In recent weeks, La Liga has become the first major European sports competition to create an account on video live streaming service Twitch.
Twitch, a subsidiary of tech giant Amazon, is a well-known platform generally used to live stream gaming and Esports.
However, it continues to expand its online presence and is becoming increasingly attractive for users to consume sporting content on the service.
To cater for this, the company created a sports category a few months ago on its platform, to direct users easily to all sporting streams.
Each of those clubs have their own channel to publish exclusive content on the site, including press conferences, friendlies and youth team matches.
Since signing up for Twitch, La Liga have started to produce varying content on their channel, including a weekly series of compilations, clips and special programmes that feature players, ambassadors and icons of the competition.
In the build-up to the ElClásico match between FC Barcelona and Real Madrid the other week, Esports simulations, profiles, debates and live warm-ups were featured on the La Liga account.
Scheduled programming of new original La Liga shows have also been broadcast on the video streaming service.
This includes anchor shows produced by La Liga North America, such as matchday review show ‘La Liga Zone’ and the shorter ‘One minute with La Liga’, which are hosted by recognised talent in English and Spanish languages.
Other short and long-form programming will be shown in the coming weeks, featuring special interviews with top athletes.
As the competition continues its partnership with the streaming service, La Liga will continue to work on developing new collaboration opportunities and experiences for the Twitch community.
Farhan Ahmed, Strategic Partnerships Manager at Twitch, is looking forward to working further with the Spanish league.
“LaLiga’s approach to this collaboration, built around enhancing the fan experience through unique content, is innovative, exciting and impactful. We can’t wait to see how the community of superfans continue to interact and immerse themselves in this content.”
Before opening an official channel for the competition on Twitch, the league had already built a strong following through its eLaLiga Esports account.
That account has just under 40,000 followers, with regular videos and tournaments of professional gamers playing FIFA 21 streamed on the channel.
The #eLaLigaAllStar tournament was a high-impact event on the Twitch platform in recent months, resonating with the platform’s community. The event featured leading gamers who were celebrating the return of the league’s official Esports competition, eLaLiga Santander.
It’s most important event, however, was in March of this year. At a time when the world was struggling with the coronavirus pandemic, eLaLiga organised the #LaLigaSantanderChallenge.
Alongside Spanish gamer Ibai Llanos, an 18-club tournament was created, with real-life stars from La Liga clubs competing in the event to raise funds to combat the COVID-19 pandemic.
Llanos, who has 3.4 million followers on Twitch, believed the event was a major success.
“We tried to do it the best way we could to raise as much money as possible. It was a success, because it was something unique,” he explained to Red Bull.
“A lot of people have seen the human side of the players and many players told me they wanted to repeat the experience, but I would like to leave it like this. Maybe we could do something else at a later date, because the state of alarm is going to last a long time. The players and the clubs are happy with the result and they would like to continue.”
Alfredo Bermejo, La Liga’s director of digital strategy, hopes to build on initiatives like this and continue to improve the league’s social media operations through Twitch.
“As a global entertainment brand, La Liga aims to offer the best product in the world,” he said.
“After the good experience with eLaLiga Santander, the official LaLiga account on Twitch is an opportunity to take the next step in our content and social media strategy. Twitch is a service that allows us to reach a new type of audience and explore new content formats to reach our global fanbase.”
As Twitch continues to make significant leaps in the sporting market, La Liga will not be the only major football league joining the platform.
