EXCLUSIVE: AFC Champions League rights in UK and Ireland ...

FITE has scored exclusive rights to the AFC Champions League in the UK and Ireland, Belgium, France and the Netherlands, marking the streaming platform’s latest effort to expand beyond combat sports.

The deal for the 2023/24 season secures Triller-owned FITE coverage of the Asian Football Confederation’s (AFC) premier club competition which features teams across the continent, including Saudi Arabia, Japan, South Korea, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Australia. Games will be streamed live on the FITE+ over-the-top (OTT) service.

The AFC Champions League group stages kicked off on 18th September and will see four teams from the Saudi Pro League compete this season. The country’s top flight made waves across soccer during the summer, spending lofty sums on a string of high-profile players – including Cristiano Ronaldo, Karim Benzema, N’Golo Kante and Sadio Mane – in a bid to establish an elite domestic soccer league and spark further growth nationally.

“We are delighted to bring the AFC Champions League to our FITE+ subscribers in these territories,” said Adam Bigwood, vice president of subscriptions at FITE.

“This partnership not only bolsters our rapidly expanding sports content library but also underscores our commitment to delivering top-notch sports entertainment to our fans.”

New York-headquartered FITE has operated predominantly as a dedicated combat sports streaming platform since its launch in 2012 but that has changed in recent years.

Notably, FITE struck a deal to show the delayed 2021 Rugby League World Cup across multiple territories, including the US, Germany, Italy and Spain. It is also showing Conmebol qualifiers for the 2026 Fifa World Cup. SportsPro understands FITE was even interested in UK rights to Spanish soccer’s LaLiga, though the league ended up extending its pact with Premier Sports until the end of the 2024/25 campaign.

Combat sports still dominate FITE’s content slate, which features promotions such as the Bare Knuckle Fighting Championship (BKFC), Major League Wrestling (MLW), Triller Fight Club and Game Changer Wrestling (GCW). FITE says it has more than seven million registered users and has made moves to expand its reach, offering a free ad-supported streaming television (FAST) channel, FITE 24/7, and by striking various carriage deals, including with Virgin TV in the UK.

Evidently, FITE’s interest in the AFC Champions League has been piqued by the enhanced profile of the Saudi Pro League since its summer spending spree. The same could also be said of DAZN, which will broadcast up to three live matches a week from the Saudi top flight in the UK, Germany and Austria this season in an agreement reportedly worth US$500,000.

Assuming FITE has also not had to break the bank, its deal for the AFC Champions League appears a relatively low-risk venture. It will hope, in theory, the appeal of globally recognised soccer players and a degree of novelty the Saudi Pro League brings will pull in audiences – and introduce them to FITE’s wider live sports offering.