Sitting at the heart of the English Football Association’s (The FA) digital transformation, the federation’s digital-engagement capability stands out as its most formidable asset. Wherever there’s a demand, The FA seems to have an app for it – and not only for augmenting the fan experience.
Among its diverse direct-to-consumer (D2C) inventory, there you’ll find The FA Matchday app, which acts a type of administrative tool for players, team managers, coaches, and parents of youth players to organize and record local matchday fixtures and events, while helping to reduce the hassle and paperwork usually associated with regional football.
By granting a unique level of accessibility across England’s entire football ecosystem, the FA’s digital portfolio provides an option at every stage of the user journey; from the local grassroots which the English game was built on at football’s inception, through to The FA Player subscription streaming platform, and a host of FA-managed online stores.
In addition to the sale of England apparel to fans, the ecommerce arm also provides the sale of coaching and refereeing equipment via their own dedicated servers, including products supplied exclusively by Nike, The FA’s and English national teams’ long-term kit supplier.
This digital-guided approach was identified in The FA’s 2020-2024 strategy, Time For Change, which outlines the federation’s vision for connecting the game via its digital capacity. Discussing The FA’s intentions at the time of the report’s publication, Chief Executive Mark Bullingham describes the federation’s “unique ability to unite all parts of society” and “to bring all parts of the game even closer together”.
“Using our people and culture, we achieved some amazing things on our mission to rebuild The FA as a world-class organization,” Bullingham continues, “from doubling participation in the women’s and girl’s game, to registering more than one million of our grassroots players online – a material step into the digital age.”
CASE STUDY | HOW THE FA PLAYER TRANSFORMED THE WSL
The launch of The FA Player desktop and mobile-streaming service in September 2019 marked a new dawn for women’s football in England. Bringing live coverage from the market’s top-flight Barclays FA Women’s Super League (WSL) under one roof, the federation’s over-the-top (OTT) capability helped increase visibility for the burgeoning women’s game, while also introducing a new subscription-based video offering that helps The FA communicate with its fans.
Since its inception, the platform has evolved and now includes access to highlights and shoulder content from all of The FA men’s and women’s club competitions. Officially launched as the home of WSL matches, the service also plays a role in the WSL’s media rights and content marketing strategy, both domestically and abroad.
Having served as a vessel for growing appetite and demand for English top-flight women’s football, within 18 months of its rollout, the WSL secured a landmark UK£24 million, three-year broadcast rights deal with pay-TV broadcaster Sky Sports and the BBC’s free-to-air (FTA) service.
Ahead of the 2019/20 WSL season, The FA landed the league’s first overseas broadcast deals with Sky Mexico and the Scandinavia’s Nordic Entertainment Group (NENT), now known as Viaplay Group, as well as a partnership with Atalanta Media for distribution of live matches in the US via CBS, which allowed for WSL fixtures not shown in each respective market to be made available to subscribers via The FA Player.
KEY TAKEAWAYS | WORLD CUP DATA REPORT
The FA fell just behind the French Football Federation (FFF) in our inaugural World Cup Data Report, with a high score of 91.2 percent. However, given the strength of The FA’s D2C capability and digital transformation efforts, the federation should be considered as one of the most complete digital operations within the football ecosystem.
The FA scored full marks for both its digital inventory and social media engagement, an achievement matched only by the Argentine Football Association (AFA) and the Uruguayan Football Association (AUF). Despite its advanced data-collection capability and the vast majority of the MA’s digital products being made accessible using a single sign-on (SSO), The FA came in as a close second to the FFF by virtue of the fact that a separate unique user log-in is required for one or more of its digital platforms.
Among its other attributes, as part of its digital transformation, The FA is moving to digitize every aspect of the federation’s operations and stadia infrastructure, including the introduction of 5G connectivity at Wembley Stadium, while the federation also partners with Google Cloud to support on the high-performance analysis of its national teams.
WHAT’S N3XT?
The desire for data ownership is driving OTT adoption inside rights-holder organizations and is part of the reason we are seeing more federations and leagues launch their own streaming services. The FA’s digital-product development is no different, with The FA Player acting both as a space for fans to sign up to and watch live and on-demand English football, and also as a conduit for The FA’s dedicated ticketing and ecommerce portals.
Within its own roadmap, The FA highlights a need to grow its reach for maximizing the value of its core competitions and products. To do this, the federation cites its global digital marketing program for engaging ‘hundreds of millions of people across the globe’. “In England, football must be a game where the opportunities for every girl to play are the same as for every boy [and] a game run by the latest digital tools,” Bullingham adds.
In order to set a clear roadmap, it’s important for any organization to understand the digital and technological maturity of its current ecosystem, including the current state of play for the organizations and its stakeholders. Our World Cup Data Report and 2023 Digital Trends in the Sports Industry report will provide everything you need to know about modernizing your organization’s digital infrastructure and the best place to start.
Alternatively, to learn more about how digital transformation can support the growth of your organization by connecting a digital inventory that optimizes fan- and customer-data collection, 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.