The International Basketball Federation (FIBA) has linked up with Twitch as part of a new multi-year collaboration, launching later in spring this year.
The Amazon-owned streaming service will show around 600 hours of live basketball action each year to the Switzerland-based federation’s Twitch channel, along with other ‘unique programming formats’.
In addition, FIBA will grant fans of the sport access to official footage to produce FIBA-related content for their own platforms, as part of the organisation’s wider strategy to establish a network of creators in each of its major markets across the globe – Australia, France, Italy, Spain and the US – who will co-stream live games.
Damian Burns, SVP EMEA at Twitch, said: “Twitch is a community of superfans where the most passionate come together to participate in and shape their own entertainment – live.
“FIBA is an innovation-driven organisation and is passionate about bringing fans together in new interactive ways around livestreaming. This makes FIBA the perfect fit for Twitch. We are excited to see FIBA reach new and existing audiences across the globe with truly innovative content that makes the most of the tools and resources Twitch has to offer.”
All of FIBA’s 3×3 tournaments, the EuroLeague Women and a handful of youth competitions will be live streamed on the channel, whilst highlights and delayed coverage of the FIBA national team and other club and youth competitions will be packages and distributed for Twitch creators.
According to a statement, the agreement ‘aligns with FIBA’s strategic objectives’ to promote awareness of women’s basketball by growing awareness and engagement, targeting Twitch’s global community of young creators to ‘establish themselves as one of the trailblazers’.
FIBA already streams age-grade games via YouTube and Facebook, and also promotes its offering through the subscription-based over-the-top (OTT) LiveBasketball.TV service.
It will also build value for FIBA and its commercial partners by reaching new fans of younger demographics worldwide.
“FIBA is delighted to announce this unique collaboration with Twitch, a live streaming service that is used by millions of people globally each day,” commented FIBA Secretary General Andreas Zagklis. “This innovative agreement will further strengthen our strategic objective to enlarge the FIBA family by offering year-round basketball action to more fans, on an interactive service.”
Last year, the platform launched its own ‘TwitchSports’ channel, after signing strategic partnerships with the likes of Real Madrid, Arsenal, Juventus and Paris Saint-Germain.