Season one of the global racing series will be available on BT Sport, ESPN networks and platforms and StarzPlay Arabia, as well as across team and talent channels in broadcast and digital hybrid distribution plan.
Esports and gaming solutions provider Gfinity and Abu Dhabi Motorsport Management (ADMM) have announced distribution agreements for its new virtual racing competition, the V10 R-League, with three of the world’s leading broadcasters. The V10 R-League is the first championship in the Global Racing Series partnership between ADMM and Gfinity.
This sets the V10 R-League up to be one of the most widely syndicated esports competitions, with broadcast coverage in over 75 countries worldwide, having a potential reach of 150m households.
This announcement follows the earlier competition team reveal, with the inaugural season of the V10 R-League pitting BMW Motorsport SIM Racing Team, Porsche24 Redline, Red Bull Racing Esports, Williams Esports, Team Fordzilla, YAS HEAT, BWT Racing Point Esports and JEASA Team Suzuki in a unique racing format of head-to-head racing to be brought to life.
Season one of the global racing series will be available on BT Sport, ESPN networks and platforms and StarzPlay Arabia, as well as across team and talent channels in broadcast and digital hybrid distribution plan.
BT Sport and StarzPlay Arabia have signed a multi-year agreement for exclusive rights in the UK and Ireland, and across the MENA region, respectively, whilst ESPN will carry the V10 R-League for seasons one and two in the US, Canada, the Netherlands, Latin America, the Caribbean and Oceania across its networks and platforms.
The season one opener highlights will air as-live in a two-hour show on BT Sport 2 from 7 pm GMT on September 7, with each of the seven rounds broadcast weekly at the same time. All of the racing in full will be made available for anyone to watch for free the following morning, after the highlights show, on btsport.com and the BT Sport app.
BMW Motorsport SIM Racing Team and Porsche24 Redline recently joined Red Bull Racing Esports, Williams Esports, Team Fordzilla, YAS HEAT, BWT Racing Point Esports and JAESA Team Suzuki to complete the line-up of teams going head-to-head in the V10 R-League.
Each week there will be four matches made up of three race challenges, with two teams going head-to-head in each match on the Assetto Corsa game in the V10- powered car designed exclusively for this Global Racing Series. Competing from home on a full racing rig, the professional sim racing teams are battling over the $132,640 prize pool.
The hosts of the V10 R-League broadcasts have been confirmed as Rachel Stringer, Nicolas Hamilton and Ben Daly, for the inaugural series.
Nicolas, brother to Lewis Hamilton, has racing knowledge that comes from his first highly competitive outing in the Renault Clio Cup series in 2011, to becoming a points-finisher in the British Touring Car Championship this year.
Stringer has covered a range of motorsport disciplines in her career as well as sporting competitions from Wimbledon to the Premier League. In recent years, she has also hosted some leading global esports events and competitions.
YouTube star Ben Daly, also known as Tiametmarduk, is one of the most popular voices in sim racing, with an audience of 500k+ on YouTube. Daly is among the most-watched sim racing content creators in the world.
Simon Green, Head of BT Sport, said: “Lockdown has demonstrated a huge appetite for virtual motorsport, and we are delighted to expand our innovative work with Gfinity to bring this exciting new sim racing format to UK fans exclusively to BT Sport subscribers on Mondays and free to all online the next morning.”
Maaz Sheikh, Co-founder & CEO at StarzPlay, remarked: “As a Dubai based streaming service, we have continuously focused on delivering content that meets the viewing needs of regional audiences. For the first time, we are bringing the thrills and excitement of eSports, which is gaining tremendous popularity across the Pan Arab region. With exclusive rights to stream the eSport V10 R-League, StarzPlay will be the go-to platform for eSport lovers to ride on all the action in real-time. As an event produced in collaboration with Yas Marina and Abu Dhabi Motorsports Management, our association with eSport V10-R League complements our goals to partner with events made in the region for the world.”
Saif Al Noaimi, acting CEO Abu Dhabi Motorsports Management (ADMM), noted: “To be achieving global broadcast scale, fantastic talent and some of the best teams in the esports racing world for Season 1 is testament to our formula. Working with great partners like Gfinity – and having the right people in place to deliver the programme will continue moving us towards our vision of continually advancing world-class motorsport across esports platforms.”
John Clarke, CEO at Gfinity, added: “Growth is driven through innovation. The Global Racing Series and the V10 R-League did not exist three months ago. With a clear vision, a great partner in ADMM and a lot of hard work today we have a unique made for broadcast racing format, with a new virtual car that roars, which has captured the imagination of three of the world’s most forward-thinking broadcasters.”
