From Pixels to Pitches: Peter Moore’s Blueprint for Modern Football Ownership
The architect of FIFA’s gaming empire spent decades shaping how billions experience football. Now he’s applying those lessons as a club owner. His journey reveals everything about where the sport’s business is heading.
Peter Moore has spent 40 years at the intersection of technology, entertainment, and sport. He helped build the gaming industry. He turned FIFA into the world’s most valuable sports video game franchise. He ran one of football’s most storied institutions. Now, he’s a club owner navigating the messy, glorious reality of lower-league American soccer.
This isn’t a retirement hobby. It’s the culmination of a career spent understanding something most football executives miss: how people actually experience football in the digital age, and how that should fundamentally reshape how clubs operate.
At Soccerex Miami, Moore sits down with Guillem Ballague and Trevor Watkins for a rare, in-depth conversation about his journey from Sega to EA Sports to Liverpool FC to Santa Barbara Sky FC. But this isn’t a nostalgic career retrospective. It’s a masterclass in translating cross-industry insight into football business strategy—and a preview of where the sport’s commercial future is heading.
The Gaming Executive Who Saw Football’s Future First
When Peter Moore joined EA Sports in 2007, the FIFA franchise was already successful. By the time he left in 2017, it had become a cultural phenomenon worth billions annually, with Ultimate Team generating over $1 billion in revenue alone.
Moore didn’t just oversee growth. He fundamentally understood something that traditional football executives were still learning: football fandom in the 21st century isn’t just about match attendance. It’s about year-round engagement across multiple platforms and formats.
The FIFA video game didn’t compete with real football for attention—it complemented it, deepened it, monetized it in new ways. Players who might never afford match tickets could still engage with their favorite clubs daily. Fans in markets without local professional football could build deep connections to European clubs through gameplay. The game became a global onboarding mechanism for football fandom itself.
The insight: digital engagement isn’t a substitute for “real” football but an expansion of the football ecosystem. Treat digital as core product, not just marketing.
Liverpool: When Digital Meets Heritage
Moore’s tenure as CEO of Liverpool FC (2017–2020) tested whether these digital-age insights could translate to running an actual football club—particularly one steeped in tradition and history.
The results speak for themselves: Champions League victory, Premier League title after 30 years, commercial growth across all revenue streams, and global fanbase expansion that didn’t alienate local supporters.
Moore’s operating philosophy:
- Understand platforms, not just sponsors: partnerships as ecosystem integrations, not logo placements.
- Use data without losing soul: analytical rigor that informs—never dictates—decisions.
- Serve communities, not customers: supporters are members to be stewarded, not merely monetized.
- Be global and local: digital lets you scale worldwide while staying authentically Scouse.
The Ownership Transition: From CEO to Owner
There’s a crucial difference between running someone else’s club and owning your own. Moore could have retired comfortably after Liverpool. Instead, he became founding owner of Santa Barbara Sky FC, a club in USL League One—America’s third tier.
Why ownership? To build from first principles without legacy constraints. Santa Barbara Sky FC is Moore’s laboratory for an integrated digital-physical model of modern club operations—nimble, community-led, and designed for the 2030s.
What Gaming Taught Moore (That Football Still Doesn’t Get)
- Free-to-play mindset: broader access creates bigger audiences; engagement has value beyond immediate revenue.
- Live services over one-offs: continuous engagement beats single transactions—clubs are perpetual live services.
- Community as infrastructure: manage community health like uptime; toxicity erodes lifetime value.
- Personalization at scale: use data to tailor content while preserving shared rituals.
- Platform thinking: enable fan creativity and creator ecosystems, don’t just publish content.
The American Soccer Opportunity (And Challenge)
The US market is at an inflection point—growing fast but still defining its culture. MLS is maturing; lower divisions are scaling; youth participation is massive; the 2026 World Cup will accelerate everything.
Opportunities:
- Community ownership models that blend sophistication with supporter connection.
- Digital-first engagement for geographically dispersed, digitally native fans.
- Cross-industry partnerships that bring new brands into the game.
- Clearer development pathways linking youth soccer to professional tiers.
- Experience design that competes with wider US entertainment options.
The challenge: sustainability. American soccer’s history is littered with failed clubs. Success requires football knowledge and modern operating discipline—Moore’s sweet spot.
What Traditional Football Can Learn From Moore’s Career
- Digital isn’t marketing; it’s product. For many, the primary club experience is digital—treat it as core.
- Data enables intuition; it doesn’t replace it. Use analytics to inform, not to strip away what makes football special.
- Community health = business health. Steward fan culture with the same rigor as financials.
- Think platform, not product. Build spaces for fans and creators to participate.
- Diversify revenue. Matchday and broadcast alone aren’t enough.
- Go global without losing the local soul. Intentionality keeps authenticity intact.
- Give permission to learn fast. Iterate like gaming; normalize smart risk.
The Questions Moore Will Address at Soccerex Miami
On gaming’s influence on football:
- How has FIFA (the game) shaped FIFA (the sport)?
- What lessons from Ultimate Team apply to club business models?
- Will virtual engagement ever outpace physical attendance?
On Liverpool’s evolution:
- Balancing tradition with innovation.
- What surprised you most moving from gaming to football?
- What would you do differently?
On Santa Barbara Sky FC:
- Why USL League One ownership instead of staying at the elite level?
- What are you building that couldn’t be built at Liverpool?
- What does sustainable lower-league American soccer look like?
On football’s future & technology:
- Where is the business heading in the next decade?
- What will Gen Z/Gen Alpha fandom look like?
- AI & data: what’s overhyped and what’s underhyped?
Why This Conversation Matters Now
Football is at a crossroads: traditional revenues are pressured, young fans engage differently, and technology is rewriting operating models. American soccer is growing but uncertain; the 2026 World Cup looms.
Peter Moore has faced similar crossroads in gaming, tech, and elite football. He’s made billion-dollar decisions, learned in public, and is now applying those lessons to building a club from scratch. Santa Barbara Sky FC is his proof-of-concept for modern football ownership.
Join the Conversation at Soccerex Miami
On Day 1 of Soccerex Miami, Peter Moore sits down for an extended conversation about his extraordinary career and what comes next—both for him and for football.
- Session: One-on-One Interview with Peter Moore
- Day 1 | January 22, 2025 | 1:10 PM
- Interviewers: Guillem Ballague (Broadcaster) & Trevor Watkins (Global Head of Sport, Pinsent Masons)
- Guest: Peter Moore, Founding Owner, Santa Barbara Sky FC
Expect candor. Expect insight. Expect perspectives on football business you won’t hear anywhere else.
