The football animation brand has over 8m followers across its social channels

442oons+Footballco2

Football media company Footballco has acquired animation brand and studio 442oons.

442oons has over 8m followers across its social channels and has more than 4 billion views on YouTube to date.

It joins Footballco’s portfolio of video-first football brands, which include GOAL’s Front Three and FanZone, YallaGOAL, and 1vs1.

442oons will continue to operate as a standalone brand and channel, with Footballco integrating its content across its other brands, including global football brand GOAL and women’s football brand, INDIVISA.

Footballco will also launch new programming from the channel, including around women’s football. Plans also include the expansion of the brand’s existing merchandise business.

442oons was founded by Dean Stobbart, who joins Footballco as head of 442oons. He will report to EVP of content and operations, James Lamon.

Lamon said: “What Dean has been able to build with 442oons is remarkable and a testament to his team’s talent and understanding of football culture and humour.

“At Footballco, we cover the game at scale and breadth better than anyone, but with 442oons we saw an opportunity to bring in a brand that offers something new. We were also impressed by the brand’s existing strong following of young fans, especially in the UK and US, who are increasingly seeing YouTube as TV.

Stobbart adds: “I created 442oons to celebrate the funny side of a sport which quite often takes itself a bit too seriously. Even though our content has been viewed billions of times, I’m looking forward to seeing the brand grow as part of Footballco and see it mirror the success of their other video-first brands.”