Sporting ‘freebies’ change the game

Australia’s No 1 sports streaming service, Kayo Sports, is launching an audacious bid to further increase its audience share.

Selected A-League Games will also be part of the ‘freebies’ offer. Picture: Getty Images

Australia’s No 1 sports streaming service, Kayo Sports, is launching an audacious bid to further increase its audience share, ­offering a range of some of the nation’s premier sporting events — as well as a raft of entertainment shows and documentaries — for free. 

Kayo Freebies will launch on February 26 with the hotly anticipated Bathurst 500, which will be the first round of this year’s Supercars Championship.

Selected A-League and W-League games will also be part of the “freebies” offer.

Kayo Sports chief executive Julian Ogrin described the promotion as a “game-changer”.

“Kayo has experienced massive subscriber growth over the past two years and is now established as the go-to destination for streaming 50 sports live,” he said. “We have the biggest line-up of sport from the world’s best producers including Fox Sports, BEIN Sports and ESPN, and we are seeing our customer base continue to grow with record ­audiences for our AFL, NRL, cricket and motorsport coverage.

“Kayo Freebies is another game-changing moment. We believe Kayo Freebies will increase our audience share for selected events, expand audiences for growing sports and ultimately take Kayo’s subscription growth to the next level.”

Mr Ogrin said it was a “massive coup” to be able to offer the first round of the 2021 Supercars series to sports fans for free.

He said while the AFL, the NRL and international and domestic cricket remained the most-watched sports on the platform, the audience for Formula One and Australian motorsport had surged by more than 35 per cent in the past year.

Cameron Waters, Supercars championship runner-up in 2020, said the sport was on the rise and the growing fanbase would be boosted further by the Kayo deal.

“It’s awesome Kayo are bringing out the freebies so you can watch Bathurst (500) without a subscription … it will be the first of many,” he said on Sunday.

Mr Ogrin said the streaming service, which boasts well in excess of 600,000 paid subscribers, was proud of its diverse content and its range of features, including the “multi-view” screen for its suite of live sports. “We are a data-driven business, and we have built our portfolio of sports in line with what our customers want to watch,” he said.

The platform also has an “amazing portfolio of documentaries”, he said.

“Kayo is the unrivalled service for streaming the world’s best sport. Freebies is a way of bringing even more sports fans closer to our brand.”

Kayo Freebies can be accessed by downloading the Kayo App and creating an account.

No payment is required to start streaming.