Wsl Signs Landmark Facebook Deal

25 Jan 2018 | tshego

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World Surf League (WSL) and Facebook have announced a partnership that makes the social media platform the exclusive digital home for the top live events in surfing in 2018 and 2019.

The deal includes all elite men’s and women’s Championship Tour events, the Qualifying Series 10,000 and Big Wave Tour events, as well as the World Junior Championships.

The new partnership builds upon the non-exclusive live rights agreement that Facebook and WSL struck last year, in which all men’s and women’s Championship Tour events, as well as Big Wave Tour events, were simulcast on Facebook and WSL’s website and mobile app. WSL reports that on its channels, more than 13.9 million people watched a World Surf League event on Facebook in 2017.

All live events will be available globally on Facebook. Those in the US will be able to tune in on Facebook Watch. The partnership also calls for additional Facebook Watch programming, such as Surfing Sundays, which recaps each week’s top surfing action, with more programming planned in 2018 on this platform.

Sophie Goldschmidt, who joined the WSL as CEO in July last year, said: “Facebook fosters a global community and, as surfing is a sport that celebrates and centers around community, we are proud to announce our media rights partnership with the platform.

“This is game-changing for the sport in many ways and, with current and new fans front of mind, we can retain the free offering to fans, and it allows us to deliver the world’s best surfing to even more people on Facebook’s platform.”

Dan Reed, Facebook head of global sports partnerships, commented: “We’re thrilled to become the exclusive home of the World Surf League’s live events for the next two years. This is a natural next step in our terrific partnership, which has steadily progressed over the years as the League has expertly used Facebook to distribute content and build community. This was especially true last year, when millions of fans came together on our platform to watch live surfing. We’re excited to help WSL continue to serve and grow this vibrant community and usher in a new era of surf broadcasting on Facebook Watch.”