Stefan El Shaarawy of AS Roma competes for the ball with Miralem Pjanic and Federico Bernardeschi of Juventus during the Serie A match between AS Roma and Juventus at Stadio Olimpico on May 13, 2018 in Rome, Italy. (Photo by Paolo Bruno/Getty Images)
Whenever an Italian Serie A club matches up against a lower-tier squad, the result is likely going to go in the elite team’s favor. On Monday, for the first time, A.S. Roma displayed that dominance on a worldwide viewing platform.
Roma defeated Serie D club Latina in front of a global audience in the first-ever Twitter live stream for a Serie A team. Almost predictably, A.S. Roma defeated its opponents 9-0. The match was only a preseason friendly, but it nonetheless allowed A.S. Roma to explore the possibilities of streaming its matches on a global social media platform.
According to an A.S. Roma press release, 100,000 fans tuned in through Twitter accounts in Italy.
When American owner Jim Pallotta bought into the club in 2011, he began planning to make the team one of the most technologically advanced clubs in all of professional soccer. Roma recent press release claims that the club’s Twitter accounts saw the highest engagement figures of any top-10 squad in Europe. And two years ago, the Serie A club squared off against Russian Premier League team Terek Grozny in the first Facebook live stream of European soccer.
A.S. Roma’s matches and other content are run through Roma Studio, the club’s production arm.
SportTechie Takeaway
The Twitter live-stream of this pre-season friendly was a good proving ground for Roma, which now can take fuller advantage of the platform and its massive audience. Though 100,000 viewers may appear small, it is perhaps a significant figure for a clash between Serie A and Serie D clubs. Live streams of regular-season matchups against higher-caliber opponents in Serie A would almost certainly command much bigger viewerships.
