The Kings League has meant a before and after for streaming, managing to attract more than 2 million users on Twitch, TikTok and YouTube. At Xataka we have followed the phenomenon: how he managed to attract a young audience with a gamified football competition, how he got 92,000 people into the Camp Nou in its final and now, more recently, the decision to cede the rights to traditional television for it to be broadcast also in Cuatro and the controversy over the player’s salary.
The competition has earned fame by itself, attracting the youngest with the faces of their favorite streamers and rethinking the rules of football (including a wacky system that we never imagined in a stadium: giant dice that decide actions, lucky cards that unlock different game modes). And it has turned soccer into a successful hybrid of sport and video game.
Now that the Kings League is on everyone’s lips, the following question arises: Where does the money come from to mount all this? Until now, before the acquisition of the rights by Mediaset, the Kings League way of doing business was very different from conventional leagues. Mainly, because they do not obtain an economic return from the television rights that other sports competitions sell to channels or platforms.
In this case, it was broadcast for free on Twitch and the main source of income is sponsorship: InfoJobs, Cupra and other major brands such as Adidas, Grefusa, Spotify, Mahou, Xiaomi or McDonald’s. And for the Queens League, the women’s version, Oysho is the main sponsor. El Confidencial pointed out in this article that sponsorships were swelling the coffers of the competition with “figures of up to one million euros”.
And yet, despite all that has been achieved, what is most striking is that the players have such a low salary: 75 euros gross per match. Yes, the salary that their players are receiving is the equivalent of 300 euros gross per month, with the competition paying these payments and not each club.
The problem of salaries has actually raised a storm since at the Final Four party, Piqué, the president of the competition, took the microphone and promised better salaries: “This has only just begun, we are going to raise salaries “He said while the audience chanted his name. This was interpreted by many players as an immediate change, but the reality is that the second split kicked off and salaries stayed the same. And not even the agreement with Mediaset has changed anything at the moment.
In this other article by Javier Lacort, editor of Xataka, we contacted the Kings League, who told us: “We will solve it, but privately” and explained that “it has already been said publicly on several occasions that there would be an increase in salaries, but it was not defined that it would be at the beginning of the second split”, as well as that there was recently a meeting with the players to discuss various issues, including this.
Analyzing the business model and its obstacles
Recently, and while the controversy continues to grow, Ibai wanted to explain in one of his live shows the reasons why all this has happened:
“I wanted all my players to live from the Kings League. I paid my sponsors. This has not been allowed to me because then I completely unbalance the league, of course. So this is already like traditional football, there are people who pay a lot and there are people who pay little. What does this turn into? One earns a lot and the other pays little”.
As Llanos affirms, although the presidents had the intention of paying better salaries, the economic imbalance between the different presidents, together with the differences between sponsorships of each clubmade the most modest teams decide not to pay more than those 75 euros per game.
In fact, some presidents such as Ibai or Spursito have proposed some temporary solutions while deciding what to do with the economic rewards. His idea is based on the fact that the clubs with the highest income contribute more of the costs from the salaries of the players so that the presidents that generate less income are not affected as much. Though it hasn’t started yet.
“Okay, let’s look for a middle ground, damn it. Of the percentages of what the presidents earn for the sponsors they have, let’s allocate a percentage to improving the salary of the players. What is happening? That there are presidents who do not have sponsors. Of course, if you enter zero… 50% of zero, how much are people from the chat? Indeed, zero. So, it’s still unbalanced. That is, the problem is that when you put in real money, or money from the sponsors, the problem is that the one who earns a lot can pay well and the one who earns little can pay little”.
The underlying problem, however, and despite the good intentions of Ibai and company, is that the Kings League ultimately uses the same scheme to generate value as traditional football: the general spectacle of the competition is not as interesting as the value that each team or player generates at the brand and impact level. In other words, as in conventional leagues, the most attractive clubs end up being more profitable, attract more sponsors and pay more money.
Starting from this, the Kings League has a difficult time reversing the dynamics due to its self-management model: it allows each club to operate relatively autonomously (instead of centralizing sponsorships and distributing). And this will be the debate that their managers will have to face.
In addition, the matter has become essential for the competition, since, as Relevo pointed out the other day, it has led several players to raise a strike. And with reasons. It must be borne in mind that, despite the fact that many of them have managed to rise to fame by creating independent content and taking advantage of the push of the Kings, in the end it is the presidents and streamers who are monopolizing almost all the audiences. And the players, the pawns of the competition and those who depend the most on those salaries, are still at the end of the queue.
Imagen: Twitch
In Xataka | How to watch the Kings League: who’s playing, game dates and where to watch it
