International Orienteering Federation (IOF) and Geelmuyden Kiese (GK) have agreed to enter a strategic partnership 2023-2027 regarding the advice, packaging and sales of IOF´s worldwide media rights. The common ambition in the years to come is to develop the sport’s competition formats and increase the distribution of orienteering worldwide.

– Orienteering is a world sport practiced in 75 countries. We are particularly strong in the Nordics, the Baltics and Central Europe, but in recent years we have seen strong development and new world stars also from countries such as Australia, New Zealand and the UK. Thanks to GK’s strong expertise in TV and media and presence in all key markets – either in-house or through its international network – we see great opportunities to develop and spread our fantastic sport to even more countries, says Henrik Eliasson, CEO IOF.

– Orienteering has many strong values – it is sustainable, inclusive and based on fair play. But above all, orienteering is a superb TV sport, with many attractive competition formats, which appeal to both women and men of all ages. It is tempting to draw parallels with another popular TV sport, biathlon, because all participants must master two elements to perfection and everything can change on the last control or in the last shooting, says Hans Pekkari, Senior Advisor Media Rights and Television at Geelmuyden Kiese.

The agreement between IOF and GK covers the exclusive worldwide rights to both the World and European Championships as well as all World Cups 2023-2027. The World Championships will be held in Flims, Switzerland 2023, Edinburgh, Great Britain 2024, Kuopio, Finland 2025 and Genoa, Italy 2026.