The Premier League is set to make a grand return to the United States, thanks to its renewed partnership with Relevent Sports Group. Plenty of sites not on Gamstop will be offering odds for these matches involving some of the biggest clubs in European football. The two entities will collaborate once again for the Summer Series, a pre-season competition that was first held in 2023.
Relevent will be responsible for the local delivery of the 2025 Premier League 'Summer Series' across three host cities. This reaffirms its position as an indispensable partner for European football properties in the Americas.
The group boasts long-term commercial partnerships across the region with Spain’s LaLiga and Germany's Bundesliga. It is also currently negotiating exclusively with UEFA regarding global commercial broadcast, licensing, and sponsorship sales for various leagues from 2027 to 2033.
For this edition of the Summer Series, American-owned clubs Bournemouth (owned by Bill Foley), Everton (owned by Dan Friedkin), Manchester United (owned by the Glazers) and West Ham United will compete in a round-robin format.
The series kicks off on July 26th at the MetLife Stadium in New Jersey before moving onto Soldier Field in Chicago on July 30th. The final leg takes place at the Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta on August 3rd.
This year's event sees fewer teams participating compared to six teams involved back in 2023 – Brentford, Chelsea, Aston Villa, Newcastle United, Fulham and Brighton – making it a more streamlined version of the competition.
Attempts were made to include Liverpool and Arsenal, but these efforts were unsuccessful as both clubs are likely touring Asia this pre-season instead.
NBC Sports continues its longstanding partnership as host broadcaster for the Summer Series. Matches will be shown across NBCUniversal’s networks and its streaming platform, Peacock.
However, a busy broadcast schedule last summer, including coverage of the Copa America and the Paris Olympics, led to the cancellation of the Summer Series in 2024.
The Premier League-branded Summer Series is seen as a step towards hosting competitive European football matches on US soil. However, this remains off-limits at Premier League headquarters, and the German Football League has also clarified that regular-season games in the US are not part of their new pact with Relevent.
Relevent, however, is pushing for this initiative as part of its joint venture with LaLiga. A regular-season LaLiga game on US soil moved closer to reality when FIFA announced it would consider changes to its policy that currently blocks domestic football league matches from being played in other countries.
This development came after a settlement with Relevent, which had filed an anti-trust lawsuit against both FIFA and the United States Soccer Federation, accusing them of improperly banning foreign clubs and leagues from staging official matches in the US.
LaLiga now faces competition from Italy’s Serie A, which recently revealed plans to bring Italian top-flight games to the US. With 8 out of 20 Serie A clubs owned by American investors, they recognise the potential for revenue growth by expanding internationally.
