East Africa

Startimes officially unveiled as BetKing Premier League broadcaster

by
Soka25east.com
November 26, 2020

by Agnes Amondi

Chinese broadcaster Startimes is now the official media partner for Football Kenya Federation. This after they unveiled a 7 year deal worth USD 1.1 million annually, with an increment of 5% every year and an option to renegotiate in the sixth year.

The sponsorship involves the transmission of Betking Premier League, 30 Betika Super League matches, together with friendly matches of the men’s and women’s Kenya national teams.

League winners will get Sh5 million as prize money while the other 17 teams will share an equal amount according to rank at the end of season.

Speaking at a press conference to announce the partnership, Startimes CEO Hanson Wang expressed his delight at the agreement. At the same time, he reiterated the importance of this collaboration.

“We have progressively kept our vision as StarTimes as the most affordable pay television platform that will be broadcasting the Football Kenya Federation Premier League on our BTV channel 172 on Terrestrial platform and 463 on the satellite platform.”

“We are committed to seeing the success of the Betika Premier League and are looking forward to mutually beneficial collaboration with the federation, teams, players, media and other key partners where each one of us will be called upon to take Kenyan football to the next level,”

On his part, FKF President Nick Mwendwa termed the Startimes deal as an “important milestone”.

“We have yet marked another important milestone today in Kenyan football by launching a broadcast sponsorship for the Betking Premier League which will go a long way in encouraging competition in our top leagues particularly the BetKing Premier League which will go a long way in improving the standard of football and even help improve the economic incentive of the game.”

Nine matches have been lined up in the opening weekend of the BetKing Premier League. Three fixtures have been scheduled for broadcast including the first tie of the season between AFC Leopards and Tusker on November 28 at the Nyayo Stadium.