The seven-a-side league is starting to get attention from major brands.
We’ve seen it more and more lately: Old sports and league setups are changed to boost interest from young viewers and yield sponsorship opportunities for brands and other companies to invest in. The Kings League represents one of these attempts to revitalize a really old game.
Kings is a seven-a-side football league started by former football star Gerard Piqué and kicked off in Spain in 2022. Its rules differ from those of traditional football. For example, the game provides for a tie-breaker penalty shootout, unlimited substitutions and the use of secret weapons, to make the game more dynamic and entertaining.
Adidas has now made a sponsorship deal with the league to kit all of its teams.
In the league’s first season, there were 12 teams, each put together by an ex-footballer or other celebrity who was allowed to name the team and design its logo. Iker Casillas and Sergio Kun Agüero, for example, each serve as president of a team.
The players are chosen in a pre-season draft, for which they had to apply and try-out. Most come from regional leagues in Catalonia. Each team also has spots for guest players. Among the first season’s guests were such ex-pro footballers as Ronaldinho, Chicharito, Javier Saviola and Joan Capdevila, and host of others formerly of La Liga.
The Kings League – and since last year the Queens League – has a draft and trade system drawn from North American sports. It uses a virtual economy in which the league supplies teams with a fixed amount of “euros” (€100 million).
Kings League matches are available to watch for free through live streaming on the league’s official Twitch, Youtube and Tiktok channels, as well as on the individual channels of the team chairpersons.
In the latest edition of the Kings World Cup Nations, held in Italy, Brazil ended up lifting the champion’s trophy. The tournament achieved record numbers, with more than 1.5 billion views on social media, 3.5 million concurrent viewers, 910 million video views and more than 100 million total viewers.
