Spectrum scores Imagina drama

Todo Por El Juego premiered in Latin America last year

Spectrum Originals, part of US media giant Charter Communications, has acquired Latin American soccer drama Todo Por El Juego (Side Games) from Imagina International Sales.

Produced by Imagina sibling The Mediapro Studio, the series is based on the novel El Fútbol No Es Así, written by Javier Tebas, the president of Spanish top-flight football division La Liga, and co-writer Pedro Torrens.

Developed by award-winning Argentine writer Eduardo Sacheri (The Secret in their Eyes), Todo Por El Juego is set in the glamorous world of a fictionalised Spanish soccer league.

It centres on an activist businessman who ascends to team president only to find himself embroiled in mob-controlled betting, political corruption, family turmoil and murder. Daniel Calparsoro is showrunner and director.

Todo Por El Juego made its debut in Latin America last year and will premiere in the US via cable and VoD platform Spectrum on July 15.

The series is the latest in a string of acquisitions by Spectrum, which earlier this month picked up Paramount Television/Anonymous Content drama Paradise Lost. It also recently renewed Jerry Bruckheimer Television’s LA’s Finest and has begun showing Sky1 action drama Curfew.

“With its strong embrace by Latin American audiences and the massive popularity of soccer as a backdrop, we believe this wonderfully written dramatic series will appeal to both the large and growing Spanish-speaking viewership in the US, as well as everyone who loves sophisticated drama,” said Spectrum Originals chief Katherine Pope.