New global sports platform a milestone moment for ELEVEN 2.0 strategy

ELEVEN is delighted to announce the acquisition of live streaming company MyCujoo and its award winning MyCujoo Live Services streaming technology.

The acquisition is a milestone moment for ELEVEN. It lays the foundations for a new global ELEVEN service and adds transformative and scalable new technology capabilities to the group. The deal will also empower ELEVEN to provide rights holders across the sports and entertainment industries with access to ground-breaking live streaming technology and tools.

Launched in 2015 by co-founders Pedro and João Presa, MyCujoo has enabled football federations, leagues, clubs and players to showcase their games live to a global audience. In 2019 alone, MyCujoo streamed over 22,000 matches from 3,500 content creators, reaching more than 26 million unique users around the world.

MyCujoo’s consumer platform will be folded into ELEVEN, to create a new and enhanced global ELEVEN platform. MyCujoo’s leading tech stack will power the new ELEVEN service. ELEVEN’s immersive viewing features will be integrated into the offering, and elements of ELEVEN’s longtail rights proposition will be added to the platform in a phased approach over the coming months. The content offering will be organized into the three verticals unveiled in the ELEVEN 2.0 strategy announcement in August – ELEVEN NEXT, ELEVEN WOMEN and ELEVEN ESPORTS. The platform is scheduled to be fully operational in 2021.

ELEVEN’s new global service will sit alongside and complement ELEVEN’s regional platforms across Europe and Asia. ELEVEN Belgium, Portugal, Poland, Italy, Taiwan, Myanmar (MySports) and Japan will continue to serve local fans directly with the best live sport and entertainment.

MyCujoo also recently launched MyCujoo Live Services (MCLS), which will remain a separate entity within the ELEVEN Group. MCLS is a unique end-to-end live streaming service that delivers unrivalled viewing experiences to fans, and has garnered significant interest in the market from major sports and music rights holders worldwide. A highly scalable, robust solution for content creators seeking to stream and unlock the value in their content, the flexible streaming technology and tools are already trusted to deliver broadcasts for an array of premium and mid-tier content, including from Brazil’s Brasileiro Série A. MCLS will ultimately be able to empower content creators at all levels and sizes to deliver live video to their own audiences wherever they are.

Luis Vicente, ELEVEN CEO, said: “We’re delighted to welcome MyCujoo into the ELEVEN family. We will be coming together to give federations, teams and players a new and improved home to showcase their talent. We aim to serve dedicated communities of supporters everywhere with a first-class global sports destination and thousands of hours of LIVE sport.”

“MyCujoo has proved itself to be a leading destination for longtail content over the past five years. We look forward to building on that incredible legacy and taking the offering to the next level. By bringing our technology, content and expertise together we are committed to building a world leading destination for fans and content creators.”

“This is a milestone moment in the ELEVEN journey. Over the next few months we will become the home for sports democratisation – premium, professional, semi-professional, amateur, long-tail, new-tail, real and virtual. Our platform will provide access for every sport, athlete, player, content creator and fan. More than ever we stand ‘By the Fans. For the Fans’.”

Pedro and João Presa, MyCujoo Co-founders, added: “MyCujoo was founded with a single mission – to provide accessible but powerful technology for football’s non-elite to live stream, showcase and realise the value in their content. That mission has seen millions of fans worldwide engaging with their clubs more closely than ever before.

“With MyCujoo Live Services we’ve taken that one step further by opening up our technology to rights holders who need a flexible, powerful solution that enables them to deliver world-class live experiences in a matter of minutes wherever their fans are located, on platforms of their own choosing. In ELEVEN, we’ve found a partner that not only shares our commitment to celebrating local and grassroots sport, but also accelerating untapped broadcast potential in live video for organisations worldwide.”

MyCujoo’s investors, who include Go4it Capital, Sapphire Sport, and Carsten Thoma, have backed an acquisition which will see their investment retained in the ELEVEN group. This acquisition will celebrate user generated content, provide unprecedented visibility for thousands of teams and leagues around the world, and give access to hundreds of thousands of hours of additional live sport everywhere, together with further developing MyCujoo Live Services as a leading B2B solution for streamers of every scale.

Go4it Capital added: “MyCujoo’s founders Pedro and João are great entrepreneurs and have done a fantastic job leading innovation in sports streaming. We are excited by MyCujoo’s combination with ELEVEN, and look forward to continuing as partners to take ELEVEN to new heights.”

ELEVEN’s partnership with MyCujoo has already been successfully demonstrated in recent months. A collaboration with ELEVEN’s MY SPORTS platform saw all Myanmar National League (MNL) matches streamed on MyCujoo from August 2020, resulting in fans across 100 countries watching live content on average more than 1000% times longer than before. ELEVEN is also partnering with MyCujoo to deliver Thai League 1 to fans in Thailand for the remainder of 2020.  

About ELEVEN SPORTS:

ELEVEN SPORTS is an award-winning sports provider dedicated to delivering the best international and domestic sport to fans around the world. ELEVEN’s platform agnostic approach aims to ensure that fans can watch the action wherever they are. Innovation is at the core of ELEVEN’s long-term strategy, offering fans a flexible and engaging viewing experience across all digital devices. 

The ELEVEN group distributes live coverage of premium sports including NFL, UEFA Champions League, Premier League, LaLiga, F1, NBA and much more. In Belgium, ELEVEN holds the domestic rights to the Belgian Pro League. All the action is delivered in local languages, supplemented with news, comprehensive pitch-side and in-studio analysis, digital content and local programming.

Press Contacts: 

Eleven Sports 

Tom Bennett

Tom.Bennett@ElevenSports.com

About MYCUJOO:

MyCujoo is a team of passionate people who have changed the way football is produced, distributed, and monetised. From their founding, their mission has been focused on giving everyone the ability to live broadcast their football matches, no matter at which level they play, no matter where they are in the world.

We believe every football match is important to a team’s fans, whether they can be counted on one hand or number in the millions. The football world is a better place when all clubs, leagues, and federations have the opportunity to share their games, and we’re proud to help thousands of partners from more than 100 countries to connect with their fans via the MyCujoo platform and apps.

From Afghanistan to America, Brazil to Belarus, MyCujoo saw over 22,000 matches streamed on its platform in 2019 alone. Their unique revenue share model means they help reinvest back into football, and continue to help grow the game loved by 4 billion fans across the globe.

The world-class streaming technology that powers the MyCujoo platform is now available to organisations across sports, music, and beyond. MyCujoo Live Services provides a seamless, flexible suite of technology and tools to immediately create world-class live video experiences and deliver them to wherever their fans can be found.

Press Contacts: 

MyCujoo

Dave Phillips

dave.phillips@mycujoo.tv