The Athletic begins UK voyage seeking to disrupt all levels of football content

UK media welcomes new US player ‘The Athletic’ a digital publisher seeking to disrupt sports journalism by offering in-depth content of every football club across the land.

Backed by a raft of US venture capital firms, The Athletic comes to the UK media scene with deep pockets having raised a reported $90 million in enterprise funding to date.

Founded by former Strava App Product VP Alex Mather in 2016, The Athletic seeks to replicate its ad-free / premium content sports journalism model for the UK, which has seen the publisher gain a North American subscribership of + 500,000 readers.

Forming a regional network of journos covering all-levels of English football, The Athletic has undertaken an ‘aggressive hiring spree’ building-up its editorial stable with recognised football writers such as Simon Hughes (formerly The Independent), James Pearce (formerly Liverpool Echo) and German football expert Raphael Honigstein (Guardian & ESPN).

Making its debut, The Athletic holds an industry connection with former Betfair and Unibet sports editor Ed Maylon appointed UK Managing Director.

Maylon is supported by former The Times and Daily Mail sports editor Alex Kay-Jelski as UK editorial and content lead, who this morning published The Athletic’s UK mission statement, detailing that the subscription portal would focus on ‘telling untold stories’ and ‘trying to stand out from the clickbait crowd’.

“Imagine having the time and resource to plan and execute in-depth articles in a world where West Bromwich Albion matter just as much as Manchester United, where the inside story at Burnley is put together with the same passion as the lowdown on the latest managerial change at Chelsea” details Kay-Jelski in The Athletic’s market statement.

Beginning its UK voyage this August, The Athletic has discounted its yearly subscription to £29.99 (£4.99-per-month), with new subscribers gaining further access to the publisher’s US content catalogue.

Tech and industry observers are monitoring The Athletic movements closely, assessing whether the US incumbent can scale its subscription model for the UK’s unique sports media market, putting forward a challenge to established incumbents.