US-based over-the-top (OTT) streaming service FloSports have secured a lucrative deal with the International Cycling Union (UCI) to show a variety of cycling events on its FloBikes network.
As part of the deal, the firm will have the exclusive rights to stream coverage of all UCI World Championship races including road, mountain bike, track, BMX and cyclocross events until 2024.
Coverage will include over 100 hours of competitive cycling events, including Telenet UCI Cyclocross World Cup.
This is a significant expansion for the company, which already holds the broadcasting rights to a variety of American football, hockey, rugby and football competitions, among others, as well as 500,000 subscribers across 25 different sports channels.
FloSports has expanded rapidly over the past two years, building on a solid basis of local sports coverage to secure deals with Rugby Europe, Gymnastics Canada, Euroleague Basketball and the Professional Bowlers Association in 2018 alone.
Cycling is nothing new to FloSports, as its 2020 cycling schedule included various major road races, including France’s Paris-Nice, Paris-Roubaix, Strade-Bianche, Milano-Sanremo, Critérium de Dauphiné, the Tour of Flanders, Italy’s Giro d’Italia and Veulta a España, the UCI road world championships and the Women’s World Tour.
In addition the company has Canadian broadcasting rights for the world’s biggest cycling race, the Tour de France.
FloSports CEO Mark Florean described the company’s goal as simply to ’grow the sport, the events, the athletes and the fans’ by providing on demand, OTT content to a global audience of sports enthusiasts.
This impressive business growth has caught the attention of UCI president David Lappartient, who said: “The North American market is a very important territory for cycling with a large number of top professionals, but also enthusiastic riders across all disciplines.
“FloSports is growing stronger and is the future, and they will give their best to promote the sport. We have every reason to believe that the association between the UCI and FloSports will benefit North American audiences.”
