A huge bet by Li Ruigang, a Chinese tycoon, on Chinese Super League football broadcast rights appears to have paid off after the broadcast company he heads resold a portion of them this week at an apparent profit.
Mr Li’s China Media Capital and subsidiary Ti’ao Dongli were widely thought to have paid far over the odds in their Rmb8bn ($1.3bn) purchase of the five-year broadcast rights to China’s most prestigious football league last October. The deal is made up of Rmb2bn for the first two years and Rmb6bn for the next three, according to CMC.
But on Tuesday LeEco, the upstart online video company with a number of hit shows on its LeTV platform, announced it had paid Rmb2.7bn for the first two years, demonstrating that faith in Chinese football continues to grow at the heart of the business establishment.