RIYADH: Ahead of the new Saudi Pro League season, a new report from football media and culture company Footballco has revealed the preferences of young fans across the Kingdom and how they can impact commercial opportunities for brands and rights holders across creator content, gaming, and culture crossovers.
The research shows that for brands and rights holders looking to engage young Saudi football fans, they need to look beyond the live match to creating entertaining cultural-crossover content that leverages player and creator talent.
Central to the report are findings based on a survey of more than 500 fans in Saudi Arabia, aged between 16 and 34.
Mix of highlights and live games
The research found that, on average, fans in Saudi Arabia consume 10 hours of football content each week, but only one-third (3.67 hours) of this is dedicated to watching live matches. This is followed by another third (3.31 hours) spent consuming football content on social media and a final third (3.02 hours) playing football video games.
While live match content does not dominate the football consumption of young fans — aged 16-20 — most prefer to watch a combination of live games and highlights (45 percent) compared to those who watch a full 90 minutes each week (36 percent) and those who only watch highlights (19 percent).
For young fans, the most popular platforms are YouTube (used by 70 percent) and TikTok (53 percent), followed by Instagram and X (both with 50 percent).
Entertainment and creators
While Saudi fans across the board enjoy a mix of entertainment and information in their football content, young fans gravitate toward entertainment first, with 31 percent wanting more entertainment in their content, compared to only 23 percent of 21 to 27-year-olds and 19 percent of those aged 28 and over.
With a preference for video-first platforms and entertainment, creators have an important role to play in how rights holders and brands reach young fans. Some 65 percent of young fans prefer creators or a combination of creators and pundits in their content, compared to only 48 percent of those aged 28 or over.
Players as creators
With the Kingdom having a young football-loving demographic, player-first fandom is more prevalent than in other, more established markets. This leads to 87 percent of young fans wanting players to have a presence on social media beyond what happens on the pitch, with 76 percent saying they feel more connected to the player when they lean into football-adjacent culture.
Andy Jackson, SVP Middle East for Footballco, said: “The good news for brands and rights holders is that, as we often find, players much prefer to create content that taps into their own interests beyond football. Being able to channel that interest not only engages young audiences, but the players themselves are engaged with it, which comes through in the final product.”
Gaming, kits and outside interests
Footballco’s research suggests that for players, rights holders or brands looking to leverage player power in this way, gaming could be a strong route in, as 55 percent of this age group want to see more overlap between football and gaming, and 37 percent with esports.
Gaming’s popularity is huge across all age groups, with 85 percent of 16-20s, 80 percent of 21-27s, and 83 percent of 28-34s either interested or very interested in gaming.
The growth of football in the Kingdom has also led to more fans seeing football shirts as a fashion item. Across all age groups in the research, 58 percent say they would wear a football shirt as a fashion item. This is highest with fans aged 28-34, with 63 percent saying they would wear a kit in this way.
While Saudi football fandom is strong and growing, only 56 percent of young fans say that it significantly impacts their mood — compared to 73 percent of fans over 28. This is because, for many young fans, football is only one of their passions — with food and drink, travel and fitness being the most popular activities outside the sport.
Jackson added: “Fandom in the Kingdom is strong, and this appetite for cross-cultural content can allow for lower barriers to entry for brands and open up new ways to engage fans.”
Footballco is the football media and culture company behind brands including GOAL, Kooora, and Yalla GOAL, as well as the women’s football brand INDIVISA. Combined, these brands reach 179 million Arabic-speaking fans and 20 million fans in Saudi Arabia every month, making Footballco the largest Arabic-language football media brand in the Middle East and North Africa region.
