British YouTuber KSI has acquired a minority stake in Dagenham & Redbridge FC, a sixth-tier English soccer club, and is producing a docuseries chronicling the takeover. The series, titled “Race to the Top,” is being produced alongside After Party Studios and will debut on KSI’s YouTube channel this summer before continuing into the 2026/27 season.

KSI’s YouTube channel currently has 17 million subscribers, with a combined social media reach of 33.5 million across platforms.

Series Details

“Race to the Top” will offer behind-the-scenes access to KSI’s management of the club, covering boardroom meetings, fan reactions, and day-to-day operations. The series will be dubbed into 14 languages globally.

Director Ben Doyle, known as RVBBERDUCK, previously worked with KSI on the 2018 documentary “KSI: Can’t Lose.” The series is executive produced by Jamie MacDonald and James Byfield for After Party Studios, alongside KSI and Mo Syed, KSI’s head of content. Alysha Christal serves as producer. Production is currently underway.

“This is a really big deal for me,” KSI said in a statement. “For the fans who’ve been with me since ‘Race to Division One,’ it’s a full-circle moment, from dreaming about football online to actually taking over a club.”

Doyle added: “When KSI called me on a rainy Sunday morning last November and said he was buying a football club, I knew I had to be there to capture it.”

Creator-to-Owner Model

The project follows a pattern established by actors Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney, who acquired Wrexham AFC (then in the fifth tier of English soccer) in 2021 and documented the experience in the Disney+ series “Welcome to Wrexham.”

Source: Variety