The Premier League has announced a strategic partnership with Microsoft.
A new five-year agreement aims to transform how viewers engage with the football league with Microsoft Corp. becoming the official cloud and AI partner for its digital platforms. Under the partnership, Microsoft aims to modernise the Premier League’s digital infrastructure, broadcast match analysis and organisational operations.
The collaboration will focus on four key areas: cloud transformation, productivity, fan engagement and provision of match insights and analysis. Powered by CoPilot, a new Premier League Companion fan-facing digital platform will provide personalised access to data from more than 30 seasons, 300,000 articles and 9,000 videos.
Enhancing the live match experience for an audience of 1.8 billion viewers across 189 countries, Microsoft Azure AI Foundry services, including Azure OpenAI in Foundry Models, will provide real-time data overlays and post-match analysis, said the two companies. The partnership aims to enhance fan interactions through archive innovation to in-broadcast access, transforming engagement and bringing in “a new era of intelligent and intuitive fan experiences.”
Richard Masters, chief executive of the Premier League, commented, “We are delighted to welcome Microsoft as a partner of the Premier League. This partnership will help us engage with fans in new ways—from personalised content to real-time match insights. We look forward to working together over the next five years to deliver more innovative experiences to all Premier League supporters around the world.”
Judson Althoff, executive vice-president and chief commercial officer at Microsoft, added, “We are pleased to partner with the Premier League to bring innovative and interactive experiences to football fans around the world.”
