After "an aggressive and bold move by acquiring the broadcast rights to over 200 blue-ribbon sports events," Le Sports has now been defined by many Chinese media as "Unicorn" company, but Le Sports CEO Lei Zhenjian said that the company "is just a startup with the entrepreneurship to challenge and eventually make a difference in Chinese sports market," according to He Lanying of YUTANG SPORTS.
Currently, "the growing focus on sports industry has heated up the competition in the sector." Many Chinese Internet companies like Tencent and Alibaba have "ramped up their investment in sports business as well as the likes of Wanda." Le Sports was separated from LeTV in March '14. Six months later, the Chinese government "issued a sports reform plan." Lei said, "From the beginning of 2014, many say we are crazy. Indeed, we've taken a quite radical approach towards sports rights. By the end of December this year, we have added broadcasting rights to more than 280 events and 10,000 matches to our rights portfolio and 80 percent of those rights are exclusive." According to Lei, "sports content is a very important part in the eco-system." Rights acquisition "provides more opportunities for Le Sports to show more exclusive content and to engage with sports consumers" (YUTANG SPORTS, 12/16).
