• by Tanya Gazdik , March 7, 2017

Tough Mudder, the sports brand that offers intense physical competitions, is expanding internationally.

The brand announced deals with ESPN Media Distribution and Sports Media and Entertainment 360 (SME360). ESPN Media Distribution, the rights agency division of the global sports network, will represent Tough Mudder’s global video rights for the leading active lifestyle brand’s collection of competitive events. Market entry specialist SME360 has become the official licensee of Tough Mudder events in New Zealand.

Founded in 2010 with the launch of the Tough Mudder Full event series of 10- to-12-mile obstacle courses, Tough Mudder Inc. has since grown to become a leading active lifestyle company.

Sponsors and partners include Merrell, Jeep, U.S. Army, Vega, Olympus, For Goodness Shakes, Nexcare, Bosch, Snapchat, Live Stream, Sky Sports, The CW and CBS Sports. This year, Tough Mudder, Inc. and its licensees will host more than 130 events across nearly a dozen countries.

ESPN will serve as the international distributor for Tough Mudder’s global digital and linear broadcast video rights to the company’s competitive event series and original video content offerings for the 2017 and 2018 seasons. Since 2016, the company has expanded its media and content portfolio through partnerships with Sky Sports, CBS Sports and The CW Network.

With the multi-year partnership with SME360, the 2017 New Zealand event weekend will feature Tough Mudder’s signature 10-12-mile obstacle course challenge on November 4-5 at Hampton Downs Motorsport Park. The partnership with SME360 marks the first time Tough Mudder will license its event in the country. 

This new partnership follows the success of Tough Mudder’s 2016 licensed events hosted in Bali and United Arab Emirates, which attracted close to 7,000 participants from more than 38 countries. 

Tough Mudder is also expanding its deal with IMG, which will now license and host events in Australia for 2017 and 2018. IMG will now operate Tough Mudder challenges across China, Japan, South Korea, Singapore, United Arab Emirates and Australia. IMG also took over Tough Mudder’s Australia-based staff as part of the deal expansion. 

The deals with help bring Tough Mudder action and inspirational stories to hundreds of millions more people worldwide, said Will Dean, co-founder and CEO of Tough Mudder, Inc.

In addition to global expansion, the 2017 events season marks the first year of the company’s new competitive live event offerings including Tougher Mudder, a competitive start wave with prize money for top finishers, taking place at every Tough Mudder event in 2017, and Toughest Mudder,an eight-hour, overnight competitive eventwith more than $100,000 in prize money to be awarded over the course of the six global events