For 20 days, the 2026 FIFA World Cup put Toronto at the centre of the sporting world. This coming March, SPORTEL will put the city at the centre of the deals that will define how sport is broadcast, streamed, and monetized for years to come.
Founded in 1990 with the support of Monaco’s royal family, SPORTEL was the brainchild of Monégasque journalist Georges Bertellotti. His initial goal was to create an international symposium where figures from the worlds of sport and television could discuss industry trends, while also providing a marketplace for television rights and an awards ceremony recognizing the year’s best sports images, the Golden Podiums.
What began with the inaugural SPORTEL Monaco edition at the Loews Hotel (now Fairmont Monte Carlo) in November of that year has grown, more than three decades later, into the world’s leading convention for sports content, media rights, and technology professionals.
That growth has taken SPORTEL far beyond its Monte Carlo roots. Following the launch of SPORTEL America in Miami Beach in 1997, the event continued its international expansion with SPORTEL Dubai in 2004 and SPORTEL Asia in Hong Kong in 2005.
Over the years, SPORTEL has brought its event to major sports business hubs including Singapore, Shanghai, Macao, Rio de Janeiro, Bali and Buenos Aires. After a brief pause during the COVID-19 pandemic, SPORTEL resumed its global expansion strategy, returning to key international markets across Asia and the Americas between 2023 and 2026. In March 2027, the event will add Toronto to that list, marking its first-ever edition in Canada.
“When we started looking into Canada, we realized there was a lot happening there,” said Agnès Marsan, Executive Director at SPORTEL International. “The FIFA World Cup created momentum, but we also saw an opportunity to reach more Canadian companies. We already know some of them, but there are many others we haven’t yet reached who are not currently attending SPORTEL America or SPORTEL Monaco. That’s why we felt this was the right time to bring SPORTEL to Toronto,” she added.
Unlike a traditional conference, SPORTEL is a global B2B marketplace where the sports media industry comes together to talk and do business. Its trade show floor sits at the centre of the event, where over several days, senior executives and decision-makers from leagues, broadcasters, streaming platforms, technology providers, agencies, and rights holders showcase new products, explore partnerships, and negotiate media rights agreements.
Beyond the marketplace, SPORTEL also features keynote sessions, masterclasses and panels exploring the trends shaping the future of sports, such as artificial intelligence, private equity, direct-to-consumer streaming, fan engagement, and sports data.
SPORTEL’s previous conventions provide a glimpse into the scale of the event ahead of its Toronto debut. Take its most recent SPORTEL Asia, held in Singapore back in March, which attracted 370 participants from more than 220 companies across 35 countries. More than half of the attendees came from the Asia-Pacific region and the Middle East, according to Marsan. Nearly two-thirds held C-suite positions, and one-third represented content buyers. The event featured executives from FIFA, the Premier League, DAZN, the NBA, PGA TOUR, and Fox Sports.
Meanwhile, SPORTEL’s flagship edition in Monaco last year drew around 800 companies from 70 countries, attracting representatives from some of the biggest organizations in sports, tech, and media, including the NFL, NHL, ESPN, LaLiga, Amazon Web Services, and Liverpool Football Club.
The influence of SPORTEL’s worldwide network can also be seen in the major deals and partnerships that have emerged from connections made at its editions, like Bundesliga International’s three-year partnership agreement with Thailand’s top telecoms provider Advanced Info Service, Two Circles’ acquisition of fan intelligence platform KORE for approximately USD $650 million, and Switzerland-based Sportradar’s expanded partnership with the NBA to develop AI-powered fan engagement solutions using advanced data and analytics.
“We are a platform, so we are not always aware of every discussion or deal happening behind the scenes,” said Marsan. “Often, the first conversation begins at SPORTEL, but those discussions continue and develop over time. It’s great to see partnerships get announced that started through connections made at the event, but these things usually take more than just two days of meetings to come together.”
The summit has also drawn some of the most recognizable figures in global sport. Previous editions have welcomed LaLiga President Javier Tebas, Matchroom Chairman Eddie Hearn, Golden Boy CEO and boxing icon Oscar De La Hoya, FIFA World Cup-winning defender and Lega Serie A Ambassador Fabio Cannavaro, and FC Barcelona legend and KOSMOS founder Gerard Piqué.
With hundreds of media and technology executives, major rights holders and some of the biggest names in sports business arriving in Toronto next spring, Canada no longer has to wonder if it belongs at the table – now it has to decide what to do with the seat.
“I’m very bullish on what SPORTEL Canada will create for Canadian companies,” said Lowell Conn, President of Protocol Sports Marketing. Conn has attended SPORTEL since 2008 and played an instrumental role in bringing the event to Toronto.
Conn said Canadian companies have long been represented at SPORTEL, with TSN, Sportsnet, and CBC regularly sending executives, though the consistency of their participation has varied. He hopes that presence among the country’s largest sports media companies will be even stronger when SPORTEL arrives in Toronto next year and that more Canadian organizations will discover the value Protocol has found in attending.
“A lot of the key relationships that we developed in order to build [Protocol] happened at Sportel,” said Conn. “This is a community of major players in sports business. We were just a company from Toronto that wasn’t heavily entrenched in the industry, but we came to SPORTEL in 2008 and immediately started building our network. Fast forward nearly 20 years, we feel like a real part of the community.”
Founded 30 years ago as Octapixx Live, the sports content division of Octapixx Worldwide, Protocol Sports Marketing began as a boxing-focused media rights distributor before expanding into live production and satellite transmission through partnerships, including with TV2GO International. Today, Protocol’s clients and partners include some of the biggest and most recognizable names in global sports media, with the company having closed multi-million-dollar deals that originated from relationships built at SPORTEL.
Although the Toronto event is still in the early stages of planning and has yet to announce ticket pricing, attendee details, or a venue location, Marsan said SPORTEL expects the summit to have a significant international presence. Roughly 20 per cent of attendees will be from Canada, and 80 per cent will come from abroad.
For Conn, that imbalance is exactly the opportunity. With so many international buyers in the room, he believes Canada has the content offering capable of adding real value to the global marketplace SPORTEL brings together.
“There are opportunities for our sports leagues, such as the Northern Super League, Canadian Elite Basketball League, and Canadian Premier League, to showcase their properties to global buyers,” said Conn.
“Cities should be using SPORTEL as a platform to promote themselves as hosts for international sporting events. Canada also has some great AI and tech startups that can showcase their services to rights holders and broadcasters around the world,” he added.
Another sector Conn highlighted was broadcast production. He sees Canadian companies playing a larger role in delivering the sporting events that are already taking place – and those set to arrive – across the country.
“There are all sorts of global sporting events that come to Canada, and will continue coming, from FIS ski events to FIVB volleyball competitions and FIBA basketball tournaments, and many others. That creates opportunities for production companies, who may feel like they’re landlocked by the domestic market, to meet those rights holders and pitch themselves as potential partners.”
Between now and March, SPORTEL and Protocol will ramp up their outreach, working to attract more participants while helping those already attending prepare to make the most of the event. But for Marsan and Conn, success won’t be measured by this single edition. It will be measured by whether Canada becomes a fixture on SPORTEL’s global calendar – not a one-off stop, but a recurring home where the sports community keeps coming back to do business, and to help shape where the industry goes next.
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