The Premier League has become a colossus of sports, drawing in millions of viewers from around the world for each match played. It’s led to preseason, and sometimes postseason, tournaments being played far and wide – most notably in the United States of America.
Summer Series games garner a fair crowd, with 2025’s six-game slate between Everton, Manchester United, Bournemouth, and West Ham United taking the clubs from New Jersey to Chicago to Atlanta. However, the Premier League is yet to send a competitive game across the pond in the same way the NFL sends games to London each year. So, should this be on the table?
European Leagues Exploring Live Markets Overseas
One of the most significant moves of the last couple of years in this regard has been the Italian FA giving the green light to a restructuring and moving of the Supercoppa Italiana. Their equivalent of the Community Shield has been transformed into a four-team tournament to appease the crowds of Riyadh in Saudi Arabia.
Attendances for the finals have been around 24,900, nearing the capacity of the host King Saud University Stadium. The big selling point, of course, is that the teams get to battle for a share of the £20 million prize pool. The earnings of the UK’s Community Shield are split between charities and the football pyramid.
Over the summer, Spain’s La Liga went a step further. This December, La Liga will become the first European league to host a competitive fixture overseas. It’ll send Villarreal and Barcelona across the Hard Rock Stadium in Miami, Florida. They seek to capitalise on World Cup hype and the hefty Spanish-speaking community.
Sin City Would be a Boon
Few fan groups would be particularly pleased with their home team venturing overseas to play a competitive match, but it may be inevitable with the way the Premier League seeks to globalise further and generate more income from overseas fans. Should this occur, Las Vegas stands out as the prime landing spot for the division.
Las Vegas has cemented itself as a global brand for entertainment. Of course, this is primarily in the realm of casino gaming, which is why so many British sites stylise themselves as the casino online equivalent of Sin City. Here, there are exclusive games like 15 Stars Ablaze, all of the new games, the hits like Big Bass Splash, and live roulette and blackjack.
Having such an array of top-class online casino games certainly earns the platform the name ‘Vegas.’ However, Sin City has recently undergone somewhat of a revolution to add to its world-leading array of gambling entertainment. Since 2017, Las Vegas has added two major league franchises and a WNBA franchise.
The first was the Vegas Golden Knights of the NHL, who’ve already won the Stanley Cup to the thrills of the local sports fandom. After them, the Raiders of the NFL moved to town, and now, there’s even a Formula One race that speeds around the neon-lit streets. Las Vegas is now a colossal and lucrative sports market with a 65,000-seater stadium at the ready.
Hopefully, the Premier League doesn’t follow La Liga’s example. If games are to be played overseas, however, the teams may as well cash in on the sports scene that’s emerged in Las Vegas.
