Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson will bring back The Match in 2019 and 2020 as part of a three-year deal that the two golf superstars signed earlier this year with Turner, according to Golf Digest. Previous reports did not indicate that Turner had negotiated a deal with Woods and Mickelson for beyond 2018.
Turner Sports streamed the original head-to-head contest between Woods and Mickelson through its B/R Live streaming platform. The event was played at Shadow Creek Golf Course in Las Vegas over Thanksgiving Weekend and awarded a $9 million prize to Mickelson, who won on the 22nd hole. However, the event was marred by technical difficulties that prevented some paying customers from watching the live stream.
Neither Turner nor its parent company WarnerMedia released official figures for The Match, but Golf Digest reports that nearly one million people paid the $19.95 fee to stream the pay-per-view showdown. Turner immediately issued a refund to everyone who paid to watch the event after technical malfunctions forced Turner and Bleacher Report representatives to send out links on social media that directed people to the B/R Live webpage, allowing fans to stream the match for free on computers and mobile devices. Charter Spectrum, Cox Communications, Dish/Sling TV, and AT&T were among the other media companies to broadcast the event, and also to offer a refund due to B/R Live’s malfunctions.
The format for the 2019 and 2020 editions of The Match is still being decided, according to Golf Digest. Tiger and Phil will certainly still play, but adding other golfers to the event to create a team competition opposed to a one-on-one format is being considered.
SportTechie Takeaway
Turner’s broadcast of the match featured drone camera angles, real-time shot analytics, and predictive data integrations for betting. Future renditions will hope to build on those tech integrations, while fixing the issues that made subscribers unable to stream the event. Although perhaps the streaming glitches have Turner considering moving next year’s match to a one of its traditional broadcasting networks such as TBS or TNT.