Sky invests £1m in Drone Racing League

Sky has invested £1m in the Drone Racing League, which includes a distribution deal to show the league on one of its channels from October.

Sky Sports will show live events and broadcast content to the UK and Ireland airing 10 one-hour episodes of the league's season, which covers five races and a world championship final.

The league is a first-person-view drone racing, which features pilots flying custom-designed, handbuilt and identical drones through complex, three-dimensional racecourses similar to a video game.

Drone Racing League chief executive and founder Nicholas Horbaczewski said his was the "most elite, competitive, and thrilling drone racing league on the planet", thanks to the technology, racecourses and sporting rules developed in-house.

"Having a distribution deal and strategic partnerships with Sky will bring DRL to tens of millions of viewers. 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."

Drone racing resembles competitive video gaming, or e-sports, which generated about $750m of global revenue in 2015, due to advertising and revenue, according to SuperData Research.

The market researcher also said live streams of people playing video games on websites such as Twitch, made about $3.8bn last year.

Sky Sports and DRL also said they will team up with London & Partners to bring the first professional drone race in the UK to an iconic venue in London.

The DRL already broadcasts on ESPN in the US and ProSieben in Germany.