Motorcycling’s global governing body has signed a 10-year operational agreement with Discovery-owned event management firm Eurosport Events.
The International Motorcycling Federation (FIM) deal kicks off in 2022 and will see the firm promote events including the Speedway Grand Prix, Speedway of Nations, Speedway U21 and Speedway Youth World Championships globally.
The new deal builds on the existing work between the organisations for the promotion of the FIM Endurance World Championship (EWC) since 2015. Eurosport Events signed a new 10-year deal to continue as the promoter of the EWC through to 2029 in 2019.
Eurosport Events will oversee the full operational and commercial aspects of the sport, including multi-platform rights management and distribution, broadcast production, sponsorship rights strategy and the full suite of marketing, brand and promotional activity. It will also work with local organisers on local promotion and maximising ticketing, hospitality and fan engagement activities.
FIM president Jorge Viegas said: “The FIM launched the tender process back in 2019 for the promotion of the FIM Speedway World Championships 2022-2031. Discovery and Eurosport Events has won the vote of the Board of Directors for its innovative proposal in terms of sport promotion and television coverage.
“This new collaboration will provide increased media visibility of the FIM Speedway Grand Prix World Championship through Eurosport platforms and key third-party broadcasters. The FIM would like to thank BSI and OneSport who have made a significant contribution to the development of the Speedway over the past twenty years and to wish them every success in 2021 and for the remainder of this season.”
Eurosport Events will replace the IMG-owned motor racing promoter BSI Speedway. The FIM has also worked on certain events with OneSport, the Polish sports event production company that specialises in speedway.
François Ribeiro, head of Eurosport Events, said: “We are delighted to grow our relationship with FIM and expand our motorcycle events portfolio in addition to FIM Endurance World Championship.
“Beyond our global media footprint which was an asset during tendering process, we proposed FIM a comprehensive pyramid approach from grass roots, junior world championships up to Speedway GP and Speedway of Nations top level. Speedway sporting foundations are strong. Speedway remains one of the only motorsport categories organised in stadiums, driven by fans. FIM gave us a global responsibility for the next 10 years, and we look forward to 2022.”
Andrew Georgiou, president, Eurosport and global sports rights and sports marketing solutions, added: “Eurosport Events has an outstanding record in building and strengthening the event portfolios of rights-holders, as well as a unique ability as part of the Discovery global network to grow a sport and its audience. We are privileged to deepen our relationship with FIM and have the opportunity to develop one of the most entertaining and exciting motorsports series in the world.
“Speedway already enjoys one of the most passionate and engaged fan communities in motorsport in a number of our key markets, so we can’t wait to deploy Eurosport Events’ promotional know-how and the global scale of Discovery’s channels and platforms to strengthen the sport even further and best serve existing and new fans around the world.”
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