VEON VEON Ltd

Cricket Finds Its Digital Home in Bangladesh: VEON’s Banglalink to Stream ICC Cricket on Toffee

Amsterdam and Dhaka, 24 April 2024: VEON Ltd. (NASDAQ: VEON, Euronext Amsterdam: VEON), a global digital operator that provides converged connectivity and online services, announces that Banglalink, its digital operator in Bangladesh, secured the exclusive rights to the nation-wide streaming of  International Cricket Council (ICC) world events until the end of 2025.  The ICC matches will be available on Toffee streaming platform, commencing with the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup on 1 June 2024.

Developed locally in Bangladesh, Toffee is a subscription-based service that is open to users of all operators, and is the country’s leading local digital entertainment platform. This deal with Total Sports Management (TSM) marks the country’s biggest digital content partnership in cricket segment, encompassing six ICC events in 2024 and 2025, including the ICC Men’s and Women’s T20 World Cup 2024 and the ICC Men’s Champions Trophy 2025. These tournaments will feature 71 men’s and 95 women's matches in total, with teams from across 20 nations.

Erik Aas, Chief Executive Officer of Banglalink, said, “We are committed to serving the people of Bangladesh with the content that the country enjoys and needs, and to delivering this content through a transformative digital viewing experience on Toffee. We also aim to provide local businesses with the opportunity to reach their customers with world-class advertising technology, supporting the overall expansion of the digital economy in the country. This partnership helps us provide a superior digital experience for cricket enthusiasts on Toffee and marks a major step towards a Smart Bangladesh vision, contributing to the country's digital entertainment scene.”

Toffee proved its popularity with cricket fans during the  ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup 2023, recording 12.8 million monthly active users at its peak, providing access to a highly engaged audience of up to 3 million daily active viewers. Between 3 large sports events streamed on its mobile and web platforms over the past 18 months - FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022™, Asia Cup Cricket 2023, and ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup 2023 - Toffee attracted over 50 million viewers. The platform has been working with the leading advertisers of the country since FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022™.  Toffee’s business model, that is based on revenues from both subscriptions and adtech, supports the financial performance of the platform while bringing cutting-edge content to millions of users in Bangladesh. 

Through its digital operators, VEON Group offers a variety of digital products and initiatives across entertainment, financial services, digital health and education. As of March 2024, VEON serves 110 million total monthly active users across its proprietary digital products and services such as Toffee, Tamasha, BeeTV, KyivstarTV,  Simosa, myBL, JazzCash, Simply, Izi, BeeCloud and Helsi.

About ToffeeToffee is an operator-agnostic digital streaming platform launched by Banglalink in 2019. Toffee provides a superior viewing experience with its simple navigation and is available to everyone in Bangladesh. Toffee is app and web-based, available for Android smartphones, Android TVs, and iOS devices. With the highest number of national and international live television channels, Toffee regularly broadcasts global sporting events LIVE and also offers a large collection of video-on-demand and user-generated content for its viewers. For more information visit: https://toffeelive.com

About BanglalinkBanglalink is one of the leading digital communications service providers in Bangladesh, working to unlock new opportunities for its customers as they navigate the digital world. Driven by the vision of transforming lives through technology, Banglalink also strives to transform into a future-ready service provider capable of catering to the demands of the new digital era. It is a subsidiary of VEON Ltd - a Nasdaq and Euronext listed connectivity provider headquartered in the Netherlands. For more information visit: www.banglalink.net

About VEON VEON is a digital operator that provides converged connectivity and digital services to nearly 160 million customers.  Operating across six countries that are home to more than 7% of the world’s population, VEON is transforming lives through technology-driven services that empower individuals and drive economic growth.  Headquartered in Amsterdam, VEON is listed on NASDAQ and Euronext. For more information visit: www.veon.com

Disclaimer  This release contains “forward-looking statements”, as the phrase is defined in Section 27A of the U.S. Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the U.S. Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. Forward-looking statements are not historical facts, and include statements relating to, among other things, VEON’s digital products, commercial plans and partnerships. Forward-looking statements are inherently subject to risks and uncertainties, many of which VEON cannot predict with accuracy and some of which VEON might not even anticipate. The forward-looking statements contained in this release speak only as of the date of this release. VEON does not undertake to publicly update, except as required by U.S. federal securities laws, any forward-looking statement to reflect events or circumstances after such dates or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events.

Contact Information VEON  Hande Asik Group Director of Communication  pr@veon.com

TUVA PartnersJulian Tannerjulian.tanner@tuvapartners.com

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