PSL’s broadcasts and Diski Challenge deals remain intact

Premier Soccer League (PSL) Chairman Dr Irvin Khoza on Wednesday paid tribute to MultiChoice for its support over the years, as the league announced a new title sponsor.

Betway was unveiled as the new league sponsor in a three-year deal worth over R900 million. The domestic league will now be known as the Betway Premiership. The start date for local football is set for 3 August with the MTN8.

“There was a lot of interpretation about why the competition didn’t start. In my company, in all the years that I’ve been involved, I’ve told my members that we’re busy creating content. “As the president of this competition, I’m not surprised when they say that we’re one of the top 20 competitions in the world. Because we know how important the competition is, a competition is important for planning and to achieve the intended goal.”

“When we invite sponsors, we invite them because we say we have the audience, we have the platform of go-to transaction volumes, which we call the customers. So it’s really important that when we pull information out, we fragment the message and don’t ignore the impact that we’re known for as the PSL.”

The PSL chairman referred to a situation in the Egyptian Premier League, where the 2022 season ended in July and the current season was due to end in August.

This was because the league was playing catch-up to accommodate Al Ahly, who had had a long season.

Dr Khoza said that when planning the matches for the season, the league takes into account all factors: clubs playing in continental football, but also international matches.

“We all know that last season was abnormal. Abnormal in the sense that there was an Afcon and we had to change the dates. We also had to take into account the bronze medalists and we had to change about eight games.”

“At the moment Sundowns have played about 58 games in the whole season, Pirates have played 45 and SuperSport have played 43 games and Stellenbosch have played 41 games. It is a killer but also for the players who went to the national teams it was extra games for them.”

“When you talk about MultiChoice or SuperSport, it’s quite remarkable when you read all the stories in the media. This is a corporate citizen that I have a lot of respect for. During Covid, when we were in trouble, the media wrote that how can the PSL go into a bubble, people are going to die there. But later some of them said they would lose their jobs!

“The most important point I want to emphasize is that our sponsor, our partner, never asked for a refund for not fulfilling what we promised, which was force majeure. They said we understand, count on us. I want to thank MultiChoice for that, because that is what partnerships are all about.

“Today we have a channel 202 (on DStv), which is unheard of. Everything we want to produce, promote and project, we have a channel for that. That channel is for content that is qualitative, because our market is very sensitive and very picky. So we make sure that what we offer on that channel is a matter of content that is comparable.

As for whether the sponsorship would end a year early, the chairman said there were no issues.

“It is a privileged experience to have a corporate partner as unique as MultiChoice. When we went to them with the idea of ​​Diski Challenge, even my members did not understand what we were talking about. That is why I respect the CEO (Marc Jury) who is sitting here, because we went there with a plan and they agreed. This is a pet project of MultiChoice and they are here to stay,” said Dr. Khoza.

The Betway Premiership fixture is scheduled for September 14th, with prize money and the trophy to be announced at a later date.