Goodbye to Amateurism in Cuban Sports
The government changes the rules to monetize it
HAVANA TIMES – At the beginning of this week, the Facebook group Somos los Cachorros de Holguín, with more than 23,000 members, reported that content creator Dargel Mastrapa had been banned from continuing to broadcast the games played at the Calixto García stadium in that northeastern Cuban city.
“When the only option was to listen to games on the radio, Mastrapa brought images and play-by-play to thousands of fans inside and outside Cuba, using just a phone, a tripod, and a microphone,” the post recalled. But right at the start of the postseason of the current National Baseball Series—one in which Holguín qualified for the first time in 16 years—when he arrived at the press box he always occupied, the young man encountered a sign explicitly prohibiting the recording or broadcasting of the games. He was also threatened with legal action if he persisted.
In the end, Dargel did not miss many games, as Holguín fell after five games in the playoff series against Artemisa. But looking ahead to next season, his situation is uncertain due to the lack of legal protection for the activity he carries out.
The Cuban Baseball Federation holds all rights to the National Series, including broadcast and image rights. Until a few years ago, that privilege did not generate major economic benefits. Circumstances changed as a result of the massive emigration. An estimated 1.5 million Cubans have left the island since late 2021. Many of them were fans of the teams that take part in the “Series,” as the championship is also known, and they insist on continuing to be fans from their new places of residence. To do so, they need the games to be broadcast—preferably via streaming.
This is a market niche that was initially served only by entrepreneurs like Dargel, almost always successfully. As early as 2019, when statistical analyst Rolando Lluch was barred from continuing to film games of the Las Tunas team, the average number of viewers connected to his broadcasts exceeded 5,000. During the pandemic, those audiences grew due to the ban on public attendance at stadiums. Later, the trend consolidated thanks to improvements in internet services on the island and the interest of fans living abroad. The fact that most of them reside in the United States increases the possibilities for monetizing content.
Even emigrated journalists such as Yasel Porto and Reynier Batista, with hundreds of thousands of followers on social media and experience in US minor leagues, have begun to focus most of their publications on the Cuban domestic league. Virtually all independent media outlets also devote space to covering what happens in the island’s stadiums.
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In other times, such practices would not have attracted much interest from the Cuban Baseball Federation. But the country’s dire economic situation has forced it to seek income from sources that until recently were considered unacceptable.
This new reality has been codified in the first sports law in Cuban history, published in the Official Gazette on January 13. Among its innovations is the normalization of advertising, sponsorship, and, in general, the commercialization of sporting events. Contracts for these activities must be signed with the National Institute of Sports, Physical Education and Recreation (INDER) and the federations of each sport, which in theory will allocate their profits to athletes, improvements to sports facilities, and the purchase of equipment.
The new law represents a radical shift in the management of Cuban sports. At the start of the postseason, billboards for BDC One—a private company specializing in the import of transportation equipment and construction machinery—appeared in the stadiums of the qualified teams. In recent times, the company has expanded into the growing luxury car market. Other similar companies may follow its example in the next series, taking advantage of the fact that the regulation does not distinguish between private and state-owned enterprises and authorizes advertising to occupy up to 30% of stadium surfaces and sports uniforms.
In early January, on the television program Bola Viva, INDER’s legal director, Karel Luis Pachot, explained the protocol for negotiating sponsorships. “In events like the National Baseball League, it is the event’s organizing committees that present proposals. If a private entity wants to sponsor the Santiago team, for example, it can do so by approaching the provincial baseball authority. It submits its project, the province evaluates it, and if it deems it appropriate, it presents it to the national level.”
Advertising packages are not cheap. According to information reported in various forums, options range from 13 million to 56 million pesos (between $27,000 and $115,000, based on the average informal exchange rate in late January 2026). Each package includes different levels of mention in sports broadcasts and dissemination of advertising spots, placement of billboards in stadiums and vehicles used in the tournament, merchandising of souvenirs, and even the placement of patches on team uniforms. The scale of the figures involved and the novelty of the legislation have so far resulted in few proposals, but it is reasonable to expect much greater interest in the next season.
The success of streaming broadcasts points in that direction. Alongside the marketing of advertising and sponsorships, this season INDER regularized broadcasts through the digital platform PlayCubano. Although it has not been defined who its owners are, its ties to Cubadeportes S.A.—INDER’s exporter of professional services—are public.
The scheme established for the current series is simple: filming of the games is handled by Cuban television’s remote broadcast teams or by private audiovisual producers contracted by INDER. In the latter case are provinces such as Holguín, where the private initiative Desde Cero partnered with the local TV station, contributing equipment and part of the qualified personnel to cover games held at the Calixto García stadium. Management of online content is handled by PlayCubano.
During the regular season, the average number of views per game hovered around 30,000 on YouTube alone. Since the postseason began, those numbers have doubled, with a record 116,000 views reached on January 29 by the final game of the series between Villa Clara and Las Tunas. Audiences are expected to continue growing during the semifinals.
The scale of the business—and its promising prospects—helps explain the Cuban Baseball Federation’s intransigence toward independent broadcasting projects that benefit from the sporting spectacle without paying royalties, as well as its efforts to attract sponsors instead of relying on spontaneous initiatives.
As early as November, the story of Carlos Armando Buch, a gym owner in the city of Holguín who weekly delivered monetary “incentives” to the Cachorros’ best players, made headlines. Those payments could exceed 30,000 pesos per player per month—almost ten times their official salary.
The initiative sparked debate over the difference between sponsorship and “aid,” the term Buch claimed applied to what he was doing for his preferred team. Another widely discussed issue was the low income of athletes, coaches, umpires and referees participating in national sports events.
To change that state of affairs, during discussions of the sports law, INDER defended the virtual end of amateurism in Cuba. Now, its efforts are focused on monopolizing a potentially very profitable business. It remains to be seen whether the profits it generates will ultimately benefit the spectacle and its protagonists.