KBO makes livestreaming available to overseas fans for free on SOOP

Fans cheer as the LG Twins take on the Doosan Bears at Jamsil Baseball Stadium in southern Seoul on June 2. [YONHAP]

KBO games will again be available to overseas fans for free on the global platform SOOP, the KBO announced in a press release Thursday.

Live streaming will be available beginning Thursday for users outside of Korea, online and in the SOOP mobile app, the KBO said.

SOOP secured broadcasting rights for the 2024 to 2026 KBO seasons and will also provide other features such as highlights, chat translations and live broadcasts before regular and postseason games.

The announcement ends a long wait for international KBO fans, many of whom discovered the league in 2020 when the Covid-19 pandemic had shut down all other major leagues.

The KBO season was picked up by ESPN, broadcasting six games a week in a deal with Eclat Media Group. The MLB season did not start until the end of July, by which point many fans were already all-in on the Korean version of the sport.

The response was almost immediate. Dan Kurtz, who runs MyKBO.net, widely considered the No. 1 English-language source for KBO scores and stats, told the Korea JoongAng Daily at the time that he saw traffic jump up dramatically on Opening Day on May 5, 2020.

Outside of the United States and Korea, 130 other countries around the world broadcast KBO games in 2020, but all the fans who found the league that year were left with no way to watch games from 2021. ESPN broadcasting in the United States switched back to the MLB once the season got underway, and no international deal emerged in 2021, 2022 or 2023.

But international fans persevered, many switching to the under-the-table approach of tuning into Naver TV broadcasts using a VPN to trick the server into thinking they were watching in Korea.

That remained an option until this season, when the KBO sold digital broadcasting rights to streaming service TVing. Signing up for that service is only available to people with Korean phone numbers, effectively closing the door on international fans.

SOOP, the new home of KBO international broadcasts, is operated by Korean video streaming service Afreeca TV and was previously named Afreeca TV Global before a rebrand last week. The service is free, and also broadcasts live gaming events including League of Legends Champions Korea.

“I am very excited for all the KBO fans located outside of Korea,” Kurtz told the Korea JoongAng Daily on Thursday. “I am glad this is happening now and fans will be able to keep up with this exciting season.

“2020 on ESPN was incredible for fans in the USA, I am glad to see that these same fans will once again be able to watch the teams and games they fell in love with during the pandemic.

“As a KBO fan located outside of Korea, this is a great day!”

The KBO is currently enjoying a huge season, with total attendance on track to surpass 10 million for the first time in the league’s history.

KBO games are played six days a week, with the only break on Monday. Series are generally three games long — Tuesday-Wednesday-Thursday and Friday-Saturday-Sunday — although some two-game series are normally added to the schedule at the end of the season.

As of press time Thursday, the Kia Tigers currently top the table, outpacing the LG Twins by 0.5 games, with both the Samsung Lions and Doosan Bears trailing by two games.

BY JIM BULLEY AND MARY YANG [jim.bulley@joongang.co.kr]