Smashi’ Sports has announced a major milestone in its regional sports expansion with the acquisition of exclusive live streaming rights for the Zain Basketball Premier League, Bahrain’s top-tier professional basketball competition.
The exclusive media rights were acquired from Allrites, a global content licensing and media rights company that has been actively expanding access to premium sports and entertainment properties across international digital platforms. The transaction reflects Allrites’ strategy of partnering with best-in-class regional broadcasters to maximise audience reach, fan engagement, and long-term commercial value for sports leagues.
Under the finalised agreement, Smashi’ Sports will serve as the exclusive digital broadcaster across the GCC for the current season, delivering comprehensive live coverage of every game to basketball fans across the region.
The Zain Basketball Premier League features nine competitive teams, with all matches hosted at a single central stadium in Bahrain. Games are played twice weekly, every Tuesday and Thursday, following a round-based format designed to deliver consistent, high-intensity matchups throughout the season.
As Bahrain’s premier basketball competition, the league plays a critical role in developing local talent and expanding the sport’s fan base across the Kingdom and the wider GCC. Through Smashi’ Sports’ digital-first platform, fans can now follow the league live and on demand, with seamless access tailored to today’s connected audiences.
This partnership further reinforces Smashi’ Sports’ mission to spotlight regional leagues and unlock new commercial and audience opportunities for rights holders. With a rapidly growing footprint, Smashi’ Sports now reaches 49 million viewers, generating 71 million impressions, 39 million video views, and engaging a community of over 700,000 social followers across platforms.
Smash’i Sports continues to cement its position as the UAE’s leading destination for live local sports. Its 2025/2026 lineup includes top-tier competitions such as the UAE FA First, Second and Third Divisions, DOFA, UAE Women’s Football League, UAE Basketball League, UAE Handball League, and UAE Volleyball League, alongside a diverse slate of university, youth, and corporate tournaments celebrating emerging and grassroots talent.
Built for scale, accessibility, and performance, Smashi’ Sports delivers measurable value to leagues, partners, and advertisers alike. The platform records 12,000+ monthly active website users, over 1,000 paid subscribers, 30,000+ app downloads, and strong engagement across mobile and connected TV, with 4,500 mobile and TV app installs and 6,000+ hours of website watch time.
Smashi’ is available to stream anytime, anywhere across leading smart TV and mobile platforms, including Android TV, Apple TV, Google TV, LG Smart TVs, Samsung TVs, Huawei devices, Foxxum, VIDAA, and TCL TVs, with distribution spanning 14+ TV and mobile apps and over 40 digital destinations. This extensive, device-agnostic reach enables sponsors, advertisers, and rights holders to maximise visibility, engagement, and ROI across digitally savvy sports audiences throughout the region. The transaction underscores the growing role of specialist rights owners and digital broadcasters in accelerating the commercial growth of regional sports leagues.
“Securing the exclusive rights to the Zain Basketball Premier League is a clear reflection of Smashi’ Sports’ long-term vision to grow regional sport through modern, accessible streaming. We’re building a platform that gives leagues real scale, sponsors measurable impact, and fans seamless access to the games they care about. Bahrain’s basketball ecosystem has huge potential, and this partnership allows us to elevate the league’s visibility across the GCC while creating meaningful commercial opportunities for brands and rights holders alike.”
Richard Fitzgerald, CEO & Founder, Augustus Media
“This partnership with Smashi’ Sports represents exactly how modern sports rights should be scaled in today’s digital-first environment,” said Riaz Mehta, Founder & CEO of Allrites. “Our focus at Allrites is on unlocking global distribution for premium leagues by working with platforms that truly understand regional audiences. Smashi’s reach, technology, and execution capabilities make them the ideal partner to take the Zain Basketball Premier League to fans across the GCC and beyond.”
About Zain Basketball Premier League
The Bahraini Premier League, also known as the Zain Basketball League, is a professional basketball league in Bahrain. The league consists of 11 teams. Manama Club is the most decorated team in league history, having won 25 titles including for five consecutive seasons, from 2012-13 to 2017-18.
About Smashi’ Sports
Smashi’, a regional content platform with 13 verticals including Business, Gaming, Sports, and Entertainment, and home to live-streamed UAE League matches.
Smashi’ Sports is the Home of UAE Sports and Official Broadcaster for Local Leagues. Smashi’ Sports, on Smashi’ content platform is the region’s premier digital platform for live and on-demand sports coverage. Streaming seamlessly across major social channels, it delivers extensive reach, high engagement, and a dynamic space for brands to connect with passionate audiences. Reaching 2.5+ million with 650k+ views across the season with 5.5k hours watched and a total of 900+ matches streamed across basketball, handball, volleyball, futsal and drifting.
About Augustus Media
Augustus Media is an award-winning Middle Eastern digital media company based in the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Qatar. The modern media company has been designed to adapt and evolve to this perpetually changing media environment.
Augustus Media network includes; Lovin’, Smashi’ & ODEUM as its media brands.
Lovin, a local news and entertainment platform present in 22+ cities, known for bitesize news, viral content and community stories.
Odeum, the company’s content production powerhouse specializing in high-quality video, branded content, animation, and audio.
Augustus Media 