La Liga is turning to AI in an effort to drive efficiency within its league offices and to deliver a superior broadcast product to its fans. Moving forward, any time a player like Lamine Yamal or Kylian Mbappe scores a goal, broadcasters will instantly see images of comparable actions and be able to make visual comparisons in real-time.
La Liga President, Javier Tebas, announced that the Spanish soccer league has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with technology partner Globant to enhance its digital transformation using Agentic Artificial Intelligence.
The decision makes La Liga the first elite sporting organization to adopt agentic artificial intelligence at scale. According to La Liga, its adoption of agentic AI is with the following objectives in mind: to “accelerate innovation and optimize internal processes in key areas, including talent development, performance analysis, personalized content creation, and enhanced workflow automation.”
Speaking to me ahead of the announcement, Tebas said, “This agreement allows us to incorporate artificial intelligence in a practical and transformative way, reinforcing our commitment to operational excellence and to a competition that is increasingly modern, efficient, and connected to fans. With this alliance, we are taking another step forward in keeping LALIGA at the forefront of the industry.”
The cost of implementing this agentic AI technology was not disclosed, but Tebas insists “it’s an investment that will be recovered almost immediately.”
Questions remain. Will this technology streamline La Liga’s functionality and enhance the fan experience in such a way that it will close the gap on the Premier League? Will it drive down prices for consumers? Will La Liga run into short-term technological headwinds as governments and other organizations have with the adoption of AI? How much energy will these AI agents require and how will that impact the league’s long-term sustainability prospects? And what will this mean for La Liga’s individual clubs?
It is too soon to answer the first several, (my guess is that although AI will not suddenly shift a substantial new audience towards Spanish soccer, it will be a major energy drain) but as for the last, at the time of writing the deal with Globant is only for the league offices, because as Tebas put it, clubs have different AI requirements geared towards scouting and other on-field domains.
What is Agentic AI?
Agentic AI is unlike generative AI, or the Chat GPT chatbots that many people have become accustomed to using in the past several years. As previously reported in Forbes, Agentic AI is made up of autonomous systems that plan and act without the need for consistent human oversight in the pursuit of a specific objective.
Agentic AI systems can make their own decisions, plan actions, and even learn from previous experiences to accomplish the goal set for them by humans. They can also take a sequence of actions, completing multilayered tasks through sequential steps.
In the case of La Liga, its new Agentic AI system will be geared towards improving internal workflows by streamlining in-office decision-making, while simultaneously enhancing the gameday product with better visuals and data analysis.
La Liga and Globant’s AI Platform
La Liga’s new Agentic AI program is being developed using Globant’s AI Pods subscription model, which has teams of AI agents making decisions while being supervised by domain experts. The program will be supported by Sportian, a sports-specific AI division created in 2021 as part of a joint venture between La Liga and Globant.
Alongside La Liga, Globant provides technology and AI services at differing scales to other elite sports organizations such as Formula 1, Major League Rugby, FIFA, and Adidas.
According to Globant Co-founder and EMEA Chairman, Martin Umaran, the agreement between the two parties is geared towards providing La Liga with a platform to improve all the services they already provide. Traditionally, Globant’s programs are also aimed at reducing project times and creating tangible savings in in-house workflows.
The Globant platform will operate within specified guardrails set by La Liga, allowing it to best digest, analyze, and interact with the league’s data. In turn, the expectation is that the AI agents will improve decision-making for all La Liga issues, big and small. Umaran said, “We are not implementing a chatbot.” Instead, as an example, he said the agentic AI will be able to analyze the weather forecast for a specific match and give feedback that allows players to choose the right cleats for gameday.
According to Tebas, La Liga has identified 300 different league functionalities that they would like to improve through AI. He argues that the entire sports ecosystem needs AI agents to streamline functionality, build sustainable fan engagement, and increase monetization opportunities. In essence, the La Liga president sees AI as the future in sports, just as many industry titans see it as the silver bullet for efficiency in their sectors.
La Liga is already implementing the new AI system and is working to tackle the 300 areas it considers most important, although as each AI agent implements a solution, there is the possibility that new agents will be introduced to tackle new issue areas.
La Liga’s “Icons” project will automatically show match commentators two similar situations during the live broadcast. La Liga Fantasy will soon rely on AI agents that recommend certain signings and sales. Umaran says fans will watch games and receive an elevated broadcast experience without knowing that this is down to agentic AI.
The AI agents will be charged with improving the speed of league decision-making, lowering costs, and improving creativity. Some might call it foolhardy to let technology become the master of the sporting environment. Others will call it the future. Fans may never even know it is being implemented, but La Liga is betting that AI will be a game-changer for Spanish soccer. Only time will tell if they are right.
