Canada Soccer Making Noise Both On & Off The Pitch

Alphonso Davies Cheers National Team From Twitch Stream

CanMNT

Last night, Canada took on Honduras in the World Cup Qualifiers and came away with an important 2-0 victory for the boys in red. However, Canada was without one of its star players: Alphonso Davies. But Davies was not far from the action. Sat at home, in front of his screen watching the reds play, was the best thing Alphonso Davies could do. Phonsie streamed himself watching the game on Twitch, with some hilarious reactions to Tajon Buchannan and Jonathan David impressed for Canada.

But we see this more as an injured/ill/not playing soccer player sitting live watching his national team play. We see this as a MASSIVE opportunity for Twitch to get into the sports industry. Although streamers are not legally allowed to show any broadcast footage, they can still watch along with their viewers and provide some great commentary.

This could bring some crazy numbers of new viewers to Twitch. Perhaps Twitch x Alphonso Davies might need to happen. Imagine if Twitch helped him set up his own little viewing room where Davies can hilariously commentate and watch the top games around the world, both international and domestic. Hopefully, we could see an Alphonso Davies Twitch on his off-days from Bayern Munich, maybe we even see some brand deals for Davies’ stream. All in all, Twitch has the perfect opportunity to utilize what is essentially a possible brand partner who is right under their noses! (and don’t forget extremely popular)

Another thought is: Why didn’t OneSoccer partner with their main man Alphonso? Sportsnet consistently partners with Steve Dangle to give him exclusive rights to stream the game live - with the game on his stream! If OneSoccer did this then the potential would be ridiculous. Alphonso would probably get more views than OneSoccer’s platform. This can be the perfect opportunity for OneSoccer to gain more viewers by utilizing their Canadian National Superstar for their broadcasts - I mean seriously, who better to bring in a new audience than our own Captain Canada.

Overall, this type of stream really excites us in terms of potential for Twitch, Davies, the National team, and even OneSoccer. Watch-alongs have been very successful in the past and they have so much potential if done with the right people and brands. Hopefully, we can see more of it in the future, even though we prefer to see Davies on the field, and just remember: white whale mktg did it first…

Published: January 28, 2022 - Issue 24 of The Sport Marketeer