Baller League: The latest sports entertainment gamechanger

Modern footballis hoping to keep the product of the world's most popular sport entertaining, but a new format of the beautiful game is emerging.

This week, the Baller League began in Germany, an idea run by World Cup winners Mats Hummels and Lukas Podolski. This is an indoor, six-a-side football league in which hopeful amateurs, ex-pros and celebrities compete.

An American style draft system helped filter out the 16,000 players who applied for a spot on the 12 teams being run by presidents such as Kevin-Prince Boateng, who played for the likes of AC Milan, Barcelona and Hertha Berlin, and current Wolfsburg winger Jule Brand.

Origin story

Online personalities have increasingly made their presence felt for over a decade, but recent advances into sport have added a whole new meaning to the idea of sports entertainment and provided a reminder of not just how big this business is, but how it's adapting to new generations.

In 2016, English YouTuber Spencer Owen founded Hashtag FC, who play in the seventh division of English football, while Elias Nehrlich, Germany's most famous streamer (1.4 million on Instagram and 1.3 million subscribers on YouTube), followed in Owen's footsteps with the creation of Delay Sports Berlin in 2021.

It's not just in the football world that social media stars and streamers have sought to shift the status quo. YouTubers turned entrepeneurs, KSI and Logan Paul demonstrated the power of their respective online presences when they shook up the professional boxing world. 

Their impact has split opinions with some believing boxing needs to do all it can to stay relevant while others believe the art of boxing is being diluted by entertainers who are in it for the show and hampering the progress of amateur fighters who have been honing their craft for years.

The Ballers League, though takes pride in offering another avenue into the world of football.

"There are definitely a handful of promising careers that fell by the wayside and perhaps one or two players here can show that they could have made it," explained Hummels.

Boateng: "Football has become a little boring"

However people feel about the ability of social media stars to move the mainstream needle, there can be no denying that the merger of sports and streamer culture is working.

The opening matchday of the Baller League was streamed on Twitch, accumulating over one million views for a near seven-hour stream. Boateng admitted it wasn't quite as drastic as the competition's self-proclaimed "new era for football" motto, but did say that the presence of streamers and influencers alongside familiar football names wold allow for "content creation".

Football is certainly not short of content or people creating it, but this is a whole new playing field. Indeed, as Boateng said on the opening matchday of the Baller League: "Football has become a little boring for me. Watching a 90-minute game is sometimes tough. This here is entertainment."

World Cup winner Christoph Kramer, who is a team president, said that this approach was not a rival to traditional football but rather something that can be successful alongside it.

"Early, when it was Champions League, it was a public holiday and you didn't do anything else. Now you're on your phone at the same time and constantly wanting new stimuli," Kramer said.

Inspiration from Spain

The Baller League has almost certainly been influenced by the Kings League, the idea of former Barcelona and Spain player Gerard Pique that has taken off in Spain. In the Kings League (there is also a Queen's League), 12 seven-a-side teams play in a competition that includes quirky elements like action cards that see goals worth double or opponents losing a player.

According to research by online marketing platform OMR, for the twelve matchdays of its first season, the Kings League averaged around 12.7 million live views each via Tiktok, Youtube and Twitch. For the final four, held in the Camp Nou and then later in the Metropolitano, there were as many as 25.4 million live streams. The league boasts Adidas, Spotify and McDonald's delivery service as sponsors.

The Kings League, the Baller League are clear moves to offer something that is faster, louder and delivers more action than the 90 minutes of a game to Gen Z.

It is why these new formats offer alternative rules, have recruited famous names and are not only tapping into star streamers who already have built-in communities but are also hosting directly in the places where the next generation spends most of its time. Both leagues are streamed on YouTube and Twitch, 70% of viewers on the latter are aged between 18 and 34 and where 1.3 trillion minutes were watched in 2022.

What next?

There is no doubt that traditional football will retain its place at the top. According to ESPN, the Champions League drove global revenue of €3.6bn ($3.9bn) for UEFA club competitions in each of the three seasons from 2021 to 2024.

But even the Champions League is changing it's format to be more entertaining, and while it isn't the main reason behind these new formats, retaining the attention of Gen Z certainly plays a role.

In the meantime, this new football will continue to embed itself into the sporting landscape. Kings League wants to internationalize, with a competition in the Americas already announced, and Real Madrid star Toni Kroos and Delay Sports Berlin founder Elias Nerlich announced they're creating another, rival small-sided competition, The Icon League, which is set to arrive in this coming summer.

What comes next remains to be seen, but whatever it is it will likely be live streamed.

Edited by: James Thorogood