Matt Morrison

Denver, CO

[Joe Pompliano @JoePompliano]

FC Barcelona legend Gerard Pique has raised $65 million for his new soccer league, the Kings League, and everyone should be paying attention to this.

Rather than try to buy his own team, Pique developed an entirely new model.

Pique and his business partners bought an abandoned warehouse in Barcelona.

They then held open tryouts, drawing 11,000 applicants and eventually picking 180 players to enter a draft like in the NFL or the NBA.

The games are 7-on-7 (rather than 11-on-11).

The matches are shorter — 40 minutes vs. 90 minutes — and all of the games are held on Sunday (instead of spreading them throughout the week).

But the real genius is the league's distribution strategy.

Rather than creating a single entity structure where Pique and his partners run all the teams, they strategically picked streamers to partner with on the project.

Each streamer has millions of followers on platforms like Twitch, YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram, and leveraging this audience has helped the Kings League grow to more than 13 million followers on digital platforms, too.

This streamer ownership model works so well because anyone in the world can watch Kings League matches for free.

That’s right, you don’t need cable TV, a streaming service, or pay-per-view packages.

Instead, the Kings League streams all of its matches for free on Twitch, YouTube, and TikTok, using its own channels while also simulcasting the matches (commercially free) on the streamer’s channels.

This helped the Kings League draw 800,000 viewers on Twitch and YouTube for its first-ever match.

In January 2023, the Kings League amassed 238 million views on TikTok and Twitch, more than every other traditional European football league combined.

And 92,000 people packed Barcelona's Camp Nou in 2023 for the league's championship match, paying anywhere between $10 to $65 to attend.

This is a promising start, but it's also just the beginning.

The Kings League has the chance to do something truly unique because the league's expansion is dependent on language rather than location.

So look for Pique to partner with English streamers, French Streamers, Arabic streamers, Portuguese streamers, Russian streamers, and Japanese streamers.

Each language will have its own league, immediately gaining millions of followers by leveraging the audience of the most popular streamers.

The incentives are aligned because the streamers get equity in the teams, and the global nature of soccer provides virtually unlimited demand.

If you enjoyed this breakdown, follow me (@JoePompliano) for more sports business content!

[Robert Griffin III @RGIII]

We all deserve a free month of Amazon Prime for watching this game.

[Film Updates @FilmUpdates]

The WGA strike is officially over, with 99% of its members voting in favour of ratifying the new contract.

[Earvin Magic Johnson @MagicJohnson]

God is so good…I still can’t believe it! I am currently living in an answered prayer. Since beginning my journey as an athlete and now businessman and team owner, it's all been a dream that has come full circle. I grew up playing football as a kid, I’m a huge NFL fan, and I watch games every week. Now, I get to co-own a storied franchise, the Washington Commanders.

I’m especially thankful to Josh Harris who allowed me to be one of his partners with the Commanders. He is an amazing man, great friend, incredible businessman, proven owner and winner with the Philadelphia 76ers. Josh and his team have been first class throughout this entire process. Our ownership team is committed to the D.C., Maryland, and Virginia community and fanbase to bring a winning team and best in class organization.

[Adam Schefter @AdamSchefter]

A monumental Washington day: NFL owners now have unanimously approved the $6.05 billion sale of the Washington Commanders from Dan Snyder to a group led by Josh Harris, per league source.

[Dov Kleiman @NFL_DovKleiman]

Heinicke!! 😂😂

[Oppenheimer @OppenheimerFilm]

Cillian Murphy is J. Robert Oppenheimer. Watch the Announcement. #Oppenheimer https://t.co/JvA4J59bR0