual Bundesliga, we will now make our great streaming offer from WOW even better known in the eSports segment. Gaming and eSports are highly relevant for our target group and WOW offers the right streaming content. This includes outstanding live sport, including the Bundesliga and 2nd Bundesliga as well as numerous other football competitions and sports, as well as highlight series based on well-known video games such as The Last of Us from HBO or Halo. As the WOW team, we are excited about all the Bundesliga clubs – of course also with the virtual teams. We therefore see a strong basis for profitable involvement in the Virtual Bundesliga environment.”

Jörg Höflich, head of virtual Bundesliga of the DFL, said: “The once again expanded field of club participants this season contributes significantly to the positive perception of the VBL. This means we can offer an attractive partnership offer in the dynamic and young environment of eSports. With Sky Deutschland and its streaming brand WOW, we are pleased to have gained a partner from the world of digital media offerings who has a very high affinity for football and is a long-standing partner of the DFL. We were explicitly looking for this kind of target group and brand fit for the naming rights partnership.”