Gerard Piqué is betting that American audiences are prepared for a soccer expertise that prioritizes leisure over custom. The previous Barcelona defender’s Kings League, which he launched in January 2023, is making ready to enter the U.S. market this October because the streaming soccer hybrid positive factors momentum globally.
“I believe our product is nice for the U.S. viewers,” Piqué mentioned in an unique interview with Fortune at Stagwell’s Sports activities Seaside in Cannes.
“In American sports activities, there’s at all times a winner. There’s at all times lots of present, lots of leisure. I believe that if we do it in a correct method, we are able to have a lot success.”
What’s Kings League?
Kings League represents a radical reimagining of soccer, designed particularly for digital-native audiences.
The competitors options modified guidelines that guarantee higher-scoring video games and fixed motion, with matches broadcast dwell on streaming platforms like YouTube, Twitch and TikTok fairly than conventional tv.
Every of the groups in a league is owned by fashionable streamers who’ve constructed devoted on-line communities, creating what Piqué describes as unprecedented fan engagement. The league has expanded quickly since its Spanish debut, now working throughout six nations with eight completely different leagues and practically 100 groups in its ecosystem.
“It’s those that dedicate 5, six, seven hours a day of their channel to create dwell content material with their viewers, with their followers, and this creates a hyperlink, like an engagement, a loyalty from the followers to the streamer that you just can’t see in a sportsman like I used to be or an artist or a singer,” Piqué defined.
The corporate has grown from 10-12 staff at launch to greater than 270 throughout six nations, although particular income figures stay non-public.
Piqué famous that “65-70% of our revenues come from sponsors,” with the streaming mannequin eliminating conventional broadcast rights charges.
Leisure over custom
Piqué’s method displays a broader shift in how sports activities compete for viewers consideration.
He argues that soccer now competes towards main tech giants for viewers’ time fairly than battling different sports activities.
“For these new youngsters, soccer will not be competing towards basketball or tennis by way of getting viewers because it was previously. Soccer is competing towards Netflix, HBO, Amazon Prime, TikTok, YouTube, Instagram, all these platforms that provide leisure, so the game must be entertaining,” he mentioned.
The league’s rule modifications deal with what Piqué sees as elementary issues with conventional soccer. Every match encompasses a seven-a-side format and lasts solely 40 minutes. Attracts are determined by penalty shootouts. And every workforce can play “secret playing cards” throughout a recreation, akin to suspending an opposing participant from the pitch for 4 minutes or having their targets depend for double for 4 minutes.
“The truth that you go to [a regular soccer] stadium, you spend two hours along with your youngsters and the sport finishes 0-0 with no winner, no targets. This isn’t leisure,” he mentioned. “We don’t wish to compete towards soccer clearly … however we needed to create a praise.”
The technique seems to be working. Kings League boasts that 85% of its viewers is below 35 years outdated, and the league has attracted partnerships with conventional soccer organizations like Serie A to create joint content material.
Pique unfazed by copycat competitors
Success has bred imitation.
Since Kings League’s launch, comparable leagues have emerged throughout Europe and Latin America, together with Baller League, which originated in Germany in 2024 and has since launched in England, securing a significant TV broadcasting take care of Sky Sports activities within the course of.
Pique says, with a smile, that he welcomes the competitors and takes it as a praise: “It’s nice. When folks copy you, it’s since you did one thing good.
“We’re the unique one … I believe that as a result of we’re the unique ones, we’ve got one yr of benefit as a result of all these leagues began in 2024.”
Piqué maintains that Kings League’s first-mover benefit and world ecosystem set it aside from opponents.
The league operates two worldwide tournaments—the World Cup of Golf equipment and World Cup of Nations—that permit native streamers to compete on a world stage. The newest World Cup of Golf equipment, held in Paris in June, drew 25,000 spectators.
“We’re completely different than the remaining. For those who test the numbers in social, the audiences, the ecosystem,” Piqué provides. “All these leagues nonetheless are very native… We’re those that we lead and the opposite ones observe. I believe it’s necessary in life to be the chief and never the follower.”
King League’s U.S. market technique
The American growth represents Kings League’s greatest take a look at but.
Piqué acknowledges the challenges of getting into a market dominated by established sports activities and leisure properties.
“I believe the US is an unbelievable market. Clearly it’s a giant, huge one with lots of sports activities, lots of leisure occurring, and it’s an costly one to market, promote and so forth,” he mentioned. “So I believe that we’ve got to do it in a correct method.”
The corporate has spent months making ready for the launch, specializing in figuring out the appropriate streaming personalities to function workforce house owners and growing the league construction.
“We’re very joyful to have a timeline and we all know precisely after we will begin, which is in October this yr with some form of occasion that we are going to announce quickly,” Piqué mentioned.
The timing coincides with rising curiosity in soccer within the U.S., fueled by high-profile signings like Lionel Messi’s transfer to Inter Miami—Pique’s ex-teammate at Barcelona.
From pitch to boardroom
Piqué’s transition from elite footballer—winner of 1 World Cup and a European Championship with Spain, plus eight La Liga and three Champions League titles with Barcelona—to entrepreneur started throughout his enjoying profession.
“I began my first firm in 2012,” he mentioned, describing his attraction to “creating one thing new in a method, going out of the field and actually making an attempt various things that I’ve by no means executed earlier than.”
Drawing from his experiences below legendary managers Pep Guardiola and Sir Alex Ferguson, Piqué emphasizes the significance of workforce motivation and collective effort, which he now incorporates into his personal management fashion.
“An important aspect of it [management] is how they encourage the workforce… when you might have large problem forward or large targets, you must actually work as a workforce as a result of when you work as a person, you’ll by no means obtain all the large desires that we’ve got as an organization.”
For younger entrepreneurs, Piqué gives easy recommendation: deal with ardour over developments. “Simply to focus actually on their desires on what they are surely obsessed with… it’s higher when you fail to do it in your method fairly than doing one thing else as a result of somebody instructed you or as a result of it’s the development,” he mentioned.
The Kings League’s speedy development and growth plans symbolize a big wager that sports activities leisure can efficiently bridge conventional athletics and digital-first content material.
As Piqué prepares for the essential U.S. launch, the enterprise will take a look at whether or not his components for participating youthful audiences can translate throughout cultural and aggressive boundaries.
“The potential is immense,” Piqué mentioned of the American market. “It’s only a matter of time to actually do it correctly.”
