[UK] Brits are football mad and so are advertisers. It’s no surprise then that the online rights of the English Premier League are highly contested. This morning, Yahoo UK announced that it has secured the exclusive UK online highlights for the next three seasons (2010-13), taking over from Virgin Media who is the current rights holder.

The deal means that from August this year, British football fans will get access to five minute highlight packages of every Barclays Premier League match exclusively on Yahoo.co.uk, helping position Yahoo as a serious player in the coverage of football online and help to beef up its advertising opportunities as a result. It follows the success of similar efforts by the company in the US with regards to NBA, PGA, NHL and MLB among others.

From the press release:

From the beginning of the 2010-11 Premier League season, Yahoo! customers in the UK will be able to see the online highlights packages exclusively on Yahoo! following matches. Highlights will be available from midnight on Sunday after weekend matches and at midnight the same day for midweek fixtures.

Yahoo! will also own the rights in the UK to syndicate all or part of the Premier League highlights content to third parties, allowing Yahoo! to put together market-leading advertising packages for major brands.