Gerard Piqué relies that the American audience is ready for a football experience that prioritizes the entertainment before tradition. The former Barcelona defender of the defender Kings LeagueThe fact that he started in January 2023 is preparing to enter the US market this October because streaming soccer hybrid gains dynamics worldwide.
“I think our product is great for the US audience,” said Piqué in an exclusive interview with Assets at Stagwell’s sports beach in Cannes.
“There is always a winner in American sport. There is always a lot of show, a lot of entertainment. I think if we do it properly, we can have so much success.”
What is Kings League?
The Kings League represents a radical reinterpretation of football, which was specially developed for the digital native audience.
The competition contains modified rules that ensure games with a higher rating and constant actions, whereby games are being transferred live to streaming platforms such as YouTube, Twitch and Tiktok instead of on traditional television.
Each of the teams in a league belongs to popular streamers who have built committed online communities and creates what Piqué describes as an unprecedented fan engagement. The league has been quickly expanded since its Spanish debut and works in six different leagues and almost 100 teams in their ecosystem in six countries.
“There are people who devote five, six, seven hours a day to create live content with their audience with their fans, and this creates a link, like a commitment, a loyalty of the fans to the streamer that you cannot see in an athlete like me or an artist or singer,” said Piqué.
The company has grown from 10 to 12 employees at the start of more than 270 in six countries, although specific income remain private.
Piqué found that “65-70% of our revenue comes from sponsors”, with the streaming model eliminating traditional right-wing rights fees.
Entertainment about tradition
Piqué’s approach reflects a broader change in the way in which sport competes for the attention of the audience.
He argues that football is now competing against large tech giants for the time of the audience instead of fighting against other sports.
“For these new children, football does not compete against basketball or tennis to get the audience like in the past. Football competes against Netflix, HBOPresent Amazon Prime, Tikok, YouTube, InstagramAll of these platforms that offer entertainment must be entertaining, ”he said.
The rules of the league deal with what Piqué sees as fundamental problems with traditional football. Each match has a seven-page format and only takes 40 minutes. Pulls are decided by penalty shootouts. And every team can play “secret cards” during a game, e.g. B. to put on an opposing player from the field for four minutes or to count for two minutes for four minutes.
“The fact that you go to a stadium (regular football) spend two hours with your children and the game ends 0-0 without winners, without goals. This is not a conversation,” he said. “Obviously we don’t want to compete against football … but we wanted to compliment.”
The strategy seems to work. The Kings League boasts that 85% of its audience is under the age of 35, and the league has attracted partnerships with traditional football organizations such as series A to create common content.
Pik
Success bred imitation.
Similar leagues have been created across Europe and Latin America since the start of the Kings League, including the Baller League, which was in Germany in 2024 and has been launched in England since then to receive a large TV transmission contract with Sky Sports.
Pique says with a smile that he welcomes the competition and takes it as a compliment: “It’s great. If people copy them, it is because they have done something good.
“We are the original … I think because we are the original, we have a year advantage because all these leagues started in 2024.”
Piqué claims that the first-mover advantage of the Kings League and the global ecosystem distinguish it from the competitors.
The league runs two international tournaments – the World Cup of the Associations and the World Cup of the Nations – that enable local streamers to take part in a global stage. The latest World Cup, which took place in Paris in June, attracted 25,000 spectators.
“We differ from the others. If you check the numbers in social, the audience, the ecosystem,” adds Piqué. “All of these leagues are still very locally … We are the ones we lead and the others follow. I think it is important in life, the leader and not the follower.”
US market strategy of the King League
The American expansion represents the largest test in the Kings League so far.
Piqué recognizes the challenges of entering a market that is dominated by established sports and entertainment bases.
“I think the USA is an incredible market. Obviously it is a big, big with a lot of sport, lots of entertainment and it is an expensive market, promotes and so on,” he said. “So I think we have to do it right.”
The company has prepared for the start for months and focused on identifying the right streaming personalities in order to act as a team owner and develop the league structure.
“We are very happy to have a timeline and we know exactly when we will start, which will take place in October this year with a kind of event that we will soon announce,” said Piqué.
Timing coincides with growing interest in football in the United States, which are driven by top -class addresses as driven Lionel Messi’s move to Inter Miami-Pique’s ex-teams in Barcelona.
From the pitch to the meeting room
Piqué’s transition from the Elite footballer – the winner of a World Cup and a European Championship with Spain as well as eight titles by La Liga and three Champions League titles with Barcelona – started to entrepreneur during his career.
“I founded my first company in 2012,” he said, describing his attraction of “creating something new in a way, going out of the box and really trying out different things that I have never done before.”
Draw from his experiences among legendary managers Pep Guardiola and Sir Alex FergusonPiqué emphasizes the importance of the team motivation and the collective effort, which he now includes in his own leadership style.
“The most important page (management) is how to motivate the team … If you have a big challenge or big goals, you really have to work as a team, because if you work as a individual, you will never realize all the great dreams we have as a company.”
Piqué offers simple advice for young entrepreneurs: focus on passions about trends. “Just to really concentrate on their dreams of what they are really passionate about … it is better if they don’t do it in their own way, instead of doing something else because someone has told them or because it is the trend,” he said.
The quick growth and expansion plans of the Kings League are a significant bet that sports entertainment can successfully bridge traditional athletics and digital-first content.
While Piqué is preparing for the crucial US start, the company will check whether its formula for the inclusion of younger audiences can be translated across cultural and competitive borders.
“The potential is immense,” said Piqué about the American market. “It’s just a matter of time to really do it right.”
