By Dr Estelle Ivanova, Attorney at Law, Paris, France
Digital transformation is changing not only how sport is delivered, but also how it is experienced.
For international sports federations, this evolution goes beyond the adoption of new technologies. It also calls for an understanding of the increasingly diverse ways in which audiences engage with sport and of how those federations can remain relevant to the communities that they serve.
FIFA's evolving Digital Football Strategy offers a timely illustration. During the FIFA World Cup 2026, more than 225 million players engaged with FIFA-branded games, activations and digital experiences, with approximately 11 million daily active players on average across mobile gaming, cloud gaming, creator platforms and free-to-play experiences. Gaming also emerged as one of the three strongest drivers of fan engagement across FIFA-owned digital platforms during the tournament, alongside live match coverage and FIFA World Cup content.
Behind those figures lies a broader strategic shift. FIFA is moving from a single partner model towards a multi partner digital ecosystem, designed to reach diverse audiences across multiple platforms and forms of engagement. At the centre of that evolution is fan engagement.
From a Single-Partner Model to a Global Digital Football Ecosystem
On 28 May 2026, FIFA unveiled its updated long-term Digital Football Strategy, setting out a significant shift in its approach to gaming and esports.
The FIFA strategy enables the organisation to transition from a “single-partner model” to become a “structured, multi-partner ecosystem orchestrator”, with the stated aim of continuously improving its “reach and relevance across multiple gaming genres, platforms and audiences”.
Rather than concentrating its digital football offering around one principal gaming relationship, FIFA has opted for a diversified portfolio of partners and experiences. Its ecosystem brings together Roblox, Epic Games, Konami, SEGA/Sports Interactive, Gamefam, Mythical Games and Solace Games, alongside Netflix and Delphi Interactive, across a range of gaming formats and digital experiences.
The diversification extends beyond the number of partnerships. The FIFA strategy is designed to create different pathways for participation, from hyper-casual to competitive play, whilst connecting its competitions and Member Associations with gaming and esports partners. As Mattias Grafström, FIFA Secretary General, explained when the strategy was announced, the ambition is to establish a “sustainable and adaptable ecosystem” that reflects both how football is experienced today and how it may evolve in the future.
The scale of the potential audience helps to explain that approach. According to FIFA, an estimated 1.8 billion football fans worldwide also play video games. Gaming, therefore, is not positioned merely as an adjacent entertainment category, but as another environment in which a substantial part of the football audience can experience and engage with the game.
The 2026 World Cup offered what FIFA describes as the first global demonstration of that vision at scale. Fans encountered FIFA-branded football through markedly different environments, from FIFA Rivals and FIFA Super Soccer on Roblox to FIFA World Cup: Launch Edition on Netflix Games and FIFA Play Zone. Official World Cup integrations also extended into established gaming communities, including Fortnite, Rocket League and Football Manager 2026. The formats and audiences may differ, but each provides a different point of entry into what FIFA describes as its wider digital football ecosystem.
In this sense, the move from a single partner to a multi partner model extends beyond the diversification of commercial relationships. It reflects FIFA’s own recognition that “the way in which fans experience football is becoming increasingly varied”, with gaming serving as a “gateway to the wider FIFA ecosystem”.
The architecture is multi partner because the fan experience is increasingly multi platform.
The Legal Dimensions of a Multi Partner Digital Ecosystem
Viewed more broadly, the development of a multi partner digital ecosystem also carries important legal implications. As partnerships, platforms and forms of engagement diversify, the question is not only how individual relationships are structured, but also how coherence is maintained across an increasingly interconnected environment.
Intellectual property and contractual relationships naturally form part of this landscape. The use of sporting brands and competition-related assets across different digital environments places licensing, negotiation and contract management at the forefront. Where several commercial relationships coexist, questions concerning the scope of rights granted, including exclusivity or non-exclusivity, and the balance between different rights, responsibilities and interests become particularly important, alongside the flexibility needed to accommodate innovation.
The regulatory dimension is equally significant. Within the European Union (EU), the applicable rules will depend upon the service, technology and actors involved. Relevant areas include data protection under the GDPR, consumer protection and the Digital Services Act, with particular attention to digital services involving younger users. As digital technologies continue to evolve, the AI Act is also relevant where AI systems falling within its scope are developed or deployed. EU competition law likewise remains relevant as international sports federations expand their digital and commercial activities, particularly where their regulatory and institutional functions intersect with economic activity.
This also illustrates the close relationship between contract management and compliance, as regulatory responsibilities need to be identified and appropriately reflected across the different relationships within the ecosystem. Long-term and often cross-border commercial relationships also bring conflict management into focus. In a multi partner setting, anticipating how disagreements are managed can be as important as determining how disputes are ultimately resolved. Mediation and arbitration, where suitable, can provide effective means of settling disputes whilst helping to preserve ongoing commercial relationships.
A further aspect of the FIFA digital strategy lies in its longer-term perspective. FIFA describes digital football as a key pillar of its “long-term fan engagement strategy” and has indicated that it intends to build upon the momentum generated during the 2026 World Cup by further expanding its digital football ecosystem through new games, partnerships and fan experiences.
Seen in this light, the FIFA strategy illustrates a broader aspect of digital transformation for international sports federations. Beyond the scale of a single activation, what is particularly noteworthy is the continuity between strategic direction, implementation and further development. Sustainable digital transformation calls for sound legal design, effective contract and risk management, and the capacity to adapt as technologies, relationships and regulatory expectations evolve.
Ultimately, the significance of such a transformation may lie not only in its reach, but in its relevance — and in the ability to sustain it.
Dr Estelle Ivanova may be contacted by e-mail at ‘