After taking its first dip into sports streaming last year, Apple is now immersing itself. The tech giant recently kicked off a 10-year partnership with Major League Soccer with the launch of Season Pass on Apple TV+.

“This is very important for us. It is one of the key things we are doing this year and for the next 10 years. We’re now part of a family together,” Apple CEO Tim Cook said during a presentation for MLS players, owners and media in January.

The Apple launch comes after a transformative year for sports and streaming services. The NFL further embraced streaming last year as Amazon Prime Video carried “Thursday Night Football” and Major League Baseball partnered with Apple TV+ and Peacock to stream games. The NFL also reached an agreement with Google’s YouTube TV to carry the “Sunday Ticket” package beginning next season.

Apple teaming with MLS makes sense for both parties. Various studies have found that soccer fans are more likely to watch sports on streaming devices or recorded TV.

“This is a deal that expresses where things have been headed for a while and pushes them forward as well,” said Daniel Kirschner, the co-founder and CEO of Greenfly, a digital media distribution platform that works with more than 30 leagues.

Apple has made previous forays into sports streaming, but this is its first significant involvement with a league. MLB aired two games on Apple TV+ on Friday nights last year. This deal could signal where sports streaming and league media rights are headed.

Apple and MLS are teaming up for a direct-to-consumer product that will allow fans to watch every game without local blackouts or restrictions and that reaches beyond North America. Fans in London, Paris and wherever the Apple TV+ app is available will be able to catch the games as well.

“We’ve looked at sports and acknowledged that there’s never been a better time to be a sports fan, and there’s also never been a worse time to be a sports fan,” said Eddy Cue, Apple’s senior vice president of services. “We have an opportunity with this partnership to make the experience a lot better for fans, and help grow the sport and the league in the U.S. and beyond.”

MLS is taking over the production of all its matches, similar to how European soccer leagues do business. But the other leagues, such as the Premier League and Germany’s Bundesliga, then sell their rights to broadcast outlets in each country. In this case, only one outlet — Apple — has worldwide rights. Even games on Fox in the U.S., TSN and RDS in Canada and TelevisaUnivision will be on the Apple TV+ app.

“I think they were the right league to recognize that the long-term value of their rights is best situated with a streaming partner or a technology partner, as opposed to the traditional leagues that still need big billions of dollars of payments from traditional networks,” said Jon Cohen, senior vice president at Frequency, which provides software for ad-supported streaming channels. “I think it’s the right time for both to do this.”

MLS and Apple’s progress will be watched closely by other leagues. While the NFL, NHL and baseball have wrapped up rights deals the past two years, the NBA is expected to have some streaming component when it begins negotiations on its media rights this year.

Cue and Cook acknowledge there will be growing pains, especially with MLS getting up to speed with its own production. Everyone, though, is focused on the project’s potential and the road ahead.

“People are going to say we are the smartest guys in the room or we were a couple of years too early,” MLS Commissioner Don Garber said. “The opportunities are endless, but it is an undertaking with many tests.”