SPORT1 and Sportradar joined forces

SPORT1 and Sportradar, the world’s leading provider of sports data, media and entertainment solutions, are partnering up this year to showcase the newly launched eFootball.Pro League. Germany’s leading 360° sports platform has acquired platform-neutral media rights for live and highlight coverage of the competition’s current season in Germany, Austria and Switzerland.

The regular season of the eFootball.Pro League, where the players compete in Pro Evolution Soccer (PES) kicked off in December 2018 and runs through until April 2019. The next matchday is Saturday February 23, with all the action on free livestream at SPORT1.de as well as on YouTube and again as live on eSPORTS1. The remaining two matchdays and the subsequent playoffs and finals will be shown live on eSPORTS1. SPORT1 also has archive rights to the two days of the eFootball.Pro League already played. The competition involves a total of six top European clubs, including a German team, Schalke 04. Joining them are FC Barcelona, Celtic FC, AS Monaco, FC Nantes and Boavista FC.

Daniel von Busse, COO TV and Member of the Board of SPORT1 GmbH said, “Through this partnership with the eFootball.Pro League and the TAG Heuer Virtual Bundesliga, we now offer eSports fans the full spectrum of virtual soccer on eSPORTS1. With its format of regular season, playoffs and finals, the competition, which was the brainchild of Barcelona star Gerard Piqué, promises excitement from beginning to end. It will definitely also wow eSports fans in Germany, Austria and Switzerland.”

Lutz Tigges, Senior Director Audiovisual Broadcast at Sportradar said, “We are very pleased to work with SPORT1 in esports and support the successful growth and development of its fully dedicated esports channel. eFootball.Pro League is a fantastic fit for that strategy as it’s a new concept that delivers high quality, exciting matches.“

How the eFootball.Pro League works

The company eFootball.Pro, founded and headed by Gerard Pique, star player with FC Barcelona and World Cup winner with Spain in 2010, is behind the concept of the new league, which debuted on December 2, 2018, with the partnership of KONAMI. The first eFootball.Pro League season is made up of the regular season with five matchdays, the playoffs and the finals. On the five matchdays, each duel between two clubs consists of two singles matches in “2 versus 2” mode. If a team wins both games, or wins one and draws the other, it gets three points. If each team wins one game or if both games end in a draw, they get one point each. While the three best clubs at the end of the season qualify directly for the Finals, the other three battle it out in the playoffs for the Final place in the last phase, which consists of the semi-Finals and the Final.

Featuring the best PES players in Europe

The six participating clubs have snapped up all the star players for the first season of the eFootball.Pro League. Schalke have signed the current best four German PES players Matthias “GoooL” Winkler, Dennis “wide” Winkler, Mike “EL_Matador” Linden and Mehrab “MeroMen” Esmailian. Barça have the reigning world champion in 3vs3, Alex Aguacil, on board, and Celtic can boast his former teammate Ettore “ETTORITO97” Giannuzzi, world title holder in both 3vs3 and singles.