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 extends far beyond match attendance to 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.

This insight that digital engagement expands the football ecosystem rather than substituting for it is what separates Moore’s thinking from traditional football executives who still treat digital as marketing rather than core product.

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.

But the real story isn’t the trophy cabinet. It’s how Moore approached club operations with a fundamentally different mindset than career football executives.

He understood platforms as ecosystem integrations. Liverpool’s partnerships weren’t just logo placements. They were comprehensive collaborations. The club’s digital strategy recognized that fans experience Liverpool across multiple touchpoints daily, not just 90 minutes on weekends.

He understood data while respecting tradition. While respecting Liverpool’s history, Moore brought analytical rigor from technology industries. Decisions were data-informed without being data-dictated.

He understood community members rather than treating them as customers. Gaming taught Moore about community management at scale. Football supporters are community members to be served. Get that backwards, and everything falls apart.

He understood how to be both global and local. Liverpool’s fanbase is worldwide, but the club’s soul is Scouse. Moore navigated this tension better than most because he understood that digital engagement allows you to be both simultaneously if you’re thoughtful about it.

These weren’t revolutionary insights individually. Collectively, they represented a different operating philosophy: run a football club with the sophistication of a modern technology company while respecting what makes football special.

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, which will join the USL Championship, America’s second tier, for the 2027 season.

Why?

Because ownership allows you to build from first principles rather than navigate existing structures. Moore isn’t constrained by inherited legacy systems, entrenched organizational politics, or historical expectations. He can implement the integrated digital-physical model he’s been refining for decades.

Santa Barbara Sky FC is Moore’s laboratory for modern club ownership. Originally slated to debut in USL League One, the club acquired the franchise rights from Memphis 901 FC and elevated to the USL Championship level, a significant step up that demonstrates Moore’s ambitions for the project. The club is set to launch in 2027, playing at UCSB’s Harder Stadium, a 17,000-seat soccer-specific venue.

The team is small enough to be nimble, new enough to build right, and positioned in a market (California’s Central Coast) with growth potential but without the pressure of established football culture.

This is strategic, not accidental. Moore is building the club he believes football needs for the 2030s, not recreating what worked in the 1990s.

What Moore Learned From Gaming That Football Still Doesn’t Get

The gaming industry evolved faster than football because it had to. Games compete for attention in an entertainment landscape with infinite options. Football benefits from tribal loyalty that games can’t replicate, but that advantage is slowly eroding as younger generations have different engagement patterns.

Moore learned lessons in gaming that football is just beginning to understand:

Free-to-play models create bigger audiences than premium pricing. FIFA’s success came from broad accessibility, not exclusivity. Football’s equivalent isn’t giving away tickets. It’s recognizing that engagement has value even when it doesn’t generate immediate revenue.

Live services beat one-time purchases. FIFA Ultimate Team showed that continuous engagement generates more value than one-time transactions. Football clubs are perpetual live services, but many still operate on transactional models.

Community management is infrastructure, not marketing. Gaming companies learned that community health determines long-term success. Toxicity kills games faster than bad gameplay. Football clubs face similar dynamics but often treat community as marketing rather than operations.

Data enables personalization at scale. Games tailor experiences to individual players while maintaining shared worlds. Football can do the same by delivering personalized content and engagement while maintaining collective experience of supporting a club.

Platform strategy beats product strategy. Successful games become platforms that others build on (mods, content creators, communities). Forward-thinking clubs become platforms for fan creativity and engagement rather than just content producers.

These aren’t gaming concepts. They’re business principles for modern community-driven organizations that football is only beginning to apply.

The American Soccer Opportunity (And Challenge)

Moore’s timing in American soccer is deliberate. The US market is at an inflection point, growing rapidly but still defining what American soccer culture will become.

Major League Soccer is establishing itself as a legitimate first-division league. Lower divisions (USL, NISA) are growing but face sustainability questions. Youth development is improving but fragmented. The 2026 World Cup will accelerate everything.

Moore sees opportunity precisely because American soccer hasn’t calcified into established patterns. There’s space to innovate on:

Community ownership models that balance business sophistication with supporter connection.

Digital-first engagement that recognizes American fans are geographically dispersed and digitally native.

Cross-industry partnerships that bring non-endemic sponsors into soccer because they understand the demographic and cultural opportunity.

Player development pathways that connect youth soccer (massive participation) to professional opportunities (still limited).

Experience design that competes with other American sports and entertainment options rather than assuming football’s inherent superiority.

But the challenge is equally real. American soccer has failed before, repeatedly. The corpses of defunct leagues and clubs litter recent history. Getting this right requires both football knowledge and business sophistication.

Moore brings both. His gaming background means he understands entertainment competition. His Liverpool tenure means he understands football operations. His technology career means he understands building sustainable organizations in fast-changing industries.

What Traditional Football Can Learn From Moore’s Career

Moore’s career arc from gaming to Liverpool to ownership reveals a pattern: success comes from applying cross-industry insight while respecting sport-specific realities.

Lesson 1: Digital is product delivery, not marketing. Most clubs treat digital as a promotional channel. Moore understands it as core product delivery. Fans’ primary experience of your club might be digital. Act accordingly.

Lesson 2: Data enables intuition; it doesn’t replace it. Moore used data extensively at EA and Liverpool, but never let it override judgment about what makes football special. Analytics inform decisions; they don’t make them.

Lesson 3: Community health is business health. Toxic communities kill products, whether games or clubs. Community management isn’t soft skills. It’s fundamental infrastructure.

Lesson 4: Platform thinking beats product thinking. Clubs that enable fan creativity and connection (platforms) will outlast clubs that just produce content (products).

Lesson 5: Sustainability requires multiple revenue streams. Match-day revenue alone doesn’t work. Broadcasting alone doesn’t work. Gaming taught Moore that diversified revenue models create sustainability.

Lesson 6: Global reach doesn’t require losing local soul. Liverpool proved you can engage billions globally while remaining authentically Scouse. It requires intentionality, but it’s possible.

Lesson 7: Innovation requires permission to fail. Gaming iterates rapidly because failure is expected and learned from. Football punishes failure harshly, which ironically prevents learning and adaptation.

What Moore’s Conversation at Soccerex Might Reveal

This one-on-one interview offers rare access to someone who’s operated at the highest levels of gaming, sports, and now club ownership. Given Moore’s unique career arc, the conversation with Guillem Balagué could touch on several compelling areas:

Gaming’s influence on football:

• The relationship between FIFA (the game) and FIFA (the sport)
• Lessons from Ultimate Team that might apply to football business models
• The evolving balance between virtual and physical engagement

Liverpool’s evolution:

• Balancing tradition with innovation at a historic club
• Surprises when moving from gaming to football operations
• Reflections on decisions made during his tenure

Santa Barbara Sky FC:

• The decision to pursue ownership in USL Championship
• Opportunities that emerge when building a club from scratch
• His vision for sustainable second-tier American soccer

Football’s future:

• Where football business may be heading in the next decade
• How younger generations might engage with the sport
• Preparing for attention economy challenges

Technology’s impact:

• Whether AI and data will fundamentally change how football is played
• Separating genuine innovation from hype in football tech
• Maintaining sport’s essence while embracing innovation

Ballagué’s interview style suggests he’ll explore the tensions, contradictions, and challenges in Moore’s career and in football’s evolution.

Why This Conversation Matters Now

Football is at a crossroads. Traditional revenue models face pressure. Younger generations engage differently. Technology enables both opportunities and threats. American soccer is growing but uncertain. 2026 World Cup looms.

Peter Moore has navigated similar crossroads in other industries. He’s made billion-dollar decisions. He’s succeeded and failed publicly. He’s now applying everything he’s learned to building a club from scratch.

Whether you’re a club executive wondering how digital strategy should evolve, an investor evaluating American soccer opportunities, a brand strategist seeking sports partnerships, or an owner navigating lower-league sustainability, Moore’s insights matter.

He’s not theorizing. He’s doing it. Santa Barbara Sky FC is his proof of concept for what modern football ownership should look like.

Join the Conversation at Soccerex Miami

On Day 1 of Soccerex Miami, Peter Moore sits down for an extended conversation with Guillem Balagué about his extraordinary career and perspectives on football’s evolution.

This is a rare opportunity to hear from someone who’s shaped how billions experience football, run one of the world’s biggest clubs, and is now building a new club in American soccer.

Join us in Miami to hear from an executive who’s been at the forefront of football’s digital transformation for decades.