How LaLiga North America grew to profitability

“A World Cup is 104 Super Bowls in one month,” said FIFA president Gianni Infantino. That’s food for thought for the planet’s biggest brands, which will be falling over themselves to make an impact on the billions of people who tune in every four years. It’s also an opportunity to build on the growing popularity of “the beautiful game” in North America.

Jointly hosted by Canada, Mexico, and the United States this time around, the World Cup puts brands, athletes, and the world’s top soccer leagues in the shop window. One of those leagues is firmly ahead of the game: Spain’s premier soccer division, LaLiga, has been building its brand in the region for some time now. In 2018, it established LaLiga North America—a joint venture with soccer media company Relevent Sports Group—with the aim of bringing Spanish soccer to audiences in the US, Canada, and Mexico through broadcasting, IRL events, and sponsorships.

“The US from a sports ecosystem perspective is the most competitive in the world,” said Santiago Lucio, head of partnerships sales at LaLiga North America. “We knew that we needed to have that level of structure to be able to really offer a compelling value proposition to brands in the market.”

In order to do this, Lucio said it needed to match the asset mix of other US sports properties (broadcast, digital, social media) to offer a “full-funnel strategy.” According to Michael LoRé, who provides PR for LaLiga North America, the joint venture achieved profitability in its third year. (It does not break out financial results.) Lucio credits this performance to its long-term growth strategy of capturing the North American market and appealing to big-box companies like Walmart and Lowe’s.

Know your audience

Recent tournaments show high demand for soccer from the Hispanic community: According to Nielsen, of the 9.5 million US viewers of the UEFA Euro 2024 final, 40% were Hispanic. Part of LaLiga North America’s initial strategy was tapping into this cohort, especially millennial Hispanic Americans already tuning in to high-profile tournaments, and following Spanish clubs like Real Madrid and FC Barcelona.

The cultural relevance, common language, and generational ties to these soccer teams gave LaLiga quick access to this growing audience. Lucio said American sports fans are used to consuming the highest levels of each sport (NBA, NFL, MLB, NHL) and the venture is helping open the door to the upper echelons of soccer, which (despite the recent growth of Major League Soccer) doesn’t feature domestically.

LaLiga has gradually harnessed that audience with broadcast programming (it signed an eight-year deal with ESPN in 2021 worth a reported $1.4b), a digital presence across social media, email marketing, and an app, as well as in-person watch parties and events.

Lucio said the venture has created a unique value proposition for LaLiga North America.

“We realized that all of those assets in isolation were great but really where we were able to deliver the real value was making all those assets work together, through platforms that were strategically built to solve a business need for the different partners,” he said.

Strategic partners

LaLiga’s approach to partnerships appears to be the same as its growth strategy: intentional decisions that serve the fandom.

“We knew there were partners that could really add value to those experiences that we were creating for our fans,” Lucio said.

LaLiga’s partners focus on a specific branch of the overall offering: Walmart is the title partner for El Clásico, the always highly-anticipated match between Real Madrid and FC Barcelona. Lowe’s is the title sponsor of its “El Partidazo” watch party series, and financial services company Remitly is the inaugural sponsor of its pickup soccer events.

“What’s really interesting is that the North American branch of the company is focused on growing the game in this country and continuing to show fans the global prestige of what LaLiga brings. It is certainly something US fans can engage in,” said Brock Manheim, Walmart’s head of partnerships and sports marketing.

Manheim said it was exciting to find a partner that shares similar ambitions, and he agrees with the idea that “soccer is a sport that’s here to stay.” He explained LaLiga’s value proposition of capturing Hispanic Americans was appealing, as it’s a demographic equally important to the retailer.

“They’re the ones driving the explosion of soccer in this country,” Manheim said. “No better way to actually talk to them and really endear ourselves much more deeply to that customer than to partner with a league like LaLiga that is already talking to these customers.”