According to an announcement on Thursday, Cristiano Ronaldo has bought shares in the company behind Portuguese broadcasting platform LiveModeTV’, adding sports media investment to his already expanding business portfolio.
Launched by Brazilian company LiveMode in December 2025’te, LiveModeTV broadcasts sports events online for free. The platform is LiveMode’'s first project outside Brazil and operates in ’, Portugal.
According to the Portuguese sports organization A Bola’, the platform will broadcast 34 matches of the 2026 World Cup’, including all matches of the Portuguese’, live and free of charge.
In a statement sent to Bloomberg ’e, Ronaldo said the sport could change “'s lives, and the partnership aims to enrich the ” ecosystem and expand the reach and engagement of top competitions through YouTube broadcasts and content distributed to everyone on all social media platforms.
In a Facebook post announcing its participation in the World Cup ’ less than a month away, LiveModeTV announced that “Together, we will innovatively bring live football to YouTube’ and put fans at the center of everything ” said.
In a statement, Ronaldo said that the sport could change lives in ’, and that the goal of the partnership is to enrich the “ ecosystem, expand access and participation in the main competitions through posts on YouTube” and content distributed for everyone on all social media platforms.
Ronaldo’'s business interests
In recent years, Ronaldo has steadily moved forward to expand his investment portfolio beyond football. Its assets cover several sectors: In the field of media there are shares in the film studio UR-Marv’da, an initiative of the Portuguese group Medialivre’de and British director Matthew Vaughn’.
Spanish club UD Almería’ya invests in football. He also supported artificial intelligence firm Perplexity’yi, hotel group Grupo Pestana’yi, Insparya hair transplant clinics and HBL Pro2col Software LLC’, a subsidiary of Herbalife’.
Portugal’ is also an investor in the porcelain manufacturer Vista Alegre’. Many more investments are being made under the CR7 brand.
If you've used an app to order late-night food delivery or call a plumber, you've probably benefited from the platform's economy. This is one of the most important new transformations in the business world. And right now the biggest discussion in Europe’ is on working conditions.
Digital platform studies, also known as gig economy, have increased five-fold in the last decade.
It is where individuals offer specific services organized through a digital platform that connects them with customers.
This can be a location-based app that allocates jobs such as food delivery, taxi or plumbing services, or web-based platforms that outsource jobs such as translation or graphic design.
Platforms create new business opportunities. But there are challenges in ensuring good working conditions and algorithms treat workers fairly.
‘Concert economics’ or ‘platform studyHow has ’ grown over the past decade?
The platform works: To edit or not to edit?
This new model of platform work has left governments undecided on how to regulate it. Spain became the first EU country to pass a law classifying food delivery passengers as employees with social protection.
Fanny Gauret went to meet some food distributors in Barcelona’ to get their opinion.
Fanny met two young deliverymen who knew the streets of Barcelona by heart, one carrying food or packages on a scooter and the other on a bicycle. Both are self-employed and their situation is expected to change in the coming months.
The new law, submitted to the Council of Ministers, will classify all passengers working on distribution platforms as employees. They will have access to benefits such as unemployment benefits, vacation or sick leave. It was a relief for this young South American rider who wanted to keep his name a secret.
The self-employed driver, who did not give his name, explains: “What the government recommends to these companies is that they give us minimum wage, sick leave, life insurance, and a tool so that we can work properly.” “Because sometimes we work up to 12 hours a day to get less than the minimum wage.”
This young man is paid by delivery according to the prices set by the platform. He says that because he can't afford to buy a motorcycle, the fact that he works on a bicycle is a big disadvantage.
“I've never earned €1,000 a month. It's hard to do that on a bike. Because you have to work long hours, it's exhausting. If you do not connect to the platform, do something wrong, cancel many orders, they will cancel your account.”
Minimum wage, work accident insurance or checking for profile cancellations are what many drivers are hoping for with this law.
“Freedom and flexibility”
Spain’ already has some delivery platforms that use the fee model. But Jordi Mateo, who works 40 to 50 hours a week, prefers to remain independent:
Mateo, “When I look at what competitor companies are doing with employees, I think I'll have a 15- or 20-hour contract, which will hurt a lot, on the one hand, the freedom and flexibility I have today, as well as my income, which will greatly decrease, ” says.
Working on a scooter for various platforms, Spain is pleased to earn more than ’'s minimum wage (around €1,100 gross per month). However, it will welcome improvements such as being able to set its own prices.
What most freelancers believe is that we need reinforcements in our protections, but we don't have to resort to a contract that shows, as our experience tells us, that the government will make us precarious and unable to protect us as it tries to make us believe, insists “ Mateo.
This complex situation reflects the huge diversity in the profiles of people who use digital platforms to find customers in industries such as transportation, home services and online services.
Opening up to the job market
Laura is a graphic designer. After losing his job due to the health crisis, he turned to a platform that directly connected him to a wide variety of customers.
Laura Cardenas Corrales summarizes: You sign up for “Platform, create your profile, set your rate, hours, and availability.” “For me, this change is positive because it gives me the freedom to dedicate the hours I want to dedicate and do the projects I really love. I believe that platforms like this will help you expand into the job market.”
While more social protection is needed for some of these workers, the flexible work schedule and hours model is supported by others, including digital platforms defending their own models. According to the International Labour Organization, Europe earns just under 4 billion euros per year in ’.
So how can compliance with labor laws and quality of work be ensured? With the pandemic and the explosion in home deliveries, discussions intensified.
Brussels’den view
The European Commission has launched a consultation to improve the protection of workers on digital platforms, inviting unions and employers' organisations to reach an agreement. If they fail to do so, the Commission will draft legislation by the end of 2021.
EU Commission Director-General for Employment Joost Korte explains: “This highly promising sector has many good dimensions, such as a better work-life balance for people, greater flexibility, access to the labor market for people who are sometimes under very difficult conditions.”
“But it needs to be a sustainable model on which this is based. Otherwise, we would arrive at different solutions in different member countries, which would be negative in the context of the single market, ” adds.
For more information on this topic, Naomi Lloyd spoke to one of the Senior Economists at the International Labour Organization ’, the United Nations agency that sets international labour standards.
Naomi Lloyd – at Euronews
“European CommissionLet's start with the consultations of ’; Is this something you like? ”
Uma Rani – Senior Economist, ILO
“We must not forget that digital work platforms operate across borders, so the EU regulatory framework that will come out at the end of this year will be a very good step forward in improving the lives and working conditions of workers and platforms.”
Naomi Lloyd – at Euronews
We saw the driver there in Fanny’'s report saying that if he turns down any work, he'll be penalized by the algorithms, –, is that something you've come across a lot?
Uma Rani – Senior Economist, ILO
This is the experience of many employees on these platforms. Platforms actually use algorithmic management practices in allocating work and rewarding work, monitoring the entire process of work. If you start refusing to work, if you don't get up to speed, it will punish you.
Naomi Lloyd – at Euronews
But there we found that not all passengers actually wanted to be employees; Many enjoy the flexibility of working at the hours they want.
Uma Rani – Senior Economist, ILO
I think the reason why this driver wants to work very long hours is because of the gamification process these platforms have. That's why they have so many bonuses and incentives.
Then after a while, the amount of work you get really decreases, the pay you get goes down, and that's where the frustration comes in.
Naomi Lloyd – at Euronews
However, people from many sectors prefer to be self-employed; What is the problem with the platform?
Uma Rani – Senior Economist, ILO
The problem arises when being self-employed becomes the secret self-employment, where you are an employee, but you are asked to be self-employed and enjoy no benefits. There's no regulation. So they self-regulate and decide what the status of the worker is, what the price of a car or the price of a task is, which becomes very problematic.
