Fuelling fans' passion for sport worldwide
LiveScore Group's vision to fuel fans' passion for sport has driven its growth for over 25 years, evolving from one of the world's first real-time sports update providers in 1998 to a pioneering leader in sports media and betting.
While its UK audience has been and remains a primary market, LiveScore Group, consisting of market-leading brands LiveScore, LiveScore Bet and Virgin Bet, has global ambition. In 2025, LiveScore Group is committed to growing its global media presence, localising its services and engaging with football fans across Europe, Latin America and Africa. This strategic move paves the way for new collaborations with regional brands, further deepening its presence in the market and beyond.
Less than six months into the year, LiveScore Group has already shared two significant market expansion moves to reflect such ambition, encompassing Europe and Latin America.
Kicking off in January was LiveScore Bet's launch in Bulgaria, a key market for the business's growth. This coincided with the announcement that Bulgarian and Premier League football icon Dimitar Berbatov has joined as the official European Ambassador for LiveScore Media and LiveScore Bet, demonstrating the group's commitment to bringing fans closer to the sport they love.
This was followed by news in April that an expansion in Mexico had been achieved via a strategic partnership with TV Azteca, Mexico's second-largest mass media company, aligning with LiveScore's broader strategy of collaborating with prominent regional broadcasters to deliver world-class sports experiences to new audience.
Livescore Group adapts its offering to cater to regional audiences. LiveScore marked the Mexico launch by implementing key product enhancements, such as American Football content and a localised For You section.
In South Africa, meanwhile, the Western Cape Board recently granted LiveScore Group licence to operate, triggering plans to launch Virgin Bet in the country in Q4, joining LiveScore Bet's presence in Nigeria to expand the Group's African market operations.
A global footprint provides LiveScore Group with an opportunity to address the existential challenges facing the sports media and betting industries – two £100 billion industries that LiveScore Group operates at the intersection of.
These challenges are consistent worldwide. The sports media landscape is fractured, with sports fans often needing subscriptions to multiple platforms, while sports broadcasts delivered by tech monoliths leverage fans to sell products and memberships.
The sports betting industry, meanwhile, continues to grapple with diminishing returns, tighter regulations, intense competition and higher taxation. Betting operators are all vying for the same pool of consumers, with few offering anything different. These challenges ultimately result in a saturated, inconvenient and expensive experience for sports fans.
LiveScore Group addresses these challenges by providing a seamless platform that streamlines the fan experience, eliminating the need for multiple subscriptions or hopping between apps, platforms and devices, enriching sports experiences with best-in-class products.
With its global expansion and localised services, LiveScore is building a true one-stop shop for fans globally, offering real-time updates, stats, free highlights, aggregated news and engaging content through its app and social platform. For fans who wish to include betting, a best-in-class sportsbook is integrated into the same ecosystem across several countries, ensuring a seamless experience for the previously app-hopping fan.
This convergence is what attracts and retains loyal users worldwide, with the LiveScore app servicing 100 million global consumers during any given football season, as well as one million sports bettors across four territories. This multi-brand strategy has delivered proven results, driving revenue from £5 million in 2019 to over £200 million in 2024.
By expanding its presence globally, enriching its content, enhancing user experience, forming strategic partnerships around the work and streamlining every aspect of the sports fan's journey, the organisation is poised to further boost annual revenues to £1 billion within the next five years.
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She became assistant coach of the Netherlands in 2014 and was given the head coach role on a permanent basis in January 2017, six months before the start of their home European Championship. Just as she replicated in England in 2022, she used the pressure of the home nation as a positive. She made difficult decisions too, dropping the captain Mandy van den Berg, whom she considered a friend, for the majority of the tournament. There was the cut-throat side to Wiegman which Steph Houghton, and several others, would later experience. Yet it is the foundation for her success. Euro 2025 is her fifth major tournament as a head coach — two with the Netherlands, three with England. She has reached the final in all five. To do so, her key coaching philosophies have remained the same, but she has tweaked her attitude and relationships with players. When she first arrived at the England camp in 2021, those present say there was immediately an aura around her, not least because she was someone who had done what everyone at St George's Park was so desperate to do: win. She was struck by the very English habit of talking around difficult topics instead of tackling them head on — more of a straightforward, typically Dutch approach. She told staff and players she would prefer them to be direct. 'You can just say what you think and still be very respectful,' she explained. Initially she was irritated by the jewellery and watches players wore, such were the fine details she focused on. Over time she has relaxed, realising that the players have thrived with the trust she has given them — as the bonds have grown, so too has the mutual respect. While other England teams, men's and women's, have had cliques and negative rivalry within, she has trusted them to sit with whom they wish, and authentically create friendships. Love Island, it is fair to say, is not Wiegman's cup of tea. But she is happy for her players to sit together and watch it, if it is something that helps them to relax. She has also encouraged players to share their footballing stories with one another. 'We've made ourselves very vulnerable . . . Sarina herself has made herself really vulnerable,' Beth Mead, the England winger, told the BBC. 'I think that gives us so much more togetherness, so much more trust in each other, that we're willing to share really tough moments with each other and how can we help each other. Sarina has really instilled that into us as a team. She's got our back, we've got her back.' The squad has dealt with difficult off-pitch events too. Mead lost her mother, June, to cancer, the same disease that Ella Toone's dad, Nick, died of. Wiegman's elder sister, Diana, died in June 2022 from ovarian cancer. 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Reuters
an hour ago
- Reuters
Italy withdraw from World University Games after gymnast seriously injured in fall
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