Live Markets, Charts & Financial News

Gerard Piqué might have found the perfect sport for Gen Z’s falling attention span

1

Gerard Pique, a former Spain, Barcelona and Manchester United footballer, has many reasons why he loves the sport. The three-time Champions League winner and World Cup champion made millions playing at the peak of the game with some of the greatest players of all time, including Lionel Messi.

But, as is the case with the Gen Z crowd who got their attention through a maverick sport, he grew tired of the game that made him a millionaire.

In response, Pique founded the Kings League, a sport that may have been unfamiliar to many fans who followed the Barcelona legend growing up, but which quickly became a hit with younger, attention-deficit viewers.

What is the Kings League?

It seemed appropriate to speak with Pique at London’s Twickenham Stadium, home of England Rugby and host of the English leg of the World Rugby Sevens Championship. This represents a specialized version of the 15-player game, with fewer players and much shorter games.

However, Pique had other sports in mind when creating the Kings League.

A Kings League match starts like a water polo match, with the ball in the middle and the players starting at the goal line, rushing to take possession when the referee’s whistle blows. Each team starts with one player on the field and one goalkeeper before players are gradually called into the game for a seven-player match.

There are other rules, such as replacing the orange ball with the white ball in the final phase of the match.

Six games are played over the course of a Sunday, similar to how American sports break up the schedule. The women’s equivalent of the Kings League, the Queens League, is played during Saturdays.

Online influencers, primarily Twitch streamers, are team managers, selecting players through a draft process modeled after the American franchise.

The league has tapped some of the biggest influencers in Spain, its home market, to grow its audience. This includes Ibai Llanos, a streamer with more than 17 million followers on Twitch, who runs Porcinos FC.

Former players, including former Manchester United star Javier “Chicharito” Hernandez and former Real Madrid midfielder James Rodriguez, also manage the teams.

The entire concept of the King’s League, from the shortened games to the influential managers, has been hand-crafted to appeal to the 18-35 age group. Speaking at Leader’s Week in London, Pique described the format as “football with a video game”.

“Sports are not just competing against other sports. They are competing against Netflix, HBO, and Amazon. They are competing against Twitter, Instagram, and TikTok. For kids, these things are more exciting now,” Pique said.

Perhaps the Kings League has found the balance needed to attract a younger audience. About 85% of the King’s League audience are under 35 years of age.

The increasing popularity of the King’s League is what Pique sees as a fundamental downfall for football’s development.

In fact, Pique grew tired of football towards the end of his career, both physically and psychologically. On the physical side, the increased crowding in traditional matches to meet media demand has caused severe strain on the players, including Pique.

Psychologically, Pique is having increasing difficulties watching a 90-minute match, something he shares with his younger fans.

“I think 90 minutes is a long time, that’s why we try to limit our games.”

“It’s impossible to go on the field for 90 minutes and the game ends in a goalless draw. In theory, you can’t understand that, but that happens in traditional football.

The money behind the Kings League

It seems that Pique saw with his own eyes the trend that was beginning to take hold among Generation Z. A YouGov Mathematical white paper From 2023, just over 30% of 18-24 year olds are found to watch sport live on TV, compared to around 75% of over 55s. Instead, younger audiences are more likely to consume sports content on social media, after the event has concluded. It happened, and as Pique points out, they played video games.

Many traditional football clubs have now embraced TikTok to increase interest among their fans, and have begun offering highlights while urging their players to get involved in the viral trends. The Kings League is the culmination of all these changing habits.

However, trying to attract a young audience is a difficult task. They have lower income than older people and often spend their parents’ money at their discretion. The Kings League is also broadcast free-to-air on streaming channels, meaning they don’t benefit from the huge TV deals that traditional leagues like the Premier League have gained.

However, there were some early financial gains for the thriving league.

The lengthy nature of the Kings League event meant fans broke the record for food and drink sales at La Liga’s Athletic Madrid stadium, often due to children dragging their parents to the youth-focused event.

And while younger audiences won’t spend as much as their parents, the Kings League’s youth demographic is a goldmine for advertisers. The majority of the group’s revenue comes from companies keen to capture younger audiences with whom they can grow while building income in their later years.

The group also managed to avoid direct payments to many of those involved. Influencers monetize the broadcast channels they create for their leagues, attracting advertising deals from companies that support the Kings League.

Meanwhile, the players are of relatively low quality, which means they do not receive high salaries from the league.

From football player to founder

Pique founded the Kings League shortly after an acrimonious retirement from his boyhood club Barcelona, ​​where he was pressured to leave due to his huge salary as the club suffered a financial crisis.

The Catalan knew he needed to start thinking about life away from football, and consulted his retired former teammates about what lies ahead.

“They said to me: ‘Gerard, be ready, because you change your whole routine,'” he said of conversations with his former teammates.

“For 10 years, you’ve been doing the same thing, and suddenly you’re not training in the morning anymore. So I said, ‘Okay, I’ve got to be ready. Let’s create something so I can be busy.’

He has chosen the world of business, a far cry from his time at the top of European football.

“I would say my day is a normal day as a guy who started the company and wants to make it successful,” Pique says. He would start his day in the office around 9:30 a.m. and work until 6 or 7 p.m., with periods of travel to meet business partners.

The shift to the office had its other adjustments, most notably the relationship with colleagues.

“I was a professional (footballer) for 20 years. I would say the atmosphere there was different to the one in the office, because the relationship you have with your teammates is spending a lot of time with them. I mean you shower with them, you share everything with them.

“Here in the office, it’s different, but in a way, you have the same goal, which should be to grow the company, reach any part of the world, and scale as quickly as possible.”

In October, the Royal League appointed Jamal Ajawa, the former managing director of the NBA for Europe and the Middle East, as its CEO in a sign of its ambitions to expand beyond Europe and Latin America and into the United States.

Despite years of leadership on the pitch, the CEO position was not something Pique was keen to take up with the Kings League.

“I think we’re a team, and everyone is good at doing something. You have to know what it is and try to put in the effort you can to make the company successful. I’m the founder. You name it, it doesn’t matter.”

Comments are closed, but trackbacks and pingbacks are open.