OneFootball, the streaming and media platform, and Yahoo Sports, the global sports news website, have teamed up to create a one-stop content shop for football fans in North America.
The two companies today (Wednesday) unveiled plans for a co-branded Yahoo Sports-OneFootball hub, which will launch later this year providing global football coverage spanning news, analysis and video to users in the United States and Canada.
With the Fifa Club World Cup coming to the US in 2025, followed by the World Cup in US, Canada and Mexico a year later and more European teams touring the US each pre-season, OneFootball said it is the opportune time for its founder clubs to speak directly to a growing North American football fanbase.
In 2020 OneFootball bought football-focused digital media company Dugout, whose founder clubs included Arsenal, Barcelona, Bayern Munich, Chelsea, Juventus, Liverpool, Manchester City, Paris Saint-Germain and Real Madrid.
Speaking to a small group of international media, including SportBusiness, Patrick Fischer, chief executive of OneFootball, said: “European clubs especially are looking to the US as a growth market. We see the huge appetite for football content is growing and growing, which is the reason why all these clubs come to the US for the summer friendly tours. It’s about business development and I think as a joint operation, we can deliver something really meaningful and sustainable for the long-term.”
The firm briefed its clubs on the Yahoo Sports partnership at an advisory board meeting in London last week, and Fischer said there was wide-spread enthusiasm to support the hub with exclusive content where possible.
Fischer said: “Through this partnership they now have access to the US market. That was always the weak spot over the last few years at OneFootball… They want to enter the market and use us as a vehicle to generate organic reach… Yahoo has studio and video production capabilities itself, so at a fingertip we can easily produce stuff and amplify their [the clubs’] brand presence in the US.”
He continued: “The next step for us will be to talk to the clubs that are touring through the US this summer… There will be some exclusive content… The summer tours are not yet planned totally. There are some rights to be drawn out, but we will partner with the clubs and partners will profit from it.”
One of those leading European clubs heading to the US again this summer is Borussia Dortmund, another OneFootball shareholder.
Carsten Cramer, managing director of Dortmund, which recently opened its first US office in New York, said: “For a club like us with strong international ambitions, this landmark partnership between OneFootball and Yahoo Sports makes perfect sense. For BVB it unlocks great opportunities to further grow our fanbase in North America. Through this partnership we will reach more supporters and provide them with a wealth of compelling football content about our club.”
According to Yahoo Sports and OneFootball, the new hub will “unlock new advertising and sponsorship opportunities” for brands.
On the media call, Ryan Spoon, president of Yahoo Sport, explained: “If you look at what we are doing right now around [US college basketball’s] March Madness, we have attached almost 10 unique title sponsors to different properties, from content to social to articles and analysis to bracket busters and sleepers and live shows.
“We’ve done this really well already in fantasy, we’re doing this really well at the moment [for March Madness], and we do this every day in other sports. This is now a chance to do this with OneFootball with a new vertical that we believe will, every passing day, become increasingly important in the US. For potential advertisers and sponsors who want to be integrated into that traffic, into that messaging, into new content efforts, that’s a win.”