Lithuania wins the Baltic money league as Latvia keeps its shop doors shut

An audit of all 29 top-flight clubs in Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia finds TOPLYGA drawing three times the crowds of its neighbours, one Riga club whose TikTok audience matches the rest of its league combined, and seven Virslīga sides with no way to sell a shirt online.

BALTIC FOOTBALL NEWS · COMMERCIAL REVIEW 2026

Football clubs must always aim to factor in business, communities, and competition! One of the most important aspects is a club’s sustainable and long term strategy to ensure they are there to serve the communities they exist in. This means, ensuring the development of a sustainable business model. 

On the last day of May, 8,308 people came through the gates in Kaunas to watch Kauno Žalgiris lose 0-1 to Žalgiris. It was the biggest crowd in Baltic league football this season. Another 112,000 watched the derby on television.

Five months later, on 26 October, 36 people watched Grobiņa play Riga FC in Latvia’s Virslīga. The visitors were hardly short of an audience. Riga FC have 129,300 followers on TikTok alone.

Between those two numbers sits the business story of Baltic football in 2026.

Baltic Football News has audited all 29 top-flight clubs on the four questions a sponsor, broadcaster or investor asks first. How many people follow the club? How many come to watch? How many partners does it list? And can a fan buy anything from it online?

The result is clear. Lithuania’s TOPLYGA, rebranded from the A Lyga this year, takes the top three places in our commercial index. Latvia has the region’s biggest digital audience and its emptiest shop window. Estonia sits between them: well organised, well stocked, and struggling to draw a crowd.

THE GATE: LITHUANIA PULLS AWAY

TOPLYGA clubs averaged 1,124 a game in 2026. Latvia’s Virslīga averaged 376 and Estonia’s Premium liiga 374. That is three to one, and the gap is widening.

As recently as 2022, Lithuanian crowds averaged 372. They reached 679 last season. Estonia’s 374 is its lowest in four seasons, down from 406 in 2024.

Žalgiris led the Baltics with 3,149, almost four times their 2025 figure, having sold more than 3,000 memberships before a ball was kicked. Kauno Žalgiris averaged 2,445, up from 319 in 2022. Sūduva drew 1,405.

Four of the six best-attended clubs in the Baltics play in Lithuania. TOPLYGA’s average crowd is three times Latvia’s or Estonia’s.

A big stadium is not a big crowd. Kauno Žalgiris filled 16 per cent of a 15,026-capacity ground. TransINVEST filled 66 per cent of 1,000. Flora, Estonia’s best-supported club at 579, used 4 per cent of the 14,336-seat A. Le Coq Arena, their main venue.

The screen has grown alongside the stands. Under a three-year deal with the LNK channel group, TOPLYGA had reached 744,000 viewers by 4 June. In the opening weeks its average match audience was 81,600, up 27 per cent on 2025.

THE PHONE IN THE POCKET

If Lithuania sells tickets, Latvia sells reach. Virslīga clubs have 357,000 followers across Instagram, Facebook, TikTok and YouTube. TOPLYGA clubs have 297,000 and Premium liiga clubs 205,000.

Almost two-thirds of Latvia’s total belongs to one club. Riga FC have 227,619 followers, more than double Žalgiris (102,957), the next biggest in the region. Their TikTok account alone is larger than Žalgiris’s entire following across four platforms.

Riga FC’s 129,300 TikTok followers almost equal the combined following of the other nine Virslīga clubs: 129,627.

Riga FC are the exception, not the rule. Only 10 of the 29 clubs run an official TikTok account. Twenty-one are on YouTube, 28 on Facebook and all 29 on Instagram.

Estonia is the most rounded: five of its ten clubs are on TikTok and nine on YouTube. In Lithuania only two clubs are on TikTok, and the bigger account belongs not to Žalgiris (10,600) but to FA Šiauliai (11,200), who finished ninth and face a relegation play-off.

A follower is not a customer. Nor does reach on its own prove revenue, and the published data cannot show whether Riga FC’s audience turns into money. But to a brand buying attention, theirs are the most persuasive numbers in the region.

COUNTING THE LOGOS

Each league is underwritten by one title sponsor. Two are betting companies: TOPsport in Lithuania and Tonybet, now in its third year, in Latvia. Estonia’s is the brewer A. Le Coq, whose naming deal dates from 2013 and was extended for five years in 2023.

Betting money runs through the clubs too. Betsson is main sponsor at both Žalgiris and Kauno Žalgiris. Coolbet backs Vaprus, FenixBet backs Harju, and Optibet is on Flora’s shirt. 7bet is a general sponsor at Džiugas, and Casino Admiral is among Šiauliai’s lead sponsors.

On the number of partners, Lithuania is out on its own. Džiugas list 76, mostly local businesses in Telšiai. Šiauliai list 57, Žalgiris 54 and Sūduva 53. The eight Lithuanian clubs we could count list 324 partners between them.

The ten Virslīga clubs list 59 partners between them. Džiugas, on their own, list 76.

Latvia’s partner pages are thin. Auda’s says the list is “being prepared”. Super Nova’s is empty. Tukums 2000 show one logo, and Liepāja’s partner logos date from 2018. Riga FC list 12; RFS, the champions, list nine.

Estonia’s pages show a different problem: unsold inventory. Flora’s main-sponsor slot is empty. At Nõmme Kalju, the main, shirt and gold sponsor slots all carry a “become a sponsor” placeholder.

A count is not a value. One shirt deal can be worth more than fifty boards at a local ground, and no club in the region publishes what its partners pay. What the count shows is how widely a club has cast its commercial net. Lithuanian clubs, six of them with a city or district council among their lead partners, have cast it widest.

NOTHING TO BUY

Nineteen of the 29 clubs sell online, through their own store or an official retail partner. In Lithuania eight of nine do. In Estonia, eight of ten. In Latvia, three of ten.

These are not only the smallest clubs. Liepāja have 22,153 followers and a fan-shop page listing ten items, sold at home games, at a barber’s in the city or by email, with no checkout. Banga, with 21,069 followers, sell merchandise from the club office in Gargždai. Auda, third in the Virslīga and sellers of Josué Vergara to Gent for a reported €3m, have a shop section that reads “coming soon”.

Nine clubs with 101,721 followers between them have no online shop. Seven of the nine are Latvian.

Where shops exist, they vary widely. Riga FC’s carries about 87 products, including a Conference League range and an €85 replica shirt. Žalgiris list 79 and Sūduva 63. Levadia, Estonia’s champions, sell about six.

THE VERDICT: THE COMMERCIAL LEAGUE TABLE

Put the four measures together, weighted equally and scored against all 29 clubs, and the BFN commercial index produces this top ten.

Lithuania take the top three places and five of the top ten. The nine TOPLYGA clubs average 76 on the index, Estonia’s ten average 57 and Latvia’s ten 31. Eight of the bottom ten are Latvian.

Every club in the commercial top ten sells online. Of the nine clubs without a shop, none scores above 53.

The index does not follow the league table. Kauno Žalgiris, champions and treble winners, rank second. RFS, Latvia’s champions, are eighth and Levadia ninth. Auda, third on the pitch, score 21. Daugavpils, in Europe for only the second time, score 17.

Europe brings money the index does not count. Kauno Žalgiris reached the Conference League league phase, worth about €3.9m by BFN’s estimate, and Riga FC got there for the first time. That income cannot be banked on every summer. Memberships, shirts and partners can be built on year after year.

FUTURE ACTIONS

• Latvia: open the till. Seven Virslīga clubs have no online checkout, including Liepāja (22,153 followers) and Auda (17,170). A simple store, or a retail partner of the kind TransINVEST, Vaprus and RFS already use, closes the gap.
• Publish the partner page. Auda, Super Nova and Tukums 2000 show between zero and one partner. A sponsor cannot buy what a club does not display.
• Sell the empty slots. Flora’s main-sponsor slot and Nõmme Kalju’s main, shirt and gold slots are open. Both clubs have the followers to back a pitch.
• Start a TikTok account. Nineteen of 29 clubs have none. Riga FC show the ceiling. Šiauliai, with 11,200, show it does not take a big club.
• Estonia: fix the gate. At 374, the Premium liiga’s average crowd is its lowest in four seasons.
• Watch Vilnius. Žalgiris expect crowds of 7,000 to 10,000 once the National Stadium is built, according to BFN reporting. TOPLYGA returns to ten clubs in 2027.

HOW WE MEASURED IT Followers were read on 9 November 2026 from each club’s official Instagram, Facebook, TikTok and YouTube accounts. Instagram rounds counts above 10,000 and YouTube above 1,000. X is excluded because follower counts are not publicly readable.Average crowds are 2026 home league figures from toplyga.lt, tonybetvirsliga.lv and jalgpall.ee. Lithuania’s league average of 1,124 is the mean of the nine clubs’ official averages; the league does not publish its own season figure. Estonia’s 374 is the Soccernet figure. Capacity is the club’s main venue.Partner count is the number of partners listed on each club’s own website on 9 November. It measures breadth, not value.The index gives equal weight to followers, average crowd and listed partners, each scored as a percentile against all 29 clubs, plus a yes/no for an online shop. A missing measure is left out rather than scored zero. Kauno Žalgiris’s partner page blocked access, so their score uses three measures. Nõmme United have no official website; their social accounts were matched by name, and their partners and shop could not be confirmed, so they are counted as having no online shop.The figures describe the clubs’ public commercial footprint. They do not show revenue or profit, and none of the links drawn here should be read as cause and effect.