Twitter, Sportradar Brings Live Stream of K-League 1’s First Match to Numerous Territories

The K-League live streamed the opening match of the 2020 Hana 1Q K-League 1 from Jeonju World Cup Stadium on May 8 at 6 a.m. ET/7 pm KST on its official Twitter account. While this match was played without an offline audience due to COVID-19, football fans around the world were invited to become cyber spectators. In addition, Sportradar helped bring the match to Australia, Germany, Hong Kong (TVB), Malaysia & Brunei, and more.

Korea is resuming professional sports games since worldwide sporting events including the Olympic Games were postponed or canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The K-League has prepared various measures to protect the players. Detailed directions will be continually reinforced through several procedures such as fever checks, careful management of all player movements, and numbering the drinks of each player. In addition, K-League financed and managed COVID-19 testing for a total of 1,142 K-League players and coaching staff in order to operate the league and games safely.

“We look forward to sharing the K-League’s high level of football with the rest of the world to help worldwide football fans get their fill of new matches and overcome COVID-19 at home together,” said Yeon Jeong Kim, Head of the Global Kpop & K-content Partnerships at Twitter, before the match. “Live-streaming the K-League opening match on Twitter will be a good opportunity to grow the popularity of the ‘Korean Sports’ across the world following K-POP, K-Movie, and Korean Election Broadcasting.”

Sportadar has kept busy since the K League appointed the company as its international broadcast rights distributor in December 2019. Before the match, 17 countries and 12 channels around the world confirmed live broadcasting and streaming of K League matches.

German-based Sportdigital Fussball, a broadcast channel dedicated to football, acquired the rights to broadcast K League 1 matches in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland, and began live broadcast in these countries starting from the season opener. In Australia, Optus Sports will broadcast two K League 1 matches per round. Optus Sports is a sports channel under the Australian IPTV service provider, Optus. Arena TV Sports, a sports channel under Arena TV which is based in Serbia, will cover seven countries in the Balkan region including Croatia, Montenegro, and Serbia. K League matches will also be broadcast and streamed live in China, India, Hong Kong, and Israel, rounding out the number of territories at this time that the K League will be available in.

“Live sport is an integral part of daily life for many people around the world, especially in these difficult and unique times,” says Dylan Chuan, Sales Director, Audiovisual, Sportradar. “With the K League season kicking off on Friday, we are delighted to have worked with our partners – media companies, broadcasters, and OTT platforms to deliver great entertainment and pulsating football action to fans across the globe.”