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French soccer club Paris Saint Germain partners with Google on AI
Aug 3 (Reuters) - Paris Saint Germain (PSG) - the reigning French soccer champions and winner of last season's European Champions League - has struck a partnership deal with Google (GOOGL.O), opens new tab, it said on Monday. * Google Gemini will become PSG's official AI â assistant, while Google Pixel will become the official smartphone of PSG, said PSG in a statement on its website. * PSG will also set up a Google space at its stadium in Parc des Princes, Paris. * â Soccer teams and sport in general are increasingly using AI to assess data and create content for â their social media channels. * In 2025, the English Premier League and Microsoft (MSFT.O), opens new tab announced â a five-year partnership whereby Microsoft's Copilot would be used in the â league's digital platforms to provide quick facts and statistics about matches. Reporting by Sudip Kar-Gupta; Editing by Inti Landauro Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles., opens new tab
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PSG names Google Gemini its official AI assistant and Pixel its official phone
The multiyear deal runs through 2029 and hands Google a global football audience at the moment it is trying to make Gemini a daily habit. Paris Saint-Germain has a new official AI assistant, and it belongs to Google. The Ligue 1 giants announced a multiyear partnership that names Google Gemini their official AI assistant and Google Pixel their official smartphone, with the deal running through 2029. The club is calling it a 'premium partnership', the tier of sponsorship that buys logo placement, joint content, and the right to bolt a brand onto one of the most followed teams in world football. Financial terms were not disclosed. The stated aim is content and fan engagement rather than anything on the pitch. Gemini will sit behind the sort of interactive features clubs now use to keep supporters inside their own apps, and Pixel becomes the handset PSG shows off around its teams. The deal fits a pattern Google has been repeating all year. It has been threading Gemini and Pixel through sport wherever it can, and its most visible push is the 2026 World Cup, where Gemini features and biometric entry gates are quietly becoming the World Cup's quieter tech story. 'This partnership with Google perfectly reflects our ambition to collaborate with the world's most innovative companies,' said Richard Heaselgrave, PSG's chief revenue officer. It is boilerplate for a deal of this kind, though naming an AI assistant as a headline sponsor is newer than the language wrapped around it. Jean-Philippe Becane, marketing director for Google France, called PSG 'an iconic club' and one of the leading names in European football. For Google, the appeal is less the crest than the audience, a global fanbase it can put in front of Gemini while it works to turn the assistant into a habit. Naming an AI assistant as an official sponsor is still unusual in football, where the hoardings tend to fill with airlines, crypto exchanges, and betting brands. An AI assistant slots into that lineup as the category of the moment, which is much of the point for Google. Pixel, for its part, has leaned hard on official-partner status to buy visibility it struggles to win on shelf space. The phone struck the same kind of deal with the Australian Open, where 'official smartphone' means camera access, on-site branding, and a reason for broadcasters to hold up the hardware. The timing suits Google's product cycle. Pixel now ships with Android 17 and its Gemini Intelligence layer built in, so an official-smartphone deal doubles as a shop window for the AI features Google most wants people using. Gemini itself has become the centre of Google's consumer pitch. The company made Gemini Intelligence the through-line of its I/O keynote this year, and sponsorships like this one are how it turns a keynote demo into something fans actually open. What the announcement leaves out is as telling as what it includes. There is no detail on which features launch, when they arrive, or whether the women's team and PSG's other sections are covered, the specifics that usually trail a sponsorship rather than accompany it. For Google, the spend is one piece of a far larger effort to get Gemini in front of people wherever they are. The company has been pouring money into distribution, from a $750M partner fund for enterprise deployments to consumer tie-ins like this, all pointed at the same goal of everyday use. For PSG, it is another entry in an aggressive commercial year. The club has been stacking partnerships across its shirt and its stadium, and an AI sponsor is a natural addition for a side that sells itself as a global brand as much as a football team. Official-partner deals are marketing arrangements first, and the test of this one is whether a supporter opening the PSG app in 2027 notices Gemini at all, or simply notices that the club's phone is now a Pixel.
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Paris Saint-Germain has struck a premium partnership deal with Google, naming Google Gemini as its official AI assistant and Google Pixel as its official smartphone through 2029. The collaboration focuses on content and fan engagement rather than on-pitch performance, marking an unusual move as AI assistants rarely feature as headline sponsors in football.
Paris Saint-Germain has announced a multiyear partnership with Google that names Google Gemini as the club's official AI assistant and Google Pixel as its official smartphone, with the deal extending through 2029
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. The French soccer champions revealed the premium partnership on Monday, marking a significant step in how football clubs leverage technology for digital engagement1
. Richard Heaselgrave, PSG's chief revenue officer, stated that the partnership reflects the club's ambition to collaborate with the world's most innovative companies2
. While financial terms remain undisclosed, the agreement grants Google logo placement, joint content creation opportunities, and association with one of the most followed teams in world football.The partnership prioritizes content and fan engagement over on-pitch applications, with Google Gemini powering interactive features within PSG's digital platforms
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. Gemini will sit behind the sort of features clubs now deploy to keep supporters engaged within their own apps, transforming how fans interact with club content2
. PSG will also establish a Google space at Parc des Princes, its iconic Paris stadium1
. Soccer teams increasingly use AI to assess data and create content for their social media channels, following a broader industry trend1
. The English Premier League announced a five-year partnership with Microsoft in 2025, whereby Microsoft Copilot would provide quick facts and statistics about matches on the league's digital platforms1
.Google Pixel becomes the handset PSG showcases around its teams, buying visibility the phone struggles to achieve through traditional retail channels
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. The timing aligns with Google's product cycle, as Pixel now ships with Android 17 and its Gemini Intelligence layer built in2
. An official smartphone deal provides camera access, on-site branding, and opportunities for broadcasters to feature the hardware, similar to Pixel's arrangement with the Australian Open2
. Jean-Philippe Becane, marketing director for Google France, called PSG an iconic club and one of the leading names in European football2
. For Google, the appeal centers on PSG's global fanbase rather than just the club's crest, offering a massive audience to introduce to Gemini while working to turn the AI assistant into a daily habit.Related Stories
Naming an AI assistant as an official sponsor remains unusual in football, where sponsorships typically feature airlines, crypto exchanges, and betting brands
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. The deal represents Google's broader strategy to thread Gemini and Pixel through sports wherever possible, with its most visible push being the 2026 World Cup, where Gemini features and biometric entry gates are becoming significant tech elements2
. Google has made Gemini Intelligence the centerpiece of its consumer pitch, featuring it prominently at its I/O keynote this year2
. The company has been investing heavily in distribution, from a $750M partner fund for enterprise deployments to consumer tie-ins like this PSG partnership, all aimed at achieving everyday use2
. Sponsorships like this transform keynote demos into features fans actually open and use, turning technical capabilities into practical touchpoints. Watch for how other major clubs respond to this move and whether AI assistants become standard fixtures in football's commercial landscape over the next few years.Summarized by
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