NEW YORK CITY, Sept. 13, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- SportsCastr, the social live-streaming platform that lets anyone in the world become a color commentator, today announced an official partnership with Friday Night Fights, North America’s longest-running Muay Thai series. Through this partnership, SportsCastr will deliver free and pay-per-view Friday Night Fights globally, allowing MMA’s 260 million fans to access or provide live color commentary through SportsCastr.
To launch the partnership, SportsCastr will provide an exclusive stream of the first half of the Friday Night Fights match on Sept. 14, 2018, with the second half available on UFC Fight Pass. SportsCastr’s free segment will be streamed at 9 pm EST on https://SportsCastr.com/FNF or via the company’s iPhone app.
“Friday Night Fights is the longest running full-contact sports event series in the region,” said Justin Blair, Friday Night Fights CEO. “By partnering with SportsCastr, we’re able to deliver a new and innovative viewing experience to our fans that can’t be found anywhere else.”
SportsCastr differentiates itself from existing OTT platforms by allowing viewers to customize their commentary or share their reactions in real-time, completely synchronized with the fight-action. In June, SportsCastr announced FanChain, a cryptocurrency developed for the multi-billion-dollar global sports market. FanChain will allow SportsCastr users to earn tokens for participating on the platform, and those tokens can then be used to unlock pay-per-view Friday Night Fight events, tip broadcasters and more. SportsCastr is the first platform to support FanChain, and the company is working with teams, media publishers and leagues to add FanChain support, with the aim of making it the ubiquitous token within the sports industry.
“MMA continues to experience extraordinary growth,” said Andrew Schupak, CFO and Head of Strategy at SportsCastr. “By partnering with Friday Night Fights, we aim to bring the series to a new global audience, within a social viewing experience that’s in alignment with how fans want to watch the match.”
The NFL Players Association (NFLPA), through its athlete-driven accelerator the OneTeam Collective, recently acquired a minority stake in the company, making SportsCastr an officially licensed NFLPA platform. Last week, SportsCastr also announced an official partnership with the WNBA Players Association (WNBPA).
“Fight commentary is currently homogenized and domestically-focussed,” said Kevin April, SportsCastr CEO. “SportsCastr makes it possible for viewers to personalize their experience to receive commentary from other fans, fighters and analysts; regardless of language, gender, location or vantage point.”
Interested viewers can visit https://SportsCastr.com/FNF to view the September 14 fight and to sign up to be notified of future events. Co-headliners that will be streamed on SportsCastr include Maldonado vs. Mercado and Kamara vs. Sweda.
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About SportsCastr
SportsCastr is a live-streaming platform that allows anyone to become a color commentator. Backed by some of the biggest names in sports including NBA Commissioner Emeritus David Stern and Super Bowl Champion Vernon Davis, SportsCastr enables viewers to select which user they wish to have call, recap, or predict games. The Company’s FanChain cryptocurrency is designed for both SportsCastr and the global sports market, allowing users to tip broadcasters and access premium content. SportsCastr is both a second-screen experience and a first-screen social OTT platform. For more information, visit https://SportsCastr.com