The Bundesliga Soccer League has 18 teams and has the highest number of people that attend their games in the world. The league announced on May 10th that games would resume on May 16th, and had a record number of viewers watching on opening day. The biggest soccer league in the world was given very good news by German Chancellor Angela Merkel when she said Bundesliga teams could resume training and playing matches.
There are some conditions that were imposed by Merkel, one being the matches would be played without spectators in the stands. Players would have to be tested twice a week for coronavirus.
However, the first match last week went off without a hitch and the feedback from fans was very enthusiastic. The eyes of the world were watching to see how the first major soccer league navigated playing as the virus is still taking lives. DraftKings officials were also watching because they were about to embark on a partnership with Bundesliga.
Bundesliga Fans Are Elated That They Can Now Watch Soccer Matches Live Via DraftKings
DraftKings signed a partnership deal with Bundesliga last week that offers soccer fans live-streamed games across all of their sports betting platforms. The last game scheduled to be played is on June 27th.
Fans can watch all of the remaining games in 2020 on the sports betting app. The only requirement is that fans with DraftKings accounts cannot have a zero balance to watch soccer games. Even if they have $0.01 they can watch any game.
In the US, the availability to watch live-streamed matches is limited to states that have mobile sports betting up-and-running. These states so far are Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Indiana, New Jersey, New Hampshire, Colorado, and Iowa.
DraftKings competitor FanDuel had also been streaming some Bundesliga matches last year, but DraftKings is no longer concerned because they now have the exclusive contract to stream matches. DraftKings reported year-over-year profit growth of 30% in the first quarter of 2020. The company went public in April 2020.
DraftKings Continues To Seize Mega Profitable Partnerships Even During A Pandemic
Sports analyst Greg Lamper from Albany, New York said, “They have priceless timing, with everything they do, which made them the first publicly traded sports betting company. That’s a very impressive feat they have accomplished for an industry so new.”
Lamper continued, “They took the lemons that the sports shutdown created and turned them into lemonade. They are a leader in the industry, quickly offering eSports and competitive reality shows like Top Chef and Survivor. They continued to prosper with their creative innovative tragedy. They have a very remarkable team that seems very unstoppable.”
Sky Records is the broadcast partner of Bundesliga and a source with Sky said it was “fingers and toes crossed” as the players took the field last Saturday. Everything went well, bringing in record numbers of viewers around the world. People were just so relieved and happy that they were able to watch live sports again.
That first match earned Sky Records a 27% market share of viewership. They had close to 4 million viewers. With all the offerings on TV, that was quite an impressive number.
There were an additional 2.45 million viewers that watched on another platform for non-subscribers. The first match was between Borussia Monchengladbach and Eintracht Frankfurt with Borussia coming up with the 3-1 win.
