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What do Erling Haaland, Bryson Dechambeau, Tom Daley and Josh Kerr all have in common?
Rather than Googling it, it might pay instead to type their names into YouTube. If you were to search for each, you’d find a dedicated YouTube channel they have launched, with a steady stream of self-produced videos, all in a YouTube-first format. No presenters, no elaborate production crews and nothing but themselves as the subject matter.
It’s long been expected of athletes that they maintain a steady social media presence – first on X (formerly Twitter), and now on Instagram. But YouTube has often felt out of reach for many, who don’t have the know-how or inclination to produce videos longer than an Instagram Reel. The tide on this is changing, however, thanks in part to the likes of Dechambeau and Haaland, the latter of whom launched his channel seven months ago and has since released vlogs, day-in-the-life videos, pranks and even collaborations with footballing-YouTube royalty the Sidemen.
So how is it that athletes reinvent themselves as creators – and why? The why is easy.
In the past few years, creators have dominated users’ YouTube homepages more than ever – and that homepage is increasingly taking over the living room as it becomes the most viewed content service in most major markets.
For the sports industry, that has meant that we’ve seen the likes of the Sidemen selling out Wembley for their charity match within three hours, Jake Paul enticing Mike Tyson out of retirement to fight live on Netflix, and a Brazilian creator (CazéTV) acquiring Fifa World Cup rights in both Brazil and Portugal. The sports media landscape is truly being invaded by a new group.
For athletes looking at how they can build their fanbase and personal brands based on their profession, this is more opportunity than threat. You might even argue that Creators, who overwhelmingly build audiences around their individual personalities, have simply created a playbook for them to follow.
Dechambeau – who recently claimed he will focus on his YouTube career if LIV Golf fails – follows a textbook steady release cadence of around 1 long-form challenge/collaboration video every two weeks (Break 50, in which he and a guest try to score under 50 for an eighteen-hole course). Just like the best YouTubers, he tests and learns with the format, never shying away from trying new things or iterating based on feedback.
Indeed, he said, when asked about what advice he’d give others, that they should absolutely ‘listen to the people in the comments section’ – words you’d rather expect to hear from fellow golf creator Peter Finch.
The production of videos for YouTube – long a barrier for athletes to get started has also been shown to be more than realisable in recent years. Whether self-shot or with a small camera crew (as small as one person), the likes of Josh Kerr produce day-in-the-life videos simply by getting vlog-style updates, short interviews with training staff, and even asking training partners to film them in action. Once edited together, these produce highly engaging videos that provide a real insight into an athlete’s life.
Perhaps the hardest part of all actually ends up being running the channel itself. At Little Dot Sport, we’ve built our business by honing a specialism in understanding the platform, its audience behaviours and algorithms.
Applying this to release schedules, content lengths, thumbnails, metadata and community management can be overwhelming, but as Haaland has done well, learning from the creators can again pay dividends. A cursory look on his channels shows video titles that produce intrigue, thumbnails with emotive faces, and collaborations: all a recipe for click-through success.
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The opportunity for athletes beyond just building a fanbase, though, is huge. As audiences grow, so brand interest naturally follows. Athletes usually bring existing commercial partners with them, many of whom are crying out for ways to engage audiences authentically on the platform. Whether it is brand integration or selling the pre-roll (by working with a partner like Little Dot Sport), there is a commercially lucrative opportunity to be had on YouTube.
Beyond this, the scale of audience that can be built from the strength of an individual personality will be highly exciting for governing bodies looking for ways to ensure the continued resonance of their sports among younger audiences.
Lando Norris, releasing just a couple of long-form videos per year, has built an audience of 1.4 million subscribers. As such, we can almost certainly expect more athlete channels to start hosting live rights or being granted the type of access and footage that was previously reserved for broadcast partners. Indeed, Cristiano Ronaldo has already (somewhat incongruously) carried some Padel live streams, while Tom Daley kicked off this trend some eight years ago when he carried a diving championships on his channels.
With more audiences than ever watching YouTube, and more individual personality-led channels taking share of viewership in Sport – the stage is truly set for athletes to shine. All they need to do now is take the ever-less daunting road down to producing their own YouTube content and launching their own channels.
To learn more on Athletes as Creators on YouTube you can join Little Dot’s Webinar on 9th June at 5pm BST / 9am PDT. You can sign up to the webinar here.