Spain, Barcelona, and Manchester United footballer, Gerard Pique has many reasons to love the game. The three-time Champions League winner and World Cup champion earned millions playing alongside some of the greatest players of all time, including Lionel Messi, at the pinnacle of the game.
But, as the Gen Z audience is captivated by a different game, he is tired of the game that made him a millionaire.
As a response, Piqueé founded the King’s League, a sport perhaps unfamiliar to many fans who nurtured the Barcelona legend, but increasingly popular with an attention-deprived, younger audience.
What is Kings League?
London’s Twickenham Stadium, the home of England rugby and the English League’s host of the World Rugby Sevens tournament, thought it appropriate to speak with Peck. It represents a specific version of the 15-a-side game, with fewer players and much shorter games.
However, Puckey had other games in mind while creating Kings League.
A King’s League game starts like a water polo match, with a ball in the middle and players starting from the goal line, running to gain possession when the whistle blows. Each team starts with an outfield player and a goalkeeper before the players are gradually called into play to form seven-a-side matchups.
There are also more frivolous rules, such as the orange ball replacing the white ball in the final phase of the match.
Six games are played throughout the day on Sunday, similar to how American sports have stuck to a schedule. The Queen’s League, the women’s equivalent of the King’s League, plays on Saturdays.
Internet influencers, primarily Twitch streamers, are team managers, who select players through an American franchise-style draft process.
The league has leveraged its biggest influence in Spain, its home market, to expand its audience. This includes Ibai Llanos, a streamer with over 17 million followers on Twitch, who runs Porcinos FC.
Former players, including ex-Manchester United star Javier “Chicharito” Hernandez and former Real Madrid midfielder James Rodriguez, also manage teams.
The entire concept of the Kings League, from its short games to its impressive organizers, is crafted to appeal to the 18-35 demographic. Speaking at Leaders Week London, Peck described the format as “soccer with a video game”.
“Sports aren’t just competing against other sports. They’re competing against Netflix, HBO, and Amazon. They’re competing against Twitter, Instagram, and TikTok. And for kids, it’s just so exciting. ” said Peck.
Kings League may have found the balance needed to appeal to a younger audience. About 85% of Kings League viewers are under the age of 35.
Increasing popularity in the King’s League is what Pico sees as a fundamental exhaustion with the evolution of football.
In fact, Packie tired of football as he neared the end of his career, both physically and psychologically. On the physical side, the increasing congestion of fixtures in the traditional game to meet broadcaster demand has put enormous pressure on players, including pucks.
On the psychological side, Pique is increasingly struggling to watch the 90 minutes of games he shares with his younger audience.
“I think 90 minutes is long, and that’s why we try to slow down our game.”
“It is impossible that you go to the stadium for 90 minutes and the game ends 0-0. Conceptually, you cannot understand it, but it is happening in traditional football.
Money behind the Kings League
It seems Peck has seen with his own eyes a trend that has begun to take hold of Gen Z. YouGov’s sports white paper from 2023 found that just over 30% of 18-24-year-olds will watch live sport on TV, compared to almost 75% of over-55s. Instead, younger audiences are more likely to consume sports content on social media, after an event has taken place, and as Pique points out, play video games.
Many traditional football clubs have now adopted TikTok to increase interest among their viewers, and have started offering highlight reels to engage their players in viral trends. King’s League is the culmination of all these changing habits.
Still, trying to appeal to a younger audience is a rocky victory. They have less disposable income than their elders and often spend their parents’ cash on their own discretion. The King’s League is also free to broadcast on streaming channels, meaning they are not benefiting from the huge TV deals secured by traditional leagues such as the English Premier League.
However, there have been some early financial wins for the growing league.
The manufactured nature of the King’s League event meant that supporters broke records for food and drink sales at La Liga side Athletic Madrid’s stadium, often with 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 young demographic represents a goldmine for advertisers. Much of the group’s revenue comes from companies seeking to acquire a younger audience that can grow with them as they increase revenue in their later years.
The group has also managed to avoid direct payments to many of those involved. Influencers monetize the streaming channels they create for their leagues, which attract advertising deals from companies that support the Kings League.
The players, meanwhile, are of relatively low quality, meaning they don’t command the highest salaries in the league.
From footballer to founder
Pique founded the King’s League shortly after his acrimonious retirement from his boyhood club FC Barcelona, where he was pressured to leave due to his high salary as the club fell into financial crisis.
The Catalonian knew he needed to start thinking about life away from football, and consulted his retired former teammates about what awaited him.
“They said to me: Gerrard, be ready, because you change your whole routine,” he said of the conversation with former colleagues.
“For 10 years, you’ve been doing this, and all of a sudden you’re not training in the morning. So I said, well, I’ve got to be ready. Let’s make something so I can be busy.”
He chose the business world, and it’s a far cry from his time in European football.
“I would say my day is as a normal guy who has built a company and wants to make it work,” says Peck. He would start his day at the office around 9:30 a.m. and work until 6 or 7 p.m., with occasional trips to meet business partners.
The change to the office has led to other adjustments, particularly relationships with colleagues.
“I was a professional. [footballer] for 20 years. I would say the environment there was different from the office environment, because of the relationship you have with your colleagues, you spend a lot of time with them. I mean, you’ve showered with them, you share everything.
“It’s different here in the office, but in a way, you have the same goal, which is to grow the company, to reach any part of the world, to expand as quickly as possible.”
In October, the Kings League appointed Djamel Agaoua, the NBA’s former managing director 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 Americas.
Despite his years of leadership on the pitch, the position of CEO was not something Pucci wanted to compete with in the Kings League.
“I think we’re a team, and everybody’s good at something. You have to figure out what it is and try to make the company successful. I’m the founder. You name it. You can, it doesn’t matter.
