Digitizing major events | 3 steps to growing audiences and building legacy in sports

One of the most influential – and possibly the most talked-about – changes in the era of modern sports is the proliferation of direct-to-consumer (D2C) media consumption. Take streaming for instance: over-the-top (OTT) platforms continue to take a greater share of the media rights pie. 

According to data collated by London-based Ampere Analysis, cited in N3XT Sport’s State of the Industry | Digital Roadmap 2030 report, by 2023, OTT services will make up 14.8 percent of the major broadcast rights markets in Europe and the US, up from 11.4 percent in 2022 and a mere 0.2 percent as recently as 2016. 

Jack Genovese, Research Manager for Ampere Analysis, writes that sports properties which integrate their own D2C capability into the organization will gain “an advantage” in an increasingly fragmented marketplace, while also gaining “more flexibility” around distributing digital content and capturing first-party fan data.

Mobile apps meanwhile are becoming vehicles for widening fan engagement. No longer is it enough for sports properties to simply transfer web content to a dedicated mobile platform. More rights holders are augmenting their digital inventory by launching mobile apps dedicated to off-field operations, including athlete services, ticket sales, and the consumer fitness market.

By building a digital inventory that widens the organization’s consumer reach and digital fanbase, the rights holder is laying foundations for commercial growth and new opportunities to generate revenue in and around its core products, including, for example, how a sports federation manages fan data and distributes content during its major events. 

“Digitizing major events performs a significant role in the organization’s business strategy,” explains Motasem El Bawab, N3XT Sports’ Chief Information Officer (CIO). “Competition cycles therefore have a tremendous influence over the makeup of a sports entity’s digital transformation roadmap and how the sporting spectacle can drive viewership, engagement, revenues and, ultimately, the popularity of the sport.

“At the forefront of this movement, proficient fan-data governance can certainly help customize the digital fan experience, including the conversion of ticketing and marketing campaigns. However, modern spectacles also demonstrate ways digitalization can serve stakeholders on the ground, too, including a coming of age for remote digital broadcasts, as well as mobile-friendly, in-stadia activations, including via cashless and ticketless solutions, that aim to improve the venue experience and optimize events workflows.”

As sports properties seek to globalize their brands, taking their star athletes and teams overseas is imperative for growing appeal in underserved regions. Nevertheless, when it comes to the distribution of content – whether via their media partners or their owned digital channels – remote broadcast technologies are making it easier for event organizers to introduce their core product to audiences in new and hard-to-reach markets from their own dedicated studios. 

Covid-19 has played a part in the acceleration of remote broadcast production. For example, UEFA’s return-to-play protocols during the truncated climax to the 2020 UEFA Champions League and UEFA Europa League finals saw the European football body serve its regional broadcast partners remotely, all the while limited resources were permitted inside host stadia.

In turn, as restrictions lifted in the wake of the pandemic, digital production solutions have helped some major event organizers to deliver remotely produced content to rights holding broadcasters (RHB). Notably, German public broadcaster ZDF was able to provide live coverage during the UEFA Euro 2022 men’s tournament from its remote production suite in Mainz.

Meanwhile, Olympic Broadcasting Services (OBS), the International Olympic Committee’s (IOC) dedicated broadcast company, delivered a Winter Olympic Games record 6,000 hours of content during Beijing 2022, while also reducing its physical IT infrastructure by decentralizing the content suite’s workflows. This was achieved with support from Alibaba’s cloud-based technology.

The sports venue is seen less as bricks and mortar in the modern age of professional sports, but a platform for connecting the rights holder with fans via its digital, in-stadia touchpoints. This presents organizations able to leverage first-party consumer data with a granular understanding of what the customer wants from their in-person, game-day experience. 

By turning the stadium into a living, breathing, data-collecting machine, events organizers are capable of ingesting information that will inform digital marketing strategies throughout live sporting events and innovations for future iterations – whether that’s for a quadrennial national team tournament, or fortnightly fixtures within the parameters of a domestic club competition.

“Competition cycles therefore have a tremendous influence over the makeup of a sports entity’s digital transformation roadmap and how the sporting spectacle can drive viewership, engagement, revenues and, ultimately, the popularity of the sport."

Motasem El Bawab, Chief Information Officer (CIO), N3XT Sports

Fan intelligence is fundamental to the evolution of major sporting events – therefore, the adoption of digital infrastructure inside host venues will not only enhance the spectator experience, but also assist the rights holder's ongoing service delivery, including the customization of their post-event content strategy and maximizing ticket sales for future events.  

Omar Zerrad, N3XT Sports Digital Transformation Senior Consultant, discussed the digitalization of sports arenas in a recent insights article that explored ways technology adoption augments the stadium experience. He explains that the integration of data-based solutions into game-day operations informs how new stadiums are built, adding: “This presents leagues and event organizers scope to reframe how the sporting arena is perceived and its purpose beyond sport.”

Just as fan-data management gives sports organizations the insights necessary to customize the D2C and in-stadia experience, fan activations around major events are designed to put customers at the center of the event. Mobile technology is making it easier for rights holders to connect fans with content and services during live events, helping to build long-term customer relationships.

How rights holders are able to measure fan sentiment is becoming more sophisticated. Social media provides a space for sports organizations to capture feedback and sentiment among their fans, based on the content the entity shares via its digital channels and platforms. Furthermore, live sport also presents an opportunity to capture real-time customer reactions based on how they interact with a major event’s physical assets, such as local infrastructure and the devices that they use to purchase tickets, merchandise, and concessions. 

For example, AFC Ajax’s 55,000-capacity home Johan Cruijff Arena, in collaboration with the Dutch professional services network KPMG International, leverages a partnership with US technology giant Microsoft to deliver digital services and experiences that connect fans on any given matchday and extends to the fans journey to the stadium. 

By alerting fans to traffic issues and public transport options via mobile, stadium visitors are also provided with real-time directions that guide them to their seats. As of July 2020, the project with KPMG also helped the stadium operations team increase revenues while reducing costs by close to 20 percent, respectively, while ‘continuing to develop new ideas for the future to evolve and contribute to a world-leading smart city’.

Major sporting events are a staple of the sports industry and modern-day culture. While the Olympic and Paralympic Games, the FIFA World Cup, among other global gatherings, act as platforms for sports to connect with new audiences, they also provide a vehicle for introducing new technology solutions to the world stage and testing new methods of consumer engagement. 

However, sports properties don’t have to put on the biggest events in the world to build an ecosystem that boosts revenues and reduces costs. Digital adoption can serve as a strategic pillar for organizations at every level of the sporting pyramid – while the difference between organizations lies in their operational objectives. 

According to El Bawab, in his experience, collaboration is a fundamental component for innovation. Major sporting events, he says, provide a vehicle for knowledge sharing within an organization, while “nurturing a collaborative environment” can leave a lasting legacy for the federation and its events, and “increases demand for digital literacy across the workforce”.

“One of the learnings I have taken from working inside sports organizations is that every single sport is facing a similar challenge when it comes to engaging fans and commercializing content,” El Bawab continues. “The magnitude of the challenge depends on the maturity of the organization and is often a reflection of the property’s digital infrastructure and ability to innovate. Sporting events provide the necessary consumer demand and financial support to do this.”

Our team at N3XT Sports works tirelessly to develop and implement digital strategies across a multitude of sports properties at federation level, competition level, and club level. To learn more about how digital transformation can support the growth of your organization and how to expand your digital inventory, fill out the form below and we’ll be in touch. Our goal is to drive the digitalization of the sports industry and our clients.