The partnership between the European Handball Federation and TikTok for the Men's EHF EURO 2022 resulted in tens of thousands of new fans visiting the @homeofhandball TikTok channel and viewing handball related content over 100 million times.
More than 2,700 TikToks were created and shared 131,000 times for the official hashtag challenge called #HandballSkills.
It was the first time a handball tournament was streamed live on TikTok and it proved to be an instant hit with the community. Over 155,000 and 255,000 users tuned in to watch the reruns of the EHF EURO 2020 semi-finals between Croatia vs. Norway and then Spain vs. Slovenia respectively.
As a result, the number of followers on the EHF’s TikTok account grew exponentially with almost 100,000 new followers gained from December alone. Over 270,000 follow @homeofhandball, making it the biggest handball profile on TikTok.
"The case of the European Handball Championship clearly demonstrated, that the TikTok audience has a deep desire to watch and engage with sports content and additionally showcasing the platform’s potential in the sports entertainment industry. During the competition alone, the #handball hashtag had over 127 million views, #HandballSkills saw 73 million views, and hashtag #ehfeuro2022 gained 48 million views. I'm really satisfied, that – thanks to our great cooperation with the EHF, we delivered something extraordinary, bridging the online and offline experience," said Paula Kornaszewska, Head of Operations, TikTok CE.
EHF Secretary General, Martin Hausleitner, said: "We are delighted that our first ever partnership with TikTok has been so fruitful in terms of reaching and entertaining new audiences of fans across the world. The numbers speak for themselves – there is a clear thirst for handball content – whether videos or live matches – so we are hugely encouraged to see how much potential this platform has when it comes to the modern entertainment."
