Major League Soccer Makes Privacy a Team Sport
As the league is in its 31st season with 30 clubs across the United States and Canada, Major League Soccer (MLS) recognized the need for a unified, scalable program that could operate at the speed and complexity of a multi-entity organization. With a global fanbase and continued momentum for the sport across North America, in collaboration with DataGrail MLS kicked off a league-wide initiative to unify privacy operations.
MLS operates a sophisticated fan intelligence ecosystem built around its Fan Genome 360 platform, which aggregates behavioral, transactional, and engagement data to power personalization at scale. Honoring data subject requests (DSRs), managing consent, and maintaining a continuous view of where personal data lives across that ecosystem, across 30 independent clubs and an expanding digital footprint presented a meaningful operational and governance challenge.
With potentially millions of new fans tuning in for the 2026 FIFA World Cup, the league’s Technology and Legal teams needed a platform that could support centralized oversight while giving individual clubs the autonomy to operate their own programs within league standards. With well-governed controls, individual clubs would be able to safely apply fan data towards personalizing and improving the fan experience.
DataGrail offers unified, AI-powered privacy operations for the league and participating clubs. This includes automating DSRs, continuously mapping and discovering personal data, and delivering a consistent and transparent consent experience for MLS fans.
For individual clubs, the time-to-value has been fast. BMO Stadium, home of LAFC and the Los Angeles Galaxy, went live with DataGrail Consent in a single day, led by Evan Hessler.
MLS now has the infrastructure to operate privacy at the pace its digital ecosystem demands. Continuous data discovery has mapped 2,500+ systems and discovered 41,000+ data elements. Within just a few months of launch, MLS had already automated 200+ DSRs at the corporate-level.
For clubs, the impact has been felt even deeper. Gabby Wells led the DataGrail Implementation for DC United, and has already reduced the time it takes her team to complete a DSR by over 91%. With the time back, Wells can focus on creating truly memorable fan experiences powered by Fan Genome 360 data.
Fans now enjoy increased visibility and control over their personal data, and behind the scenes, every department is on the same play. Legal, Technology, Security and Marketing can all access privacy ops in the same place, giving MLS both team-level and centralized control. The program positions MLS for continued growth as global attention on the league grows to an all-time high and fan data volumes scale accordingly.
