SportyTV, an African-focused streaming platform, said on Monday that it has acquired pay-television rights to show all 104 matches of the 2026 Fifa World Cup in South Africa.

The deal, which SportyTV said was struck directly with Fifa, marks a significant escalation for the platform in a market where MultiChoice Group’s SuperSport has held the Fifa World Cup pay-TV rights. It is also a notable shift for SportyTV itself, which entered the South African market last year as a free-to-air proposition.

Matches will be distributed through SportyTV’s over-the-top platform, its mobile apps on iOS and Android, and connected TV ecosystems. The company said it would produce pre- and post-match coverage from studios in Cape Town and Madrid, and deploy crews to the US, Canada and Mexico to follow the Bafana Bafana campaign.

Pricing for the pay-TV package has not been disclosed.

SportyTV made its South African debut last June with free-to-air coverage of 26 matches of the Fifa Club World Cup, distributed through e.tv’s Openview platform on channel 125 and the eVOD streaming service.

The 2026 World Cup agreement, by contrast, is described by the company as a direct rights acquisition from Fifa and is pay-only – a material shift in SportyTV’s commercial model for the local market.

Privately held

“We are building an ecosystem where content, technology and engagement converge to deliver something entirely new to fans,” said Elías Gallego, vice president of business development, marketing and media at parent company Sporty Group, in a statement.

SportyTV is wholly owned by Sporty Group, a privately held sports media and technology company founded in 2013 by Sudeep Dalamal Ramnani, a UAE-based entrepreneur and London School of Economics graduate. The group’s largest and best-known business is SportyBet, an African online sports betting operator active in Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, Tanzania, Zambia and South Africa.

Read: MultiChoice to sell SuperSport United after 31 years of ownership

Ramnani, who also founded Nigerian fintech PalmPay and sits behind UAE-based investment vehicle 885 Capital, founded Sporty Group while based in Lagos in 2013 and initially self-funded the business. The group is privately held and does not publicly disclose its investors.

SportyTV launched as a free-to-air channel in Nigeria in October 2022, expanded to Ghana shortly afterwards, and entered Kenya and South Africa in 2025. Its rights portfolio has grown rapidly over the past 18 months to include La Liga, Serie A, Bundesliga, the EFL Championship and Euro 2024 across various sub-Saharan African markets, as well as a multi-year deal with the Professional Fighters League for PFL Africa. The company has also signed a shirt sponsorship deal with La Liga club CD Leganés.

The group has increasingly used SportyTV as a marketing and engagement channel for SportyBet, with live betting integrated into the viewing experience on its digital platforms.

For South African viewers, the 2026 World Cup is likely to be split across multiple platforms.

SportyTV has yet to confirm how its pay-TV service will be distributed in South Africa, what the subscription price will be or whether the rights are held exclusively.

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The announcement does not specify which platforms SportyTV’s app is available on (other than Android, iOS and “all major television ecosystems”). A streaming-only distribution model would require viewers to have a smart TV or streaming device and a robust broadband connection — a meaningful constraint in a market where fixed broadband penetration remains limited.

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