A.I. is rapidly becoming a fixture in the world of sports—powering everything from electronic line calls in tennis to robot umpires in baseball to automated judges in snowboarding. But in the English Premier League, the world’s most-watched soccer league, the focus of A.I. adoption isn’t on officiating or gameplay but enhancing the fan experience.
The Premier League earlier this month announced new partnerships with Microsoft and Adobe to integrate A.I. tools across its digital platforms. The collaborations will introduce a range of generative technologies, including virtual assistants and A.I. agents that allow fans to interact with real-time and historical match data. One major focus is revamping the popular Fantasy Premier League.
Early results suggest these digital upgrades are resonating. The league, already boasting a global following of 1.8 billion, has seen a 20 to 30 percent spike in digital platform engagement over the past three weeks. When this season’s Fantasy Premier League launched on July 21, over 1 million users signed up within 24 hours—a notable uptick from 700,000 during the same period last year.
“Our role is to create value for our clubs by engaging with as many fans as we can and bringing them into the Premier League ecosystem,” said Will Brass, chief commercial officer for the Premier League, in a statement. “Ultimately, a big part of that is making sure our channels are best equipped to engage with those fans and, more importantly, deliver to fans what they want.”
According to the Premier League, fans increasingly want quick, intelligent answers to questions like: “What are the best five goals of all time?” or “How many times has my club been relegated?” As part of a new five-year partnership with Microsoft, these questions can be easily answered by the Premier League Companion, an A.I. assistant that draws from more than 30 seasons of statistics, 300,000 articles and 9,000 videos for its outputs. Available via the Premier League’s official app and web platforms, the A.I. assistant will eventually support open-ended questions as well as text and audio translation.
Microsoft’s role extends beyond the Companion. Its A.I. systems will also power features in the Fantasy Premier League, offering tactical guidance and team management support to players. Meanwhile, a separate collaboration with Adobe brings fan creativity to the forefront: Fantasy team managers can now use A.I. tools to design custom kits and badges and receive personalized emails, such as performance updates, sent by Adobe’s own digital agents.
While these tools enhance the fan experience, the partnerships also aim to streamline the league’s internal operations. The Premier League is shifting its core infrastructure to Microsoft Azure to increase efficiency across departments. Adobe, for its part, will help the league’s marketing teams personalize outreach using A.I. models and track fan engagement with improved analytics powered by a dedicated agent.
The Premier League isn’t alone in embracing A.I. to reshape the fan experience. Spain’s La Liga signed a similar deal with Microsoft earlier this year to deliver advanced match analytics. Outside of soccer, Wimbledon partnered with IBM in June to launch an A.I. assistant for answering fan questions, while the NFL expanded its Adobe partnership in April to include A.I.-driven content creation.
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