The betting provider Tipico’s announcement of a new TV offer for the World Cup is causing a stir. “Amazing,” it said on the company’s website: “Tipico shows all World Cup games live in the stream!” What is behind the announcement that was made at the Telecom and FIFA caused astonishment and disappeared from the Tipico website a few hours after publication?
According to its own information, the betting provider offers its customers: all games of the tournament in the USA, Mexico and Canada not just in the shops, but for the first time also in the app or on tipico.de to show. “Only qualified users can follow the World Cup on Tipico in the live stream,” says a press release from the betting provider. “Qualified users are all users who have credit in their active Tipico account or who have placed a bet within the last 24 hours.”
The offer is available to everyone “who has credit on their account
“You must have an active Tipico account or have placed a bet within the last 24 hours,” it says. The minimum stake for a bet is one euro, and one cent is sufficient credit. According to the Youth Protection Act, users of the site must be over 18 years old. An identification document must be presented when opening a customer account.
What does Telekom say about this?
The surprising offer is in competition with Telekom, which acquired the TV rights to the World Cup from the world association FIFA, shows all games via the payment portal Magenta.TV and has also sold sublicenses to ARD and ZDF. The telecommunications company was surprised by the Tipico announcement and contacted FIFA.
A Telekom spokesman then said: “These rights for betting providers are awarded separately and only include a transmission with lower technical, content quality and formatting. Strictly speaking, it is not TV quality.” He emphasized: “Magenta.TV has a different understanding of quality. We have made that clear at the last tournaments and in the last few months. If you really want to experience the World Cup, you can’t ignore Magenta.TV.”
The world association does not want to officially comment and refers to a contract with the British sports technology company Stats Perform, which has been the official provider of betting data and streaming rights since January. According to FIFA, Stats Perform is a sales partner of live game streams for the customers of licensed sports betting providers – so it can sell sublicenses like those to Tipico for the German market. The moving images come from the “AI-powered Bet LiveStreams service from Stats Perform,” says FIFA.
What do the pictures on Tipico look like?
According to information from the German Press Agency, the stream that the betting provider is allowed to show has a significantly lower resolution than Telekom’s TV image. There is also another restriction: the live stream may be shown on a maximum of half of a mobile phone display or a maximum of a third of another screen. Tipico and FIFA did not want to comment on the technical limitations.
FIFA simply referred to the “lower quality” of Tipico broadcasts compared to Telekom, ARD and ZDF. Telekom shows all 104 World Cup games on Magenta.TV, 44 of which are exclusive. Sublicenses were sold to ARD and ZDF, which broadcast a total of 60 games. These include, among other things, the opening game, the matches between the German national team and the final.
A few hours after the announcement via press release, the reference to the “hammer” and the new World Cup offer disappeared from the Tipico website. Since then, the note has been in the same place: “If you want to follow all the encounters, you can’t ignore Telekom’s streaming service.” At the same time, the company referred to the press release sent by email, which promised “a new level of live experience”.
