Cristiano Ronaldo has spent four years quietly stacking records in Saudi Arabia. Now, the Saudi Pro League wants to make that reach pay off — literally. The league has launched a “Share and Earn” model, powered by streaming platform Recast, giving players, clubs and content creators the ability to share match links and pocket a cut of every sale they generate. For Ronaldo, a man with over one billion followers across his social platforms, the financial upside is almost absurd to calculate. And the timing could not be more loaded — he has called this season “probably my last year of football.”
How does the Saudi Pro League’s Share and Earn model actually work?
The mechanics are simpler than the name suggests. Approved players and creators share a link to a specific match or bundle of games. Anyone who clicks and pays gets redirected to the league’s own streaming platform. Recast, the technology powering the model, automatically tracks transactions, attributes purchases and splits revenue between participants. No guesswork, no manual settlements — just direct earnings tied to your audience’s engagement.The model currently operates across 16 international markets, including the UK, Ireland, Canada, South Korea and New Zealand, running alongside the league’s existing network of 45 broadcast partners in over 180 territories. This is not a replacement for traditional broadcasting. It is an additional revenue layer that the SPL is grafting on top.Selected publishers can also choose to host official Saudi Pro League live and on-demand content directly on their own platforms, with the match stream embedded within their site, subject to league approval.Saudi Pro League CEO Omar Mugharbel was direct about what this signals: “For generations, sports distribution has largely been a relationship between rights holders and broadcasters.” The league is now widening that circle.What makes Ronaldo the centrepiece of this conversation is not just the number of followers he carries — it is how active that audience is. His posts routinely pull tens of millions of interactions within hours. Even a fraction of his fanbase clicking through a match link and paying to watch could generate revenue few traditional broadcast deals can match at the individual player level.
Could this become the new normal for how football distributes its matches?
This model draws a clear parallel with the Bundesliga’s creator partnerships — notably with content creator Mark Goldbridge and Burnley striker Jamie Vardy — where distribution moved beyond broadcasters into individual audience networks. The SPL is betting that what worked on a smaller scale in Germany can be built into something far larger.The broader context matters here. Ronaldo has openly said “This is probably my last year of football, and I want to leave a spectacular legacy.” He is sitting on 976 career goals, chasing 1,000. He plans to spend more time with family, travel, play padel, and simply “have more fun” after 25 years of intense sacrifice. So this streaming model lands at a curious crossroads — Ronaldo nearing the exit, but potentially earning from his audience in a way no footballer before him has ever had the scale to do.Whether he participates actively or not, his presence alone will shape how this model is perceived globally. Leagues everywhere will be watching. If a billion-follower athlete can turn a link share into a direct revenue stream, it quietly rewrites how sport thinks about distribution — not just in Saudi Arabia, but everywhere.