InPlayer is in the privileged position of supporting a number of leagues, federations, agencies and clubs from across the sporting landscape in their efforts to drive PPV and subscription revenues from their premium content offerings.
We recently worked alongside Shamrock Rovers FC, and their rights agency Bensberg Media, to provide the required streaming and monetisation workflow for Rovers to broadcast their crucial Europa League Qualifying 2nd leg tie against Apollon Limassol directly from their own website to fans across the Republic of Ireland and the UK.
The match was at risk of a broadcasting blackout after no agreement was reached between the rights holders and Irish broadcasters, but then InPlayer were approached to help Shamrock offer a D2C solution so that fans would have the ability to see their team in action – as well as drive additional revenues for all involved.
THE EVENT – Shamrock Rovers vs. Apollon Limassol – Europa League
To watch the live stream, fans could pay a fee of €5.99 for early subscribers, or €8.99 if they signed up on match day. The solution was deemed a great success from all sides and almost 1,500 fans paid to watch the stream. The unique method of distribution was even covered Irish press following the match;
CLIENT’S TESTIMONIAL
Here’s what our client has to say about their experience working with InPlayer:
Mark Lynch, Marketing Director
Shamrock Rovers Football Club
Shamrock Rovers F.C. worked with InPlayer to provide a secure platform to webstream the UEFA Europa League qualification match from Cyprus to the fans at home in Ireland and the UK.
We worked with Alex and Zorana at InPlayer who liaised with the broadcaster in Cyprus and set up the technology to deliver the match. The front end was easy to put together and hosted on www.shamrockrovers.ie.
The security measures put in place worked really well as the game was not re-posted on sites like skorlive.com even though many other Europa games that night were on that site.
Feedback from our supporters on the quality of stream, pricing and ease of access has been excellent and we would certainly work with InPlayer again.
InPlayer continues to work with other clubs and partners within Irish football; since the Shamrock games we have also monetised another match from the early stages of the Europa League between Dundalk and Slovan Bratislava; https://www.dundalkfc.com/live-stream/.
We are also incredibly proud to be working alongside our partner SportRadar on a pilot project to help Irish League games become more accessible to fans outside of the Republic of Ireland. More information can be found on the SSE Airticity League website https://www.sseairtricityleague.ie/news/sse-airtricity-league-tv-pilot-launched/id-2751