The Premier League (PL), English football’s top professional competition, has announced a significant five-year strategic partnership with Microsoft, designating the technology behemoth as its official cloud and AI partner.
This groundbreaking collaboration is set to redefine the global football landscape, promising an unparalleled fan experience, modernised digital operations, and enhanced broadcast analysis through the deployment of cutting-edge technology.
The partnership aims to harness Microsoft’s advanced cloud capabilities and artificial intelligence to engage the Premier League’s colossal global audience of 1.8 billion fans across 189 countries. A cornerstone of this initiative is the development of a novel digital “Premier League Companion,” powered by Microsoft Copilot. This innovative tool will empower fans to seamlessly interact with over three decades of historical data, including 300,000 articles and 9,000 videos. It will offer personalised content and answer queries in multiple languages through both text and audio translation, integrated directly into the official Premier League mobile app and web platforms.
Further enhancing fan engagement, the immensely popular Fantasy Premier League will undergo a significant upgrade with the integration of Microsoft AI. This will provide users with a personalised assistant manager, designed to optimise fantasy team selections and refine strategic decision-making.
Beyond direct fan interaction, the alliance extends to the Premier League’s core infrastructure. The league will undertake a comprehensive migration of its technology infrastructure to Microsoft Azure, aiming to significantly bolster scalability, security, and agility across its entire digital ecosystem. This foundational shift is expected to accelerate innovation and facilitate the seamless integration of future AI services. Live match experiences will also be elevated through real-time data overlays and sophisticated post-match analysis, powered by Microsoft Azure AI Foundry services, including Azure OpenAI.
Internally, the Premier League will adopt Microsoft 365, Power Platform, and Dynamics 365 Finance and Operations. This comprehensive suite of tools will streamline operational workflows, foster enhanced collaboration among staff, and enable more robust, data-driven decision-making, ensuring the league operates with peak efficiency.
Richard Masters, Chief Executive of the Premier League, expressed his enthusiasm for the collaboration and said, “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. By leveraging our secure cloud and AI technologies—including Azure AI Foundry Services with Azure OpenAI, Microsoft 365 Copilot, and Dynamics 365 —we will transform how football is experienced, delivered, and managed on and off the field.”
This strategic alliance is poised to establish one of the most advanced and secure media, data, and AI platforms in global sports. It is expected to set a new benchmark for how major sports leagues interact with their audiences and manage their operations in the increasingly digital age.
