[relaxatorium]

It's a gamble, because as of now they're not even the most popular soccer league in America let alone the world.

Liga MX (Mexican soccer) ratings destroy them for the obvious reasons (the league the US's largest most passionate soccer fanbase is most passionate about), EPL ratings beat them pretty handily as well (English Premier League, the highest profile and probably best of the European leagues).

Given the money and momentum behind MLS though, there is at least a chance by the end of this deal that they have become one of the top soccer leagues in the world and Apple looks extremely clever, which is not something you can really say for a lot of leagues with actual better soccer than MLS has right now.

It is weird that Apple, one of the biggest companies in the world, now has a vested interest in globally promoting a specific soccer league. MLS is probably thrilled with this compared to their current situation where ESPN+ does dump pretty much all the games onto streaming as content, but is generally disinterested in promoting it too heavily because of their vast prtfolio of already more popular sports.

[trynewideas]

MLS also lost linear TV ratings and viewership battles a few times this season to the women's league (NWSL), which a few MLS teams also own teams in. NWSL's media deals with CBS and Twitch are worth $4.5M/year, or less than 2% this deal from Apple.

Most of those NWSL matches where MLS lost in viewership were also just preseason tournament matches for the women's league. The season hadn't even started yet.

[alostpuppy]

From a value prospective it might work out well. I don’t watch soccer and I’ll probably watch a few matches. I suppose it all comes down to the price they paid.