Perform expands rights portfolio with European sporting events

Perform, the FTSE 250-listed digital sports media firm, now has over 16,500 live events now under contract for 2013 after expanding its rights portfolio.

The company announced on Monday morning that it come to an agreement to license the rights to over 2,000 annual events from media rights agency MP & Silvia.

The rights package includes a variety of worldwide sporting events, including football leagues in Italy, France, Brazil, Turkey and the UK, as well as other European basketball and handball leagues.

The agreement clears the content for Perform's Watch&Bet live streaming service and runs from July 1st 2013 until June 30th 2015, covering the 2013/2014 and 2014/2015 seasons.

"We are pleased to have this content back for Watch&Bet. Our focus is to provide the best live content to our customers 24 hours a day, 365 days a year and, with these rights becoming available again, we will flex our future year rights acquisition plans accordingly," said Chief Executive Officer Simon Denyer.

Perform said that the content will be offered to existing customers for 2013 and included in new content packages for the betting service from 2014 onwards.

The company will release its first-quarter trading update on April 30th.

BC