The DFL, Germany’s top professional soccer organizer, is partnering with Stephen Ross’ Relevent Sports to expand the visibility of the Bundesliga and second-level Bundesliga 2 in North and South America.
Relevent will negotiate media rights for the DFL, with agreements across the continents, including ESPN’s exclusive U.S. rights to Bundesliga, expiring after the 2025-26 season. Additionally, the agency and league holding company will hire publicity, marketing and content professionals for Relevent’s New York City and Guadalajara offices to help amplify Bundesliga and Bundesliga 2.
The Bundesliga pact is significant for Relevent, because many top American-born soccer players have built their names in Germany, most notably Christian Pulisic when he was at Borussia Dortmund, providing instant storytelling opportunities to the U.S. audience.
“The amount of U.S. players that are actually starting their careers in football, in Germany specifically, is disproportionate to any of the other leagues in Europe,” Relevent CEO Danny Sillman said in a video interview. “And from a marquee player standpoint, of U.S. national team players, it’s got a lot of interest as a breeding ground for young talent that ultimately evolves as they build their careers in Europe.”
Relevent has worked with top-flight European leagues before. In 2018, the agency signed a 20-year deal with LaLiga to provide similar services to what Bundesliga will receive, including negotiations for the Spanish league’s two biggest deals outside of the home country, with ESPN in the U.S. and Canada and Sky/Televisa in Mexico.
Relevent also has strategic relationships with the Premier League and the English Football League to grow their U.S. footprints.
Additionally, the agency negotiated UEFA’s media rights deals with Paramount/CBS (English-language telecasts) and Univision (Spanish-language), bringing the European organization double the fees from their previous deals.
Relevent president Boris Gartner pointed out that teams such as Bayer Leverkusen, RB Leipzig and Eintracht Frankfurt have made stops in the U.S. to connect with their fans on the other side of the Atlantic. “All of these clubs understand the value, the importance of growing internationally, specifically in this region, and for us to provide a platform to actually make that noise louder is going to be important,” Gartner said in the video interview.
“Our job is going to be to maximize the exposure of all the teams, finding those stories that we can use to help promote the different brands.”
One important aspect to the deal will be the development of a Bundesliga studio in Guadalajara to produce digital content in English, Spanish and Portuguese, leveraging the different demographics in the 35 countries in the two continents.
Since 2020, ESPN has held the exclusive rights to Bundesliga matches, with all 306 matches in the season shown through ESPN+ and select games shown on the linear networks. However, the six-year agreement the company signed in 2019 expires after the 2025-26 season. According to multiple media reports in early November 2023, both sides were keen on renewing their deal. Fox was the previous rightsholder in the U.S.
Although some leagues were more amiable to streaming since the last time DFL negotiated media rights, the media and tech landscape has changed dramatically in the last six years. More leagues are trying to follow fans who have given up on linear television. The Bundesliga had been an early convert to streaming with the ESPN deal, according to Relevent, and the agency will scour the market for the best deal for the league.
“With media deals, it’s all about timing,” Gartner said. “We talk to all these companies every day about different products and properties that we represent. Part of the of the goal here is to build demand with fans and with potential partners, so that when we are out running a process, we have the best shot at maximizing value.”
The chance to grow Bundesliga’s footprint in the Americas couldn’t be timelier. The announcement comes two months after the U.S. hosted Copa America, though not without some challenges.
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This article was updated in the second paragraph to reflect that the ESPN rights deal expires in 2025-26, not 2024-25.
