Champions Hockey League starts Thursday

The 2024/25 CHL season gets up and running with six games on Thursday. The CHL’s fan-first strategy continues with the re-launch of the official prediction game of the competition, the “CHL Predictor”. Broadcasting contracts with 14 partners will ensure coverage in 28 territories.

The first face-off of the new Champions Hockey League season will be on 5 September, with 24 teams from 11 leagues prepared to give it their all to lift the European Trophy. The opening game is scheduled between Czech powerhouses Dynamo Pardubice and Hungarian side Fehérvár AV19 (17:00 CEST). Shortly after, Unia Oświęcim, the only newcomers on this season’s grid, will make their debut on the European stage against Finnish team Ilves Tampere on the road (17:30 CEST). Reigning CHL Champions Genève-Servette start their title defence the following day against Pinguins Bremerhaven in Germany.

Game Day 1 is evenly divided, featuring six games on Thursday and six on Friday. The action continues with Game Day 2 on Saturday and Sunday, wrapping up a thrilling opening weekend of top-tier European club ice hockey. The Champions Hockey League quickly returns the following week with Game Days 3 and 4, again spanning Thursday to Sunday.

Europe’s very best vying for the Trophy

Only 24 of Europe’s very best hockey teams are taking part of the 2024/25 season of the Champions Hockey League – Europe’s truly best. The CHL format combines a Regular Season with unified standings, followed by Playoffs with a trusted knock-out system. This structure allows the CHL to run a balanced, attractive and entertaining competition.

Each team plays six different opponents in the Regular Season based on the outcome of the CHL Draw – three at home and three away. The result of each game will combine to make up the overall standings (1st to 24th). Consequently, the 16 best-ranked teams will advance to the Playoffs where the finalised Regular Season Standings will determine their match-ups (1st vs 16th, 2nd vs 15th etc.). Therefore, every single point counts right up to the very last Game Day – either to make it into the Playoffs or to get into a better position for the knock-out bracket.

With 16 teams in the Playoffs, four rounds are required to determine the new European Club Champions. The Playoffs start on 12 November with the first three rounds being two-game, home-and-away, aggregate-scoring series, before the season culminates with the ultimate one-game Final on 18 February 2025. 

CHL specific On-Ice Rules promise excitement

With the aim of developing the sport of ice hockey and its future, as well as increasing the overall excitement for fans, the CHL introduced three on-ice rule innovations in the previous season, positioning itself as a pioneering force in international ice hockey.

After careful evaluation and positive findings (see CHL Season Review, p. 10), the following three simple, but efficient, CHL-specific rules apply for the 2024/25 season as well:

• Minor penalties dealt the same as major: A team which caused a minor penalty will remain shorthanded even if the opposing team score a goal.

• Serving delayed penalties: A minor penalty will be served even if a goal is scored while a delayed penalty is pending.

• Shorthander erases current minor penalty: If a shorthanded team score, the minor penalty against will end.

The rules are designed to add extra excitement to the game without undermining credibility. They are non-intrusive and easy to understand for everyone and can be implemented without significant training & education effort for game officials, teams and other relevant parties.

CHL Predictor re-launched

After a successful first season, the CHL re-launched its official prediction game, the “CHL Predictor”, a few days ago. The game is designed to find out which club, which country and which group has the best predictors. Fans can now pick the winners and guess the results of each game to put their predictions to the test. Fans, clubs, groups and countries will compete against one another in separate rankings and special features include the possibility for fans to be able to check their performance in various statistics and head-to-head comparisons. The CHL Predictor is the most comprehensive prediction game in European club ice hockey and will take fan engagement to the next level.

Broadcasting

Infront, the exclusive media and marketing partner of the Champions Hockey League, has sold media rights for the competition to 14 broadcasters and digital platforms worldwide, covering a total of 28 territories, with the newly-launched EveryPlay covering additional territories without a broadcast partner. Broadcast agreements for the 2024/25 season cover all the Nordic countries (Sweden, Finland, Norway and Denmark) with Viaplay, as well as Germany with Sportdeutschland.tv and Magenta TV, Switzerland with MySports and TV24, Austria with ORF Austria, Czechia, Slovakia & Hungary with Sport 1/2 (AMC) as well as the USA and its territories with the NHL Network (Quarter-Finals onwards).

For a full list of broadcasters that will carry the CHL in 2024/25, please check the CHL Media Guide.

Sponsorship

On the sponsorship side, Infront has secured and successfully prolonged partnerships with a number of strong international brands for the upcoming 2024/25 season. The line-up is led by Engelbert Strauss as the CHL’s Official Presenting Sponsor. In addition, Official Sponsors ŠKODA and Warrior Sports will benefit from a comprehensive rights package, receiving global television coverage alongside diverse activation and promotional opportunities. The commercial partnerships are completed by three Official Partners: AJ Produkter, Giti Tire and LGT Bank. Regional packages for various betting providers apply for win2day (Austria) and Tipsport (Czechia). Additionally, Swiss sports betting platform Sporttip (Swisslos) will continue their purely digital agreement with the CHL for the upcoming season and benefit from various geo-targeted activations across the CHL’s platforms.

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Kontakt
Champions Hockey League AG
Monika Reinhard-Brand (COO)
Mail: monika.reinhard@championshockeyleague.com
Web: championshockeyleague.com