Closes $12 Million Investment Round

The Drone Racing League (DRL) has announced key multi-year, international event and media distribution agreements with three world-renowned sports broadcast and media companies including ESPN (North, South and Central America and the Caribbean), Sky (UK and Ireland) and 7Sports, the sports business cluster of ProSiebenSat.1 Media SE (DACH).

Airing as 10, one-hour episodes, the 2016 DRL season covers five races including a winner-take-all world championship to crown the best drone pilot. DRL will also partner with MGM Television to develop unscripted shows, executive produced by prolific producer Mark Burnett, exploring the world of DRL, its pilots and technology, allowing existing fans to get a deeper look at the league while bringing new fans to the sport. The broadcasts will air starting this October on ESPN/ESPN 2, Sky Sports Mix and ProSiebenSat.1 platforms on free-TV, pay-TV and digital channels, and will feature 25 of the fastest FPV pilots from more than eight countries competing for a professional contract in the 2017 season and the coveted title, “World’s Greatest Drone Pilot.”

“Our team has worked tirelessly to develop the technology, racecourses, and sporting rules needed to deliver the most elite, competitive, and thrilling drone racing league on the planet. We can’t wait to share it with fans around the world,” said DRL CEO/Founder Nicholas Horbaczewski. “Having distribution and strategic agreements with ESPN, Sky and 7Sports will bring DRL to tens of millions of viewers around the globe while reflecting a collective commitment to DRL from the world’s best sport broadcasting companies. Our partnership with MGM Television, led with the keen eye and creativity of Mark Burnett and his team, will introduce new audiences to the sport. With their expertise and our industry leading technology, media production and development of the best competitive racing, we believe we can truly grow a global franchise around this futuristic, high-speed racing sport.”

DRL races feature six pilots each flying a custom designed, hand built and identical DRL drone, the DRL Racer 2, through complex, thematic, three-dimensional racecourses that have been compared to a real life video game. To capture this high speed, aerial sport, DRL manages race production in-house with a team of broadcast sports experts led by DRL Head of Media, Tony Budding. The DRL media team creates and continues to innovate a custom-designed broadcast and race infrastructure to capture the fast, close proximity racing. ESPN, Sky Sports and 7Sports will each help DRL reach new audiences across their broadcast and digital channels, while delivering FPV to a new generation of racing fans.

DRL and MGM Television are partnering to develop DRL content across a range of unscripted programming, leveraging MGM’s role and credibility as the global force in creative format development and production. Enabled by the proprietary technology developed by DRL, including drones and radio frequency tech, MGM Television will have the capability to develop the most original and unique content in the drone space, an industry driven by exponential consumer growth over the past two years. In addition to the content partnership, MGM will also be investing directly into DRL.

“The world of drone racing is so incredible on every level that we wanted to be at the forefront telling the stories of these individuals and their passion for racing to an audience that will absolutely be transfixed by this sport, and this is just the beginning,” said executive producer and MGM’s President, Television and Digital Group, Mark Burnett. “We at MGM are excited to both be creating and investing in the Drone Racing League.”

DRL also announced the close of a more than $12 million investment round, led by RSE Ventures and Lux Capital. "The thrill and excitement of the races rivals our thrill and excitement as investors, just as the rise, velocity and smart risk-taking of the company matches that of the drones and their pilots," said DRL investor and Lux Capital partner Adam Goulburn. In addition to Sky, Prosieben and MGM, the financing also includes: Hearst Ventures, CAA Ventures, Gary Vaynerchuk with Vayner/RSE, Courtside Ventures, Sierra Maya Ventures, Strauss Zelnick (CEO of Take-Two Interactive Software), Rikard Steiber (SVP of Virtual Reality at HTC/Vive), Matthew Bellamy (lead singer of the band Muse), Allen Debevoise (founder of Machinima), and Grant Gittlin (CXO of Medialink).

Drone racing is a rapidly growing sport with a passionate global fan base and dozens of amateur events being held around the world. To raise the competition and supporting media to a professional level, DRL has invested heavily in custom designed racing drones and proprietary technology. The hand built drone fleet of more than 300 drones navigates one-of-a-kind courses built through abandoned malls, NFL stadiums, and subway tunnels at speeds in excess of 80 MPH. To fly DRL’s unique, three-dimensional courses, pilots control the drone via remote control, wearing goggles that show a live video feed from the drone’s cockpit. Pilots experience an adrenaline rush from the immersive perspective, creating a perfect blend of physical and virtual worlds – a real life video game.

(Images provided with DRL news release)

FMI: http://thedroneracingleague.com