Bundesliga Media renews and expands its creator-led broadcast strategy for the 2026/27 season.
Bundesliga has made a surprise addition to its creator-led broadcast strategy in the UK and Ireland by handing live matches to Jamie Vardy’s YouTube Channel.
Named Jamie Vardy’s Having a Party, the channel will broadcast seven Friday night Bundesliga matches during the 2026/27 season, kicking off with Bayern Munich versus Stuttgart on 28 August.
“Fans don’t just want to watch football anymore, they want to experience it with the people they already know and trust,” said Rick Murray, CEO of production company Workerbee.
“Jamie has built an incredible community around the podcast, and thanks to our Bundesliga partnership, we can bring that audience closer to some seriously big games.”
Influencers and YouTube channels securing Bundesliga rights isn’t a new strategy for the German top-flight, however, the selection of Vardy’s channel has raised some eyebrows.
Vardy’s channel has only been active for around two months and has a significantly smaller following than creators the Bundesliga has previously partnered with, as the subscriber count currently sits at around 14,400 subscribers.
Last season, the league worked with channels including The Overlap and That’s Football, which had audiences of more than one million subscribers when their agreements were announced.
The former Leicester City striker’s broadcasts are part of a partnership with Banijay Entertainment, which will see Banijay UK and Workerbee producing the live shows.
Banijay has also secured digital and social rights around the seven fixtures, as well as access to selected Bundesliga archive content.
Bundesliga sticks with Goldbridge
While Vardy is a new addition to the league’s strategy, Bundesliga Media has also renewed its agreement with Mark Goldbridge and That’s Football for the 2026/27 season.
Goldbridge will stream 15 Friday night matches through his YouTube channel, which currently has more than 1.5 million subscribers.
According to the Bundesliga, the renewal follows encouraging audience figures from last season, especially in terms of putting its branding in front of a younger audience. The league found that 54% of viewers watching its live matches on That’s Football during 2025/26 were aged between 13 and 34.
Why is the Bundesliga using creators?
Creator-led coverage has become more common in recent years, a trend that the Bundesliga pioneered in its distribution strategy in the UK and Ireland.
The German league is attempting to make matches available across several platforms in an attempt to reach supporters in different ways and the stats from the league suggest that the creators bring in younger audiences than traditional broadcasters.
However, platforms like Sky Sports still play an important role. The broadcaster will show Saturday’s top matches, while Sunday fixtures will be available through Amazon Prime Video on a pay-per-view basis.
Friday night games will also appear across BBC iPlayer, BBC Sport’s digital platforms and Samsung TV Plus, in addition to the YouTube coverage provided by Vardy and Goldbridge.
“Our job is to understand each market, work with the right partners and build a distribution model around how fans actually consume football there,” said Peer Naubert, Chief Commercial Officer at Bundesliga Media.
“Last season, our collaboration with YouTube showed the potential of creator-led coverage, particularly in reaching younger audiences.”
