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Once seen by rights holders as an untameable free-for-all, YouTube has become one of the most influential media platforms in sport and is now a core pillar of fan engagement and global reach.
For many fans, particularly younger audiences for whom streaming is the norm, YouTube isn’t a complementary channel but a starting point for watching sport. Combine that with the Google-owned company’s scale – it had 2.53 billion monthly active users as of 2025 – and rights holders have needed to rethink not just where content lives, but how it’s distributed and presented.
YouTube has changed too. Seeing its importance to the sports industry, the platform established a dedicated business unit and developed sophisticated data analytics that allow rights holders to measure and monetise their content.
The question facing sport in 2026 isn’t whether to be on YouTube – it’s what a good YouTube strategy actually looks like.
Traditional broadcasters are increasingly turning to influencers like Angry Ginge to help create content and drive engagement (Image credit: Getty Images)
Embrace different formats and content
YouTube turns 21 in February. The way people consume sports content today is unrecognisable from the video-sharing platform’s launch in 2005. Choice is now everything.
“A key USP of YouTube is that it’s multiple formats,” Jonny Keogh, YouTube’s head of UK sports, tells Sports Pro.
“VOD, shorts, multiview, podcasts, live. Podcasts, particularly, is growing massively over the past couple of years. [There are] one billion monthly active users, 400 million hours of podcasts are watched on the TV every month.”
For a platform long considered mobile or desktop-first, Keogh notes that TV is now YouTube’s fastest-growing platform and is the “number one device in the US”.
YouTube’s revenue model is also evolving. Advertising remains the foundation, but channel memberships and fan funding, alongside paid features such as YouTube Super Chat and YouTube Super Thanks, mean income opportunities seem as varied as the video formats on the platform.
“It still shocks me when I watch a live stream and the community that support the creator via these microtransactions,” says Keogh. “That’s something for sport to tap into as well.”
While Keogh agrees that highlights have been the “gateway” for sports fans coming onto YouTube, he believes this then opens the door “to the world of YouTube and the storytelling that provides”.
Indeed, there are few sports platforms that house everything from marathon compilations of historic highlights to matchday vlogs from influencers, athletes revealing their daily routines, or 30-second player ranking videos.
“You can do your storytelling many different ways,” continues Keogh. “The thing that runs throughout is that there are multiple different types of fans in the world and they all expect different things from YouTube and rights holders.”
Jonny Keogh joined YouTube from UK pay-TV broadcast giant Sky in 2022 (Image credit: SportsPro)
Unlock analytics
YouTube first rolled out a Google Analytics-style metrics and demographics analysis tool for users in 2008. Today, it provides creators with comprehensive, easily digestible performance data about their channel and individual videos, including who is watching and how they’re finding content, where they’re located and how they’re engaging. Keogh considers it an “unrivalled analytics insights platform”.
YouTube Analytics also enables sports organisations to monetise their audiences by better understanding where demand exists. One example is English soccer’s Women’s Super League (WSL), which uses YouTube to livestream matches not televised on Sky Sports or the BBC. According to Keogh, access to YouTube Analytics revealed international markets and fan bases the league hadn’t previously identified, including significant audiences across Asia-Pacific (APAC).
In the case of Bundesliga, its latest UK rights arrangements include games being live streamed on the league’s official YouTube account, as well as select Friday night matches being aired on ‘The Overlap’ and Mark Goldbridge’s ‘That’s Football’ channels on the platform.
The Bundesliga’s decision to collaborate with content creators reflects an acknowledgement that different approaches are required to attract and engage new fans. There are also additional benefits.
“How can [the Bundesliga] provide sponsors with additive, incremental audiences with the creators?” says Keogh, who was speaking following an on-stage appearance at SportsPro Media Summit in Madrid.
“Mark [Goldbridge’s] younger audience, of which 64 per cent is aged between 13 and 34 is a way for them to target that audience, as well as linear broadcasts in Germany and around the world.
“I think what YouTube provides is a global platform with zero barriers to entry and the ability to understand your audience and monetise it.”
In an ideal world, rights holders want their content to deliver reach, revenue and relevancy. Get it right with the help of analytics, and YouTube can deliver all three.
Maintain a mix
The WSL’s decision last season to move non-televised games from its in-house FA Player to YouTube paid off, amassing 22.9 million viewers – a considerable increase from the 2.4 million views recorded on FA Player in 2023/24.
It presents a compelling case for sports properties using YouTube as a primary distribution platform, particularly internationally, where traditional rights deals may not be moving the needle on reach or revenue.
There is also an argument for not launching an in-house direct-to-consumer (DTC) offering and going straight to YouTube, given its ability to handle the technical infrastructure and associated challenges.
However, Keogh believes that maintaining a broadcast mix is important.
“We have an obsession in this industry with a very binary approach,” he says. “It has to be on linear, it has to be on this.
“If we go back to the Women’s Super League, the deal that they have in the UK is 34 non-exclusive games live on YouTube, in addition to having the weight and power of Sky behind them.
“Sky do a fantastic, unrivalled job of promoting and marketing women’s sport. But they also recognise that we can work as a trifecta partnership so that everyone wins, particularly the fans.
“So I think the case of ‘should we go DTC, should we use YouTube?’ shouldn’t be binary. It can be both.
“The Women’s Super League is in a growth phase, but that’s not going to work for everyone. For the more seasoned rights holders, like the Bundesliga, they’ve now tapped into the creator network and they’re reaping the rewards of that.”
Treat YouTube like a toolbox
Keogh points out that YouTube’s most successful sports partnerships involve working with both broadcaster and rights holder “to really scale it up and drive everyone forward”, regardless of whether a deal includes live rights or other types of content.
He also frequently refers to YouTube as a vast media “toolbox” that offers a wide range of solutions. The focus is on instigating strategic growth, rather than forcing the platform onto a sports organisation.
Looking ahead, Keogh reckons the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in content creation “is going to be key” in 2026.
“I think we’ll see a domino effect now of rights holders realising that creators provide an opportunity to tap into younger audiences and commercialise their fans,” he adds.
“We’ve seen more and more examples of athletes leaning into the platform. The opportunity for athletes is obvious; extended sponsorships, gaining deep connections with fans. But I think for sports governing bodies, it’s realising that athletes are another marketing lever that they can use to attract fans.
“The opportunity for rights holders is to support your athletes because they are a gateway to new, younger audiences.”
And what would Keogh’s one golden piece of advice be for sports organisations wanting to succeed on YouTube?
“Build a content strategy that’s grounded in data first and then everything else will follow,” he says.
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