The Premier League, the most popular soccer league in the world (yes, I’ve been told I must write soccer to cater to our US audience, but just know every time I write it, my fingers twitch), has just launched a new AI companion in its iOS and Android app.
The Premier League Companion is part of a new 5-year partnership between the Premier League and Microsoft that the company is hoping will “transform how 1.8 billion fans in 189 countries engage with the world’s most-watched football (soccer) league.”
Richard Masters, the chief executive of the Premier League, said: “We are delighted to welcome Microsoft as a partner of the Premier League. This partnership will help us engage with fans in new ways – from personalised content to real-time match insights.”
I’ve been testing the new AI Premier League Companion powered by Microsoft Copilot, and while I’m less than impressed at the moment, I’m hopeful that AI will improve the experience of being a Premier League fan.
Incredibly limited, but it’s just the beginning
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The Premier League app just got a massive redesign, and you can download the update for free today.
Once you’ve launched the new app, you’ll be able to access the Premier League Companion, which works similarly to Microsoft Copilot’s inclusion in the Xbox app, an AI chatbot tailored to specific content.
Unfortunately, unlike the experience in the Xbox app (currently in beta), you’re completely limited in the way you can interact with Copilot, being offered three prompts to choose from at a time, and no option to write your own.
Yep, it’s as useless as it sounds, but I don’t want you to think this means this partnership is DOA. Actually, at the time of writing, the Premier League has already announced that while you’re limited to prewritten options at the moment, this should be rectified by the time the 2025/2026 season starts on August 15th.
The problem at the moment is that predetermined prompts completely defeat the purpose of a chatbot, limiting the conversation and frantically jumping between propositions of different teams, players, and upcoming matches.
As a Chelsea fan, I don’t really care about the latest news about Brighton and Hove Albion, and if I ask for an update on Christopher Nkunku I don’t want to follow it up with a question about how many free kicks Everton scored in the 2010/11 season (yes, this is a real use case).
The thing is, as it stands, this glossy, newly launched Premier League Companion app is essentially pointless, but I reached out to a Premier League representative who said the plan is to allow user input soon.
There’s more to come
If you update the Premier League app today, you may as well give Premier League Companion a go, after all, it’s free and might give you info on niche stats you hadn’t thought about.
I haven’t used the new app enough to know if Copilot will start to offer prompts based on your previous selections, but if that is the case, then Premier League Companion might be a little less useless as the season draws closer.
The tool is meant “to help fans explore over 30 seasons of stats, 300,000 articles and 9,000 videos, delivering tailored insights and bespoke content discovery at scale.” But from my experience, I’m yet to encounter any video highlights or tailored insights.
In the official press release that announced the Microsoft and Premier League partnership, PL confirmed that Microsoft AI will be implemented into Fantasy Premier League, one of the world’s most popular fantasy sports.
As part of Fantasy Premier League, fans will get “their own personal assistant manager to help them steer their Fantasy squad to victory.” I’m not going to lie, as someone who came second in their league due to bad decisions on the final day of the 2024/2025 season, I’m excited to get a boost from an AI statistician.
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john-anthony.disotto@futurenet.com (John-Anthony Disotto)
