The Club That's Building Football's AI Blueprint - and It's Not in the Premier League

About this episode

Most football clubs are talking about AI. Almost none of them are doing it properly. Stuart Fenton is the first-ever Head of AI at a professional English football club - and he's building something at Reading FC that the rest of the sport hasn't caught up with yet.

This isn't a conversation about hype. It's about what an AI strategy actually looks like inside a football club - the data foundations, the cultural resistance, the fan experience vision, and why a League One side is leading where Premier League clubs haven't yet been willing to go.

Stuart's philosophy is simple: AI should be invisible. It should empower people, not replace them. And if you build on the wrong foundations, the whole thing falls apart.

If you work in sport, media, fan engagement, or digital strategy, this episode will change how you think about what AI can - and can't - do.

What you'll learn in this episode

>> Most clubs jump straight to AI strategy before the data foundations are in place - Stuart explains why that's like building a house on quicksand, and what getting it right actually requires.

>> AI adoption inside a club is a culture change challenge as much as a technology challenge - and getting buy-in from the groundsman to the exec board matters more than the tools you choose.

>> The fan experience of the future isn't about technology for its own sake - it's about making AI invisible, seamless, and genuinely useful, the way good connectivity works.

>> Reading FC are pioneering a tech partnership model that goes well beyond shirt sponsorships - acting as a strategic go-to-market partner for innovative tech companies rather than a transactional sponsor relationship.

>> Building a real AI edge takes 12 to 18 months - and clubs that expect a quick return are setting themselves up to fail.

Timestamps
00:00 The AI-powered fan experience - Stuart's vision for Reading FC
00:42 Welcome to Future of Fandom
01:24 Introduction - Stuart Fenton, Head of AI at Reading FC
01:51 Stuart's background - from telecoms to UK government AI to football
04:50 How a DM on X led to the first Head of AI role in English football
05:20 Reading's ambition: the most innovative club using AI in world football
06:39 Horizontal vs vertical AI - how Reading approaches deployment
07:30 AI as a club-wide capability - culture change from the top down
12:36 The human-centric approach - augmenting people, not replacing them
14:00 AI in recruitment - how Reading rebuilt the squad with data
16:41 Building trust with coaches and translating data into football terms
17:46 AI for competitive advantage - computer vision and tactical analysis
20:25 Managing manager changes and building club-level AI (not individual tools)
21:16 Handling manager changes and tool preferences
23:24 Fan engagement - the single view of the fan
25:17 Building the data infrastructure behind fan personalisation
28:00 Hyper-personalised matchday experiences and the AI-native generation
30:09 Tech partnerships - from shirt sponsors to strategic growth partners
34:31 Why AI is not a light switch - and the importance of timing
36:50 How long does it take to build a real AI edge? 12 to 18 months
40:35 Revenue, fan experience and the bigger picture
42:05 One piece of advice for any club starting on AI
43:25 What success looks like in three years - becoming the blueprint

Useful resources
Connect with Samuel Westberg: https://fr.linkedin.com/in/samuel-westberg-a836713a 
Connect with Stuart Fenton: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stuartcmfenton/ 
Visit LiveLike’s website: https://www.livelike.com/
Visit Reading FC’s website: https://www.readingfc.co.uk/

 
Connect with the show
Follow LiveLike on LinkedIn for more conversations with the people shaping sports, media, and fan engagement: https://www.linkedin.com/company/livelike/

Question
What's the biggest lesson your organisation has taken from trying to implement AI? Drop your thoughts in the comments - especially if you work in sport or fan engagement and are navigating this in real time.

What’s next?
Subscribe wherever you get your podcasts - and if this episode made you think differently about AI in sport, share it with someone who needs to hear it.