Release from 12.09.2023

"The Wait is Over!" | win2day ICE Hockey League starts in the 24th season

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On Friday, the 24th season of the win2day ICE Hockey League starts - and then it's finally: "The Wait is Over!". A two-day kick-off event was held in Velden am Wörthersee on Monday and Tuesday. There, title sponsor win2day and the league invited for the second time to the win2day ICE Hockey League Charity Poker Tournament and the traditional season kick-off press conference.

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For win2day, the second full season as title sponsor starts on Friday - and the new season gets its own motto: "We at win2day are looking forward to a strong season full of hockey highlights. As the gaming site of Austrian Lotteries and Austria's only licensed provider of online gaming, we stand unreservedly for fair play. Together with the win2day ICE Hockey League, we are placing the upcoming season entirely under the motto 'Long Live FairPlay' and will make this spirit tangible in our activations," explains Georg Wawer, Managing Director of win2day.

"Fair Play Puck" comes to implementation
To reflect the strengthened motto, the "Fair-Play-Puck" will be implemented from the 2023/24 season onwards: before each match of the win2day ICE Hockey League, the captains of both teams will sign a puck when greeting the referees - and also commit to fair play in this way. The puck, which was specially created by win2day, will have the date added to it and will be available to the clubs or the title sponsor for promotional purposes.

5,000 Euro donation goes to Ronald McDonald Children's Charity
As in the previous year, head coaches and players of the 13 clubs, as well as representatives and guests of title sponsor win2day and the ICE Hockey League, met on Monday for a charity poker tournament played in Texas hold'em. win2day offered a prize of Euro 5,000 for the tournament - which was donated to a charitable cause defined by the winner. The victory went to former beach volleyball star Clemens Doppler, who beat Dylan Standley (PIV) and Raphael Andergassen (PUS) at the final table. Doppler donated the winnings to the Ronald McDonald Children's Charity.

Traditional season kick-off press conference on Tuesday
On Tuesday, the traditional season kick-off press conference was held at Casino Velden, which first offered a review of the completed season: Above all, the playoffs - with a total of more than 170,000 spectators - and the final series between Salzburg and Bolzano, which lasted seven games, were the best advertising for the multinational league. In addition, the league's media value was once again very high at just under 87 million euros.

Both are figures that are also achieved by the internationality of the win2day ICE Hockey League. For League President Jochen Pildner Steinburg, this is a valuable unique selling point: "Internationality is the trademark of the win2day ICE Hockey League. Our league has developed so well that we are now a showcase project in Europe. There is no better international league structure in our form in Central Europe," holds President Jochen Pildner-Steinburg. This unique selling point is also to be a central pillar in the new repositioning process. "We are constantly thinking about how we can better position the win2day ICE Hockey League - and also our external appearance. The aim is to become more modern. For this, we have set up a concept that we can execute over the coming season. This will be done step by step. The aim is to position our league in such a way that it receives even more attention in Europe and also meets the demands of the fans."

All matches live from now on
Following the positive feedback from last season, the league was keen to expand its streaming offering. Therefore, a pay-per-view streaming of all games - with the exception of live games on host broadcaster PULS 24 - on the live.ice.hockey platform was decided. At least four camera positions ensure a uniform standard. There are several offers for fans: from the single game offered so far, to a subscription to a club's home and away games, to a league pass that includes all games. "We can offer all games live for the first time with the start of the new season. The majority on live.ice.hockey, selected games on PULS 24. This also gives us the opportunity to offer subscription packages for the first time. As a next 'step', we now want to raise the clubs' productions to a common standard in order to then develop them further and supplement them with high-quality broadcast content," says Christian Feichtinger, Managing Director of win2day ICE Hockey League. With the start of the press conference, the re-launch of the ICE homepage was also activated.

>> All infos to the subscrition model

Season starts on Friday
On Friday, the hunt for defending champion EC Red Bull Salzburg begins. The duel between the eight-time league champions and the EC-KAC will be live on PULS 24, Joyn and www.puls24.at/eishockey (without geoblocking) from 18:45. The 45-minute preliminary report offers a comprehensive review of the two-day kick-off event in Velden as well as a detailed preview of the 2023/24 season.

The other games will be offered as pay-per-view livestream on live.ice.hockey.

>> The opening Press Conference to re-watch