The English Premier League has embarked on a major technological transformation through a new five-year partnership with Microsoft, positioning AI at the center of the football fan experience.
At the heart of this collaboration is the Premier League Companion, an AI-powered digital hub now available on the league's revamped mobile app and website. Powered by Microsoft Copilot, this highly personalized experience leverages Azure OpenAI to pull information from over 30 seasons of stats, 300,000 articles and 9,000 videos, unlocking a wealth of facts and figures for fans about their favorite clubs and players.
The Premier League Companion will be enhanced throughout the upcoming season with additional functionality, including open-text questions and answers in fans' native languages through text and audio translation. Later in the season, Microsoft AI will also be integrated within the app and website's enhanced Fantasy Premier League experience, giving fans their own personal assistant manager to help guide their fantasy squads to victory.
The partnership positions Microsoft as the official cloud and AI provider for the Premier League's digital platforms, aiming to modernize its infrastructure, broadcast analytics, and internal processes. This marks one of the most significant technology transformations in the League's history, anchored around four key areas: fan engagement, match insights and analysis, cloud transformation, and organizational productivity. Together, Microsoft and the Premier League aim to build one of global sport's most advanced and secure media, data and AI platforms. Integrating Microsoft Azure AI Foundry services, including Azure OpenAI in Foundry Models, will further enhance the live match experience with real-time data overlays and post-match analysis.
"This partnership will help us engage with fans in new ways — from personalized content to real-time match insights," Richard Masters, English Premier League CEO, said in a news release. The English Premier League is widely seen as the most prestigious soccer organization in the world and is the most-watched, airing matches in 189 countries and reaching 900 million homes globally, according to the league. "By leveraging our secure cloud and AI technologies — including Azure AI Foundry Services with Azure OpenAI, Microsoft 365 Copilot, and Dynamics 365 — we will transform how football is experienced, delivered, and managed on and off the field," added Judson Althoff, executive vice president and chief commercial officer at Microsoft.
While financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed, the partnership comes after a previous contract with Oracle ended. The English Premier League season begins August 15, with the Premier League Summer Series exhibition matches starting July 26 in the United States.