Doha-based beIN Media Group and its flagship beIN Sports channel — which is the official broadcaster of the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 across the Middle East and North Africa — have forged an exclusive partnership with Twitter to share tailored content throughout the upcoming soccer tournament.
The planet’s biggest soccer event, which will take place in Qatar from Nov. 20 to Dec. 18., will mark the first time the FIFA World Cup is held in the Arab world.
BeIN Sports will be sharing highlights of the tournament’s top moments for MENA audiences across Twitter.
Each soccer game will be highlighted through content clips, a one match recap and in-studio analysis, aired through the beIN Sports official Twitter handle for a total of 320 videos, according to a beIN statement.
Twitter’s Kinda Ibrahim, director of global partnerships for the Middle East, Africa and Turkey, said in the statement. “Football [as soccer is known outside the U.S.] is one of the biggest conversations in this region.”
Ibrahim underlined that in the lead-up to World Cup Qatar 2022, Twitter is seeing a 74% spike in average monthly soccer conversations compared with the same period one year ago.
She noted that “From Saudi Arabia alone, we’ve seen more than 53 million Tweets about football so far this year.”
Faisal Mahmoud Al-Raisi, director of digital for beIN MENA, added: “We are delighted to partner with Twitter for this historic event to do everything we can for our millions of followers across MENA to make memories for a lifetime.”
According to a study conducted for Twitter by London-based audience research company GWI, more than 261 million people on Twitter “follow at least one major soccer content contributor or speaker.”
“With 78% of FIFA World Cup fans on Twitter saying the platform has content that is unavailable elsewhere, the tie up with beIN SPORTS will ensure that Twitter remains the place where football lives,” the statement boasted.