20,000 spectators inside LANXESS arena witnessed Barça’s 37:35 victory after penalty shoot-out in the final against Lomza Vive Kielce from Poland, making the Spanish side the first to successfully defend the title since the inaugural EHF FINAL4 was played in 2010.
Records were not only broken on court though, as the event’s coverage reached millions around the globe on digital channels and TV courtesy of a 360-degree media and content strategy.
Double record for EHFTV
34 official broadcasters delivered the event to more than 80 territories, with the unprecedented spectacle on court – the two final matches were only decided after shoot-outs – guaranteeing record transmission numbers.
The final attracted an audience of 500,000 in Poland on Eurosport, with more than 1 million tuning in for key moments. Considerable shares were also achieved in Spain and key markets such as Denmark.
New video formats produced by EHF Marketing and its partner DAZN, such as ‘Road to Cologne’ for the four participating teams, added to the overall success and the quality of the coverage.
On EHFTV, the federation’s OTT platform, records were broken on Saturday and Sunday, respectively. While over 90,000 users had visited the page for the semi-finals, this record stood only for 24 hours, with more than 185,000 users online for Sunday’s finals. The final became the season’s most watched club handball game with more than 26,500 views for Barça vs Lomza Vive Kielce.
The extensive digital coverage delivered around the event reached more than 40 million people through the EHF’s own social media channels as well as through those of the teams and players, bringing match action and exclusive behind-the-scenes content to the mobile devices of sports fans around the globe.
EHF FINAL4 on Twitch
In a new concept for European sport, the entire EHF FINAL4 Men was streamed on the EHF’s ‘Home of Handball’ Twitch channel. More than 50 hours of uninterrupted streaming had several formats, including watch-alongs, tactical deep dives and quizzes, entertaining the fans.
The stream attracted more than 15,000 unique viewers who wrote almost 11,000 chat messages. The channel grew by 11% just over the weekend, turning it into reference platform for European handball on Twitch with more than 5,800 followers.
Furthermore, the eyes have been set on next year already as ticket sales for the EHF FINAL4 Men 2023 have started, with 10,000 tickets sold already for the the tournament which will take place on 17-18 June 2023.
More information on ticketing: https://ehfcl.eurohandball.com/men/2021-22/ehf-final4/ticketing/ticket-sale-2023/
The draw for the group phase of the EHF Champions League 2022/23 for men and women will take place on 1 July at 11:00 CEST in Vienna, Austria and is streamed live on EHFTV.
