Everton FC have signed a shirt sleeve partnership agreement with community-driven streaming platform, KICK.
Founded in October 2022, KICK is reinventing live streaming based on a creator-first model, with creators receiving a favourable 95/5 split of subscription revenue generated on the channel.
The KICK logo will debut on the shirt sleeves of Everton’s senior men’s team for the Club’s pre-season friendly against Sporting CP this weekend (Saturday 5 August, 3pm BST).
To mark the new partnership, the Blues and KICK will enhance the matchday experience going forward with a range of activities and innovations that will bring fans closer to the club. Everton Women and Everton Under-21s will also sport the KICK brand on their sleeves for the 2023/24 season.
The partnership with KICK will see the streaming platform become the Official Sleeve Partner and the Official Streaming Partner of Everton FC. KICK join the club’s global portfolio of partners, with KICK’s brand now featuring across Everton’s digital spaces, as well as at Goodison Park, Walton Hall Park and the Finch Farm training complex.
The agreement will see Everton step into KICK’s world of global streaming and esports by collaborating with content creators on a platform that has 15 million registered accounts. KICK has more than 80 million site visits per month – with June 2023 seeing more than 82 million hours of streams viewed cumulatively.
Richard Kenyon, Everton’s chief commercial and communications officer, said: “Working with KICK provides us with some fantastic opportunities to reach and engage with new audiences over the course of the coming season and we already have some exciting plans for matchday experiences, starting this week with our fixture against Sporting CP.
“We look forward to working with KICK and presenting new opportunities for our supporters, while providing valuable global exposure for KICK as they continue their impressive growth.”
KICK’s commitment to expand monetisation, where content creators keep 95 per cent of the revenue from subscriptions, has seen the platform attract some of the world’s top entertainers, like Canadian superstar Drake, and popular streamers xQc, Yassuo and chess Grandmaster Hikaru Nakamura. Regarded as the most rewarding revenue split ever offered to content creators, the platform has an average of 10,000 channels live at any one time, a number which continues to grow.
Akhil Sarin, director of acquisition for KICK, said: “Partnering with Everton is an exciting step forward for KICK. We are a young, ambitious brand and to join forces with a global football powerhouse will do wonders for us.
“We can’t wait for Everton fans and the football community to see what our platform has to offer and the incredible content that will be showcased there.”
KICK’s future growth strategy includes further developing their esports offer. The platform recently entered into an exclusive co-title partnership with Sauber Motorsport’s Formula 1 Esports team, Alfa Romeo F1 Team KICK Esports.
Everton and KICK are working with the club’s retail partner Fanatics to ensure the sleeve patch is available to supporters going forward. Further information will be provided in due course.
