How Liverpool Pioneered the Digital Sponsorship Arena

In partnership with

Friends of Liverpool

·1 August 2025

How Liverpool Pioneered the Digital Sponsorship Arena

Liverpool has moved far beyond traditional shirt sponsorships and stadium advertising, becoming a trailblazer in the digital sponsorship world. By embracing eSports, NFTs, branded gaming platforms, and innovative digital partners, the football club has created a rich commercial ecosystem and new avenues for global fan engagement.

Launching LFC Gaming with Rival

In May 2022, Liverpool partnered with fan-engagement platform Rival to launch LFC Gaming, a dedicated community centred around titles like FIFA, now EA Sports FC, which allows fans to participate in tournaments and challenges under their cherished club brand.

OneFootball Videos

This step marked Liverpool’s formal entry into branded competitive gaming and community building in eSports.

Branded Digital Games & In-Game Sponsorship

Liverpool have developed their own digital games and mobile apps, monetising them through in-game purchases, advertising, virtual merchandise, and events. These games host in-game ads, from banner placements to video sponsorships, and integrate promotional events where brands can embed messaging within the gameplay environment. Indeed, online casinos seem to be especially aware of how effective such integrations can be, returning to integrate Liverpool brand assets into gaming promotions and share revenues through fan play.

eSports Teams, Streaming & Sponsored Content

Liverpool’s eSports teams compete across popular titles, broadcast via platforms like Twitch and YouTube Gaming. These streams draw advertising, sponsorship, and affiliate revenue from both endemic brands and non-endemic partners attracted to Liverpool’s fan base and youthful digital audience.

Regular live-streamed tournaments and behind-the-scenes content keep fans engaged and open to brand messaging in a dynamic, interactive setting.

Digital Transformation & Content Monetisation

Behind the scenes, Liverpool have upgraded their content infrastructure by partnering with Wasabi Technologies. This cloud and AI-driven platform accelerated video creation, meta-tagging and archive retrieval, helping Liverpool to produce targeted content faster and deliver it at scale across social and digital channels. This capability enables more sponsor-driven content to reach appropriate fan segments in real time.

Strategy: Audience, Innovation, and Monetisation

Liverpool’s leadership recognised that modern football fans, and potential sponsors, live online. Through digital content, branded gaming, eSports, and NFTs, Liverpool builds interactive fan journeys while offering sponsors purpose-built, measurable exposure.

Audience targeting: Liverpool’s global fanbase leans younger and is digitally native, making it attractive to gaming, tech, and even beauty brands.
Revenue diversification: New income channels, from eSports prize pools, NFT sales, in-game ads, branded content, digital memberships – reduce reliance on matchday and broadcast income.
Innovation partnerships: Collaborating with next-generation platforms embeds Liverpool at the cutting edge of sponsorship and media.

The Road Ahead

Liverpool’s approach shows that football clubs can be much more than advertising billboards; they can be active digital ecosystems. With eSports expansion, Web3 integrations, branded content hubs, and data-powered fan engagement, Liverpool are a leading entity when it comes to commercial evolution in sport.

As digital media, gaming, and fan expectations continue to converge, Liverpool have positioned themselves as a flagship case, where brand loyalty, immersive experiences, and monetisation combine. For sponsors, especially in gaming, tech and entertainment, Liverpool offer access to a passionate, global fanbase on platforms where modern audiences spend their time.