by Ali AlJehani, SVP, Consultancy, Dentsu Sports International.

The Danger of the "Content Void"

In an era governed by algorithmic feeds and infinite scrolling, renting a fan's attention for 90 minutes a week is no longer a viable commercial strategy. For modern rights holders, relying too heavily on those short windows of attention is becoming increasingly unsustainable.

Saudi Arabia has spent the last few years successfully capturing the world’s attention. The stadiums are world-class. The talent on the pitch is elite. The Roshn Saudi League broadcasts to over 180 countries. We have mastered the live spectacle.

(Image: Saudi Pro League on YouTube)

But a structural vulnerability remains: the industry still treats sport as an isolated weekly spectacle.

For the modern Saudi fan, who is predominantly under 30, fandom is not a scheduled two-hour event. It is a continuous, everyday identity. When a local property goes quiet during the week or disappears during the off-season, it doesn't just pause engagement. It creates space for global leagues, gaming creators and entertainment brands that never stop publishing.

The numbers show just how significant that opportunity is. Google Trends analysis shows that average searches for the RSL drop by 90% during the off-season. Yet, during that same period, searches for football increase by 200%. Fans may be engaging less with a particular competition, but they are not disengaging from the sport itself.

And their interests go well beyond sport. Dentsu Sports Analytics’ (DSA) Decoding 360 data shows that among sports fans under 30 in KSA, 88% are also interested in film, 85% in video games, 83% in music and 75% in esports. The audience is still there, but its attention is moving across different parts of culture.

Renting a fan's attention for 90 minutes a week will not sustain generational loyalty, nor will it deliver the year-round revenue that privatized investors increasingly demand.

To engage and monetize this generation, Saudi rights holders must stop acting purely as event organizers and start operating as full-time media companies. Fandom doesn't take an off-season. Your commercial strategy shouldn't either.

The Shift – From Broadcaster to "World Builder"

When local rights holders realize they need to fill the gap between matches, the immediate reaction is usually to post more of the same: another training video, a press conference quote or a recycled highlight. But for the generation driving Saudi Arabia's cultural pulse, that simply isn't enough.

To become a true Media House, a sports property has to change how it sees itself. It means moving beyond just broadcasting a sport to building a lifestyle around it.

The modern Saudi fan is highly fluid. They don't draw a hard line between a football match, a streetwear drop and an esports tournament. To them, it is all culture.

We can already see this in the way fans engage with athletes. DSA data shows 69% of KSA fans say they like following athletes who show their personalities outside of sport. More importantly, 69% would consider supporting a new team or watching a new sport if they came across an athlete they liked on social media.

That creates a much broader role for athletes, clubs and federations. The personality, interests and culture surrounding the sport can become an entry point into fandom itself.

Today, the "aesthetic fan" is just as commercially valuable as the hardcore tactician. They care about the pre-match tunnel walk, behind-the-scenes footage, an athlete’s gaming setup and the cultural weight of a club's apparel collaboration. Look at the global explosion of Formula 1 or the way premium streaming docuseries have transformed niche sports. The growth wasn't driven by technical rule changes, but by selling the personalities and the drama behind the scenes.

If our local clubs, federations and sport entities only talk about what happens on the pitch, they risk losing a significant portion of their audience the moment the season ends.

So, what does building this "lifestyle" actually look like?

It means shifting from selling a single product, the live match, to creating an interconnected business. It means building a model where exclusive lifestyle content, official gaming tournaments, creator-led formats and direct-to-consumer retail all sit within the same wider ecosystem.

It is about transforming off-season idle time into year-round, monetizable digital inventory, while giving fans more reasons to remain connected to the property even when there is no live fixture to watch.

The Creator Dilemma – Stop Policing, Start Co-Creating

If there is one outdated reflex the sports industry needs to unlearn, it is the instinct to treat passionate digital fans primarily as a legal threat.

For years, rights holders have understandably focused heavily on protecting their broadcast IP, often deploying automated systems to issue copyright strikes against fans who clip, remix or react to match footage online. But in 2026, an overly restrictive approach can also limit the reach of some of your most vocal digital advocates.

Your fans are one of your most valuable media channels. Rights holders need to find smarter ways of working with them.

For the under-30 Saudi demographic, a polished, official highlight reel with standard television commentary does not always carry the same cultural weight as a raw, unfiltered watchalong or a tactical breakdown by a trusted digital creator.

And the accounts they choose to follow tell an even bigger story.

Fans in KSA under 30 are 53% more likely to follow accounts related to creators or influencers than official league or team accounts. They are also almost twice as likely (+194%) to follow creators and influencers as traditional pundits.

Digital fan channels and independent creator networks have effectively become parallel media networks around sport. They influence which moments travel, which narratives gain momentum and which athletes or competitions enter mainstream conversation.

The most progressive sports properties are responding by finding ways to bring these creators closer. They are granting digital creators greater access, sharing approved footage and assets, and treating them as distribution partners rather than simply viewing them through the lens of IP protection.

This mindset should increasingly form part of how Saudi federations and sport properties think about their media strategies.

Transitioning into a true media house means shifting the operational mindset from simply controlling intellectual property to selectively empowering the creator economy. It means intentionally providing creators with the tools, access and opportunities they need to build highly engaged, localized communities around your sport.

When you work with the people who already understand these platforms and communities, you unlock a media network capable of extending your reach well beyond your owned channels.

In the modern sports economy, co-creation is becoming an increasingly important part of broadcasting.

The Commercial Blueprint – Monetizing the "Always-On" Fan

An engaged fan interacting with a club throughout the year can ultimately be more commercially valuable than a passive viewer whose relationship with the property begins and ends with the match itself.

For sports executives, transitioning into a 365-day media house should therefore not be viewed purely as a marketing expense. Done correctly, it creates new opportunities for commercial growth.

As Saudi clubs undergo corporatization and privatization under the 2026 Sports Law, the expectation from investors is increasingly clear: commercial returns need to extend beyond traditional match-day spikes.

Currently, the default commercial model in the Kingdom relies heavily on physical real estate: stadium naming rights, front-of-shirt sponsorships and pitch-side LED boards. But when you build an interconnected digital content engine, you create net-new, year-round digital inventory.

By generating continuous content, official gaming tournaments, behind-the-scenes docuseries, lifestyle shows and streetwear drops, you gain the ability to integrate partners into your club's culture during the hundreds of days a year when a match isn't being played.

You are no longer selling just a logo placement. You are selling narrative integration.

The commercial case becomes even clearer when we look at the behaviour of highly engaged fans. DSA data show that fans in KSA who engage with sport digitally every day are 28% more likely to have purchased merchandise or apparel in the past year than those who do not engage daily.

They are also 17% more likely to feel positively about brands that sponsor their favourite sport or team.

That matters because the value of always-on engagement extends beyond views, likes or follower counts. Maintaining that relationship with fans can influence purchasing behaviour and strengthen the connection between audiences and commercial partners.

Furthermore, an "always-on" digital strategy can help address one of the most important commercial challenges in modern sports: data ownership.

When a fan buys a ticket on one platform, purchases a jersey on a third-party retail site and watches highlights on a public social network, the rights holder often has only a fragmented view of that fan.

However, when a federation or club brings exclusive lifestyle and creator-led content into a unified digital platform with a Single Sign-On (SSO), they can begin establishing a continuous feedback loop of first-party data.

You can start to understand that the fan who watched your off-season training documentary at midnight is the same fan who buys the new away kit and engages with esports.

That granular behavioural data can significantly increase the value a rights holder offers sponsors. It moves the commercial conversation away from generalized "brand awareness" towards more integrated, targeted and measurable digital engagement.

By plugging the content void, rights holders can retain more of that engagement within their own ecosystem and build a stronger year-round commercial proposition.

The 2026 Imperative

The referee blows the whistle, the stadium empties and the broadcast cuts to black. In the traditional sports economy, that meant your job was largely done until next weekend. Today, that is exactly when another battle for the fan's attention begins.

Over the last few years, Saudi Arabia has achieved what many thought impossible. The physical infrastructure is world-class, the global talent is on the pitch and corporate privatization is fundamentally reshaping the business of sport.

We have successfully secured the physical assets. But brick and mortar alone do not sustain modern fandom.

To win the next decade, clubs, federations and sports entities must build the digital connective tissue that keeps fans connected to their ecosystem 365 days a year.

You are no longer just competing against the team across the city. You are competing for screen time against global entertainment franchises, gaming platforms, creators and sports properties that never power down.

Fandom does not have an off-season.

The rights holders who help shape the future of the Kingdom's sports economy will not simply be those who host the best live events. They will be the ones who successfully transition into full-time media engines, transforming every idle Tuesday into an opportunity for connection, culture and commerce.

Want to explore what’s possible in the Kingdom?

Please reach out to:

ali.aljehani@dentsu.com