Eleven Sports has launched a 24/7 digital service on esports-focused social streaming service Twitch in what marks the continued accessibility of traditional sports on the platform following last year’s deals with the NFL and NBA G League.
The new dedicated sports channel, called Eleven Prime, offers fans a variety of live sports, including basketball, baseball, football and hockey, as well as access to undercovered sports such as darts and drone racing. It’s free for users in the U.S., though fans have the option to subscribe for $4.99 a month to receive an enhanced viewing experience that includes ad-free displays and additional features.
“Through our collaborative approach with Twitch, we are challenging the status quo on how sports are delivered, discovered, and packaged,” Anthony Bailey, SVP Managing Director at Eleven Sports, said in a statement. “We are focused on reaching audiences everywhere and ensuring that fans can interact socially around our content.”
A spokesperson from Twitter said the channel is “indicative of how sports are finding a new home on Twitch given the recent success of wrestling and NBA G League.”
| Introducing ELEVEN PRIME, a new dedicated sports channel on @Twitch
A variety of sports including
will be free to access in the
with some events available to @Twitch’s 15 million users across the
Read more
https://t.co/botgAAsEnT pic.twitter.com/EtzK8hgoqg
— Eleven Sports HQ (@ElevenSportsHQ) March 6, 2018
In December, the Amazon-owned video service made two major announcements involving the NFL and NBA when it began hosting Thursday Night Football games through twitch.tv/primevideo and announced plans to begin streaming up to six NBA G League games a week.
The Thursday Night Football games were the first major live sporting events that had been streamed through Twitch, though the platform first experimented with traditional sports earlier in 2017 when it began streaming pro wrestling events. It has also built a community of streamers focused on health and fitness.
“Sports on Twitch is a very nascent, yet well-received category by our community,” Jane Weedon, Twitch’s director of business development, said in a statement. “Eleven Sports is tapping into the current appeal by offering up one of the first channels on Twitch dedicated to broadcasting sports content 24/7. Given the diversity of their programming from football to darts, and everything in between, this is an exciting time for sports fans looking for a more interactive viewing experience.”
The sports broadcaster delivers more than 25,000 live hours of sporting action to more than 17 million paying customers worldwide in Belgium, Luxembourg, Italy, Poland, Singapore, Taiwan and the U.S. Through the Twitch deal, however, only some events will be available to Twitch users outside of the U.S.