Blog: football

Read our latest daily deep dives, hot takes, and exciting updates about the entertainment world. Check out the latest insight from your favourite analyst, or search by coverage areas - music, entertainment and fandom, creator economy and social.

Sports broadcasting is ripe for disruption…and creators know it

Ben Woods

4 Apr 2023

Twitch

Kings League

soccer

The former Barcelona footballer Gerard Pique made a surprising claim last month (March 2023). To promote his Twitch football channel, the Kings League, the retired centre back unfurled a giant banner in the Catalonian capital that read: “The thought of us filling up Camp Nou really scares them”.

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EA’s exclusive FIFA license is under threat as games go cross-entertainment

Karol Severin

22 Oct 2021

FIFA

football

Last week it was reported that FIFA and EA are at an impasse regarding the renewal negotiations of an exclusive license deal. EA stated that it is considering renaming its flagship football title, while FIFA responded with a press release stating that “the future of gaming and esports for football stakeholders must involve more than one party controlling and exploiting all the rights’’ This is less about who is right and who is wrong, and more about the synergy of this once symbiotic partnership having run its course.

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The games universe is driving the rise of global football fandom

Srishti Das

3 Sep 2021

FIFA

football

English Premier League

Sport is built on the pillar of fandom, with a global network of passionate fanbases who are driven by different sporting cultures across the world. Football is a prime global example of this, with multiple popular leagues and tournaments spread out over the year.

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Euro 2020 – a pandemic-driven standout success

Hanna Kahlert

15 Jul 2021

Euro 2020

UEFA

football

This last weekend saw the finals of the delayed UEFA Euro 2020, with Italy the winners. Footage of crowds over the preceding week’s semi-finals showed crowds flooding the streets; social media feeds filled with screen-capped memes and related socio-political commentary.

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Super League feels the cost of forgetting fans

Hanna Kahlert

23 Apr 2021

Super League

Sports

football

Sports has an age problem among its audiences. Around half of consumers over the age of 45 watch live sports on TV, dropping to less than a third of those under the age of 24 as of Q1 2021 (source: MIDiA Research Consumer Survey).

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Football looks to build digital engagement through Fortnite collaboration

Alistair Taylor

22 Jan 2021

endeavor

IMG

WME

Endeavor-owned IMG, acting as Epic Games’ licensing representative, has brokered deals with 23 football clubs to appear in the publisher’s free-to-play battle royale-style game Fortnite. Looking to capitalise on an increasingly valuable market, with diversifying revenue streams a paramount objective, sport is starting to play its way into the world of micropayments and in-app purchases, turning fandom into revenue .

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Innovation via Free-to-air Highlights Missed Opportunity to date for the EPL

Alistair Taylor

24 Jun 2020

Sports

live sport

Sporting rights

Following live sports’ hiatus due to the coronavirus pandemic, the English Premier League (EPL) saw two of the top three most-watched matches in league history occur last weekend. The previous record of 4.

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Bundesliga Offers Reality Check for What to Expect of Sport Post-COVID-19

Alistair Taylor

21 May 2020

AFL

AGF Aarhus

Football (via the Bundesliga) finally returned to screens last weekend, not only serving starved sports fans with content during lockdown, but more importantly demonstrated what we can expect live football to look like in the coming months.

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Take Five (the big five stories and data you need to know) November 18th 2019

Mark Mulligan

18 Nov 2019

bytedance

Disney

Bytedance subscription: Bytedance, parent of TikTok, is reportedlyclose to launching a music subscription service, initially focused on emerging markets. The big question is whether Bytedance will get the deals to launch something genuinely new, built on TikTok’s foundation, or just end up launching a cookie-cutter “all you can eat” 9.

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Is Pay-TV killing off Niche Sports?

Alistair Taylor

4 Jul 2019

Awareness

BBC

BBC One

With both the ICC Cricket World Cup and FIFA Women’s World Cup approaching their climaxes, the stark difference in audience engagement raises the question, is pay-TV killing off niche sports? Deciding the medium through which to distribute live sports has never been more crucial.

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Sky Shows Hand With Bid For Scottish Football TV Rights

Alistair Taylor

12 Nov 2018

assets

broadcast rights

Sky sports has doubled down on UK football and is the firm favourite to acquire the exclusive rights to broadcast Scottish football (SPFL), having bid £100 million for the next block of rights, starting in 2021 .

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Is This The Last Broadcast TV World Cup?

Tim Mulligan

19 Jun 2018

English Premier League

FIFA

football

The football World Cup – historically the world’s biggest international sporting event by viewership, kicked off last Thursday (14 June) in Moscow, with host nation Russia dispatching Saudi Arabia 5-0.

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Are Consumers Losing Out From the Latest Premier League Rights Deal?

Alistair Taylor

15 Jun 2018

Amazon

consumers

EPL

Following the landmark rights deal that saw the English Premier League (EPL) sell domestic rights to the tech major Amazon, the sports landscape has fundamentally changed. For the first time the EPL has sold domestic digital rights, allowing for matches to be live streamed on Amazon Prime.

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Are China’s Leading Tech Companies Building a Next Gen Full-Stack Sports Ecosystem?

Zach Fuller

25 Nov 2016

Alibaba

alisports

football

Chinese investment in sports is unique. True, there has been outside investment in the major European leagues for decades now, as well as the common occurrence of a former world-beater heading to obscure divisions for a final lucrative pay-day.

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