SportsPro Live 2019
Top properties from the world of sports business and technology joined company at London's O2 Arena this week, as the latest innovation to drive a digital transformation within the industry took centre stage at SportsPro Live 2019.
Over two blockbuster days, conversation moved from the future of the changing media landscape and the influence of upcoming technologies including artificial intelligence (AI) and blockchain, to the growth of esports and its impact on a diversifying sports rights market.
Among the biggest stories revealed during the event, Christian Fuchs, the Premier League soccer star making waves in the world of gaming, revealed plans to build New York's first dedicated esports arena.
He said: "One of my big goals right now is that I will build an esports arena in New York. We are in talks with partners right now. It's a very exciting project.
"It's definitely the future to have those dedicated esports arenas around. In America where esports is probably still a little bit bigger than it is here, there are a lot of areas to exploit."
On day one, Formula One managing director Sean Bratches kicked started the event, navigating a sell-out crowd through the motorsport's vision for a more immersive viewer experience across its championship.
He said: "The prior leadership, from a broadcast standpoint, [focused] on these wide country scenes that got the sponsor into the screen for as many seconds [as possible]. Our sponsors are critical to the company and its future and we've renewed most of them that have come up.
"But, at the same time, we wanted to tighten the aperture to focus on racing and one of the things that we did when we first got here was this global brand study, and in one of the top categories that fans focused on was racing.
"Speed is inherent in the sport but it's really racing – livery to livery, wheel to wheel – so our broadcast has changed dramatically to what it was."
Staying in Formula One, McLaren's digital director Rob Bloom explained how the manufacturer has changed its own digital positioning around its brand partners.
He said: "This is the most exciting time ever to be in sports marketing."
"We have such a powerful platform to tell stories. But, we need to unlock and leverage those narratives to tell a relevant story to our audience."
Shane Warden, ATP Media's chief technology officer, was also on hand to discuss the potential to personalise user content, though fired a warning to sections of the industry seeking to tap into new data streams.
He said: "There is a fundamental problem in everything that we are trying to do here, in terms of personalisation, and that is ultimately we can only personalise things if we know who that person is.
"There are massive fundamental roadblocks. If you look at the quality of data that we get as APIs from the social media platforms out there, it doesn't tell us enough.
"Of course, data is currency for all of those platforms, and they are not willing to share. Then, over the garden wall for the broadcasters, it is also similarly very difficult to pin-point users."
On day two, the European Tour's chief executive Keith Pelley gave a passionate speech during the morning session to encourage his peers within golf and other sports to avoid alienating the older generations in their pursuit for younger audiences.
He said: "Having been in the media industry for 25 to 30 years, all we went after was that 18 to 34 [demographic]. Anything above 45 or 50, people say that is too old.
"If you actually look at it, we own that C-suite demographic between 45 to 60, and is one thing that isn't celebrated. People say that golf is too old. They are one of the key demographics in sport.
"When you back in 1990, there were more than 500 million people in the world over 60 – now there is a billion. These are people with disposable income.
"I am not saying we're not going to target [the younger generations], but we can't forget our core, and it was really interesting, for the first time I had two partners in last two months talk about how they are targeting that demo."
Meanwhile, World Rugby's chief operating officer Alan Gilpin gave guests an overview of the governing body's plans to leverage new audiences during this year's Rugby World Cup in Japan, where the tournament will take its bow in the Asian market.
He added: "The opening match between Japan and Russia is probably going to attract a live audience of somewhere in the region of 40 million, and that gives you an idea of the scope that we can achieve if we get things right.
"Then, of course, there is the much wider audience, which is the digital social piece that we know is going to be the younger audience. For us, it's really thinking about all those different [demographic] areas and creating the right strategy for each area."
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