OneFootball CEO and founder Lucas von Cranach at TechCrunch Disrupt Berlin in 2017
OneFootball is a German platform-based football media company. The OneFootball app features live-scores, statistics and news[1] from 200 leagues in 12 different languages covered by a newsroom located in Berlin.[2] In 2019, OneFootball partnered up with Eleven Sports to have the rights to stream directly on the app La Liga in UK[3] and with Sky to transmit 2. Bundesliga and DFB-Pokal matches in Germany.[4] In 2020, OneFootball bought club-founded video forum Dugout. Speaking of the deal to Bloomberg, OneFootball CEO Lucas von Cranach said that the move will "benefit the whole football ecosystem with clubs, federations and leagues able to increase audience reach and harness our powerful data insights to gain a deeper understanding of their fans' engagement as the rise of advertising means they need to know as much as possible".[5]
History
The company was founded under the name Motain by Lucas Von Cranach in 2013.[6] In 2009, Von Cranach launched iLiga (THE football app abroad).[7] Following a move to the new HQ in Berlin, Motain and its products (iLiga and THE football app) were merged under the name of OneFootball.[8] On 7 September 2016 OneFootball was featured in the Apple keynote in San Francisco for the release of watchOS 3.[9] The management team, which included Silke Kuisle as CFO,[10] expanded in 2018 with the arrival of the ex-Puma CEO, Franz Koch, as the new COO and the SPORT1MEDIA ex-CEO Patrick Fischer, as the new CBO.[11] On 15 December 2020, the company took over Dugout, a multimedia forum founded by a host of Europe's biggest clubs, for reportedly more than $61 million.[12] In May 2022 OneFootball raised €300 million in a series D financing round led by Liberty City Ventures and included participation from Animoca Brands, Dapper Labs, DAH Beteiligungs GmbH, Quiet Capital, RIT Capital Partners, Senator Investment Group and Alsara Investment Group.[13]
Controversies
Seven months after raising more than $300 million in NFT funds, the company made three waves of layoffs.
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The first wave, comes after the termination of the partnership with the application Spitch, a football fantasy app. The end of this partnership will result in the dismissal of 10 employees in November 2022.
A month later, the company repeats with 62 new employees laid off.
[15]
In early 2023, a new wave of dismissals arrived with 150 employees laid off.
[16]
Some rumours mention problems of management and discrimination affecting the mental health of employees. [17]
In total, the company will have reduced its workforce by 40% in 4 months.
In August 2023, a new wave of redundancies - the 4th in less than a year took place at OneFootball. The company is reducing its workforce to 250 employees. This comes just 1 year after an astronomical fund-raising of over 300 million dollars. [18]
Accusation of NFT Scams
The decision to terminate the AERA project in June 2023 related to OneFootball has sparked lot of bad reactions on social media, especially regarding accusations of scams involving NFTs. Some fans of the platform expressed their dissatisfaction by openly accusing OneFootball of being involved in a scam.[19] CEO Lucas Von Cranach explained 1 year ago "We are creating an accessible experience for Serie A fans - by being a true platform - they can own digital video moments through us and take them wherever they want - or nowhere - they are theirs, in perpetuity. As members of the community, fans will enjoy even more benefits as we expand our Web3 offering and launch other products". The promised expansion did not last, as the platform has been shut down since June 2023.
Rights in UK, Spain, Asia, Mexico, Australia, New Zealand, MENA (except Israel), South Africa, Latin America (including Brazil), Netherlands, Italy, Malta and San Marino. [20]
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