Lionel Messi’s arrival in Major League Soccer brought many benefits, to a huge number of sponsors. Apple’s streaming service is one of them, with CEO Tim Cook saying that in a quarterly earnings call Thursday that Apple TV+ had beaten its subscriber targets over the three months ending July 1.
According to him, this success can be attributed to an uptick in interest after the Argentinian signed for Inter Miami CF last month.
“We are excited about our MLS partnership, and we’re thrilled to see Messi suiting up with Inter Miami,” the tech giant’s CEO told analysts.
“It’s clearly in the early days, but we are beating our expectation in terms of subscribers, and the fact that Messi went to Inter Miami helped us out there a bit – and so we’re very excited about it,” Cook added.
Apple kicked off a 10-year partnership with the top US soccer league in February, launching a Season Pass that cost subscribers $13 a month and non-subscribers $15 a month.
In June, Messi signaled he would join Inter Miami. He has enjoyed a sensational start to life stateside, scoring five goals in his first three games for his new club.
The Florida-based team, owned by David Beckham, will pay Messi $150 million over the next two-and-a-half years, including a regular salary, signing bonus, and equity in the team.
The Athletic reported in June that Messi had also inked revenue-sharing agreements with both Apple TV and Adidas, which is one of MLS’s largest corporate sponsors.
