📊 7 on the pitch, millions on Twitch

KINGS LEAGUE

The overnight boom of Kings League ‘football’ in Brazil

Halfway through the match, a famous sports personality chucks a large fluffy die onto the black-and-white field of play. It lands on two, and a two-on-two game of football breaks out. Extra players take the pitch for each side after a few minutes, and goals temporarily count double. There are brands advertising everywhere you look. Before the end of the match, the club’s president has taken — and scored — a penalty kick. 

This isn’t a football fever dream or a Mario Party minigame, this is Kings League — a very real sporting event that has seen a meteoric rise in Brazil over the last year.

Invented in 2022 by former Barcelona and Spain footballer Gerard Piqué, Kings League is essentially 7-a-side football with a series of “sportstainment” twists, and a firm footing in the universe of videogame streaming…

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