Kings League turns to Shikenso to prove global sponsor value

Kings League has agreed a global partnership with Shikenso to measure sponsorship performance across its full competition portfolio, giving commercial partners a consistent valuation framework across multiple markets and digital platforms.The agreement covers video analysis and social media analytics across nine leagues and two annual World Cups, with Shikenso tracking brand exposure and the media value generated through broadcasts, livestreams and social content.Kings League global business intelligence director Martino Armanini said: “We built Kings League for a generation that watches differently, engages differently, and expects more from the content they consume. Shikenso gives our commercial partners the measurement framework to understand the value of their partnership, across every league, every market, every matchday.”Founded by former Barcelona defender Gerard Piqué, Kings League has developed from a single Spanish competition into a seven-a-side football and entertainment property operating across Europe, Latin America and the Middle East and North Africa.Its competitions are distributed through streaming platforms including Kick, Twitch and YouTube, creating a fragmented sponsorship environment in which audience behaviour, inventory and brand exposure can vary significantly between markets.Shikenso will provide a unified measurement system across that ecosystem, allowing Kings League to compare the performance of sponsorship assets and produce data intended to support renewals, pricing discussions and future rights sales.Arwin Fallah-Shirazi, co-chief executive and co-founder of Shikenso, said: “Kings League has built something that didn’t exist five years ago: a global football property running across leagues and competitions worldwide, with sponsors active in markets that each behave very differently.“Knowing a brand appeared is not enough. What sponsors need is measurement that tells them what each placement was worth and how that value compounds across the full ecosystem. That is precisely what this partnership delivers.”Kings League’s commercial portfolio includes brands such as Adidas, Fortnite, JD Sports and McDonald’s, placing greater importance on demonstrating consistent returns as the property expands across territories with different media and consumer dynamics.The organisation said the 2026 Kings World Cup Nations generated more than 120 million cumulative viewers, although the partnership will provide a more detailed basis for assessing the value delivered to sponsors across individual channels and markets.The agreement was announced during the Kings World Cup Clubs in Milan, where 16 teams from seven international leagues competed between July 26 and August 1.Kings League has also expanded into women’s competition through the Queens League and now operates annual World Cups for clubs and national teams, increasing the volume and complexity of the sponsorship inventory covered by Shikenso’s platform.Financial terms and the length of the partnership were not disclosed, with the immediate focus on establishing a consistent commercial measurement system across Kings League’s growing international competition structure.