In the 2017/18 season, the revenue of the Continental Hockey League (KHL) increased by 27% to RUB 3.05 billion, analysts at EY calculated. The growth rate accelerated three times compared to the previous season and became the fastest in five years.
The KHL is an open international hockey league, where teams from Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, China, Latvia, Slovakia, and Finland play. In 2008, when the league was created, 24 teams entered the league, now there are 29 of them.
“The league has achieved financial stability and profitability,” the words of the president of the KHL Dmitry Chernyshenko are quoted in the review. According to a KHL spokesman, it has been profitable since the 2014/15 season; he did not disclose specific figures.
In the 2017/18 season, revenue growth accelerated significantly thanks to a 20% increase in revenue from sponsors and advertisers. As follows from the data of EY, the KHL received 1.2 billion rubles from sponsors and advertisers. for the season. The KHL’s income from the sale of rights to broadcast matches also increased – by 17% last season to RUB 641 million, according to EY. The number of foreign broadcasts has increased, analysts point out: Cytavision Sports (Cyprus), My Sports (Switzerland), the Perform channel group (Canada, Germany, Austria, Luxembourg), NTRC (Uzbekistan) and Premier Sports (Great Britain) began to show games. The increase in other commercial income for the KHL was mainly driven by income from bookmakers, a league spokesman added.
Now KHL has 10 partners: Sogaz insurer, Mastercard payment system, Eriell oil service company, Durex condom brand, Rostelecom and Megafon telecom operators, Fonbet bookmaker, Haier equipment manufacturer, Vkontakte social network and tire manufacturer Hankook.
73,4%
This was the average arena occupancy in the 2017/18 season. Last season she was 72.4%
The cost of Eriell’s contracts with the KHL has not changed for the past three years, said Anton Fetisov, a spokesman for Eriell. Since the 2018/19 season, the company has become the general partner of the KHL along with Sogaz, he added, so the value of the contract increased slightly. Representatives of Eriell, Rostelecom, Megafon, Mastercard and Haier did not disclose the details of the contracts.
The price of the contract can be 50-200 million rubles, estimates the managing partner of Depot WPF Alexey Andreev, and in the latter case we are talking about the general sponsor. KHL matches have become more broadcasted, it has become very attractive for sponsors, he says.
At the end of the 2017/18 season, the KHL distributed a record 400 million rubles between the clubs, says its representative. Over the years, the KHL also spent revenues on restoring net assets, supporting the Youth and Women’s Hockey Leagues and other projects, he listed: “From 2018, the proceeds will also go towards the implementation of the seven-year league development strategy adopted in 2017.” As stated in the EY survey, one of the main goals of the strategy is to reduce the dependence of clubs on government funding and increase the share of their commercial income.
Representatives of EY, SKA, HC CSKA, Lokomotiv, Metallurg MG, Fonbeta, Reckitt Benckiser (owner of the Durex brand) did not answer Vedomosti’s questions.
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