Aggressive Le Sports’ invests heavily in sports rights

After an aggressive and bold move by acquiring the broadcasting rights to over 200 blue-ribbon sports events, Le Sports has now been defined by many Chinese media as a “Unicorn” company, but their CEO Lei Zhenjian said the company is just a startup with the entrepreneurship to challenge and eventually make a difference in the Chinese sports market. 

Currently, the growing focus on the sports industry has heated up competition in that sector. We’ve seen how many Chinese internet giants like Tencent and Alibaba have ramped up their investment in the sports business . Then there is Wanda, which has earned itself a louder voice through several big-money takeover deals. 

As one of the first batch of companies to step into the sports industry, how to constantly innovate, grow and maintain its leading position in the industry are the questions Le Sports need to consider.

Some outsiders are still questioning their strategy on sports rights expansion. Some even say Le Sports are able to do nothing but buy sports rights. 

Lei offered clarification on this matter, “People who said that just don’t know our business mode. I believe they will understand after another year or so. I am always reminding myself that we need to be proactive and challengeable to lead in Chinese sports.” 

The move is reasonable

Le Sports split from LeTV in March, 2014. Six months later, the Chinese government issued a sports reform plan. Their map-out of a sports plan prior to China’s governmental policy shift gives Le Sports a competitive edge in its ability to integrate sports rights more rapidly.  

“From the beginning of 2014, many have been saying that we are crazy. Indeed, we’ve taken a quite radical approach towards sports rights. By the end of December this year, we will have added the broadcasting rights of more than 280 events and 10,000 matches to our portfolio and 80% of those rights are exclusive, ” Lei said. 

“Some people think we just try to attract customers with no pay-off plans on the heavy investment. In fact, Le Sports has established an eco-system-like a sports internet platform. We do everything based on a simple logic: creating a sports eco-system available for everyone. It integrates events operation, content, smart hardware and value-added services,” Lei added. 

According to Lei, sports content is a very important part of the eco-system. Rights acquisition provides greater opportunities for Le Sports to show more exclusive content and to engage with sports consumers.

Source: eeo

Proofread by John Devlin