There is one truth that sports organizations share when exploring their own digitalization and that’s the fact that there is no precise formula, wherever you look, for building audiences and generating returns on their digital transformation investment.
Have no doubt: the industry will continue to change, and innovation will continue to take it in new and fascinating directions. However, listening to the popular trends and implementing the latest solutions isn’t a fail-safe for business success. Nor does digitalization mean to simply add the latest gadgets, widgets, and tokens to your digital portfolio without first understanding your audience and what drives subscriptions.
Remember: the opportunity lies in the why your organization needs to innovate and does not necessarily come down to what the rest of the industry is doing. It is certainly important to understand how your competition is performing and to take inspiration from their journey. Nevertheless, digital complexity doesn’t always equal digital engagement.
On the contrary, simplifying your digital infrastructure, and therefore the way the organization ingests and translates audience data will best determine the fluency of your operation and how to develop a digital portfolio without creating disruptive data silos which hinder the employee experience (EX) and therefore the service or product you sell, too.
Data simplification, as part of a rights holder’s broader data transformation, plays a central theme in our latest 2023 Digital Trends in Sports Industry report, which highlights the importance for sports entities to consolidate their digital touchpoints, with the support of a unique, single sign-on (SSO), in order to capture the entire user journey from sign-up through to the point of transaction.
This level of precision is demonstrated well by the Japan Football Association (JFA) and its JFA ID registration portal, which grants subscribers unlimited access to various JFA services and presents a first-class example of a sports body that has honed a sophisticated data-collection capability by combining its services within a single platform.
JFA PASSPORT REPRESENTS A UNIQUE OFFERING AMONG FOOTBALL FEDERATIONS
Cited in our World Cup Data Report 2022, the JFA Passport mobile app won the federation high marks for its digital and data performance and places the body among the most digitally mature of the 32 member associations (MA) that participated at the Qatar 2022 men’s FIFA World Cup.
The mobile app acts as a comprehensive membership portal to the JFA’s entire user-facing digital inventory, including a video-streaming function, access to news and updates, as well as the federation’s dedicated JFA Store and ticketing platforms. Furthermore, the application also houses the JFA’s other player registration and online match-system services.
Notably, the federation’s website also proves to be a useful tool for marketing to its core fan base and, at the time the World Cup Data Report 2022 was published, in November, sourced 97.17 percent of its web-traffic share via its domestic market, far higher than the other MAs. This indicates a strong appetite for Japanese football from local fans, supported by the popularity of the JFA-governed men’s J-League and the Japan national football team.
By understanding your audience demographic in this way, sports properties inside and outside of football can begin to develop a digital roadmap tailored to their target audience. In the case of the JFA, this requires local, data-driven services accessible via a unique membership portal, granting the federation an absolute overview of its fans and the ability to personalize the user journey via one easy-to-use application.
KEY TAKEAWAYS | BENCHMARKS FOR FOOTBALL'S 'MOBILE OPPORTUNITY'
Many of the federations based outside of Asia own high digital proficiency – namely in football’s major European markets. Nevertheless, only the Royal Dutch Football Association (KNVB) and the Danish Football Association (DBU) match the JFA for its data-collection capability, according to proprietary N3XT Sports research, while the French Football Federation (FFF) is the only MA to participate at Qatar 2022 to score full marks for data collection.
With this in mind, the JFA’s digital transformation journey acts as inspiration for other MAs exploring ways to drive engagement, and particularly for those nations with a high volume of web traffic via mobile. For example, of the three Middle Eastern MAs that participated in the tournament, the Football Federation Islamic Republic of Iran (FFIRI – 91.5 percent) and the Saudi Arabian Football Federation (SA FF- 87.11 percent) receive a high proportion of web traffic via mobile, demonstrating an opportunity to leverage direct-to-consumer (D2C) mobile-supported content as part of their digital transformations.
By comparison, the JFA received only 65.8 percent of web traffic via mobile, whereas other MAs, including the Costa Rican Football Federation (FCRF – 89.5 percent) and the Ghana Football Association (GFA – 91.2 percent), receive the vast majority of their web traffic via mobile devices, yet score far lower on their digital and data performance.
By investing in resources that match their real-time user demand, the JFA has proven that a federation does not need to have multiple mobile apps or a vast digital inventory to grow audiences, and that an efficient, streamlined data-collection capability can be borne from building a mobile app that consolidates the fan journey in one place.
WHAT’S N3XT?
Simplifying the flow and storage of data is a fundamental challenge for enterprises within all industries. In order for sports properties to be able to integrate new technologies into their ecosystems, and to do so seamlessly, it’s vital that they first assess whether their current framework supports data-driven decision making, so to understand the opportunities and objectives at the top of their in-tray, before adopting new solutions that might not serve an immediate purpose.
Data transformation, and data simplification, create flexibility for digital ecosystems – and, therefore, is becoming a staple of the sports industry’s ongoing digital transformation. While there are other federations that own a wider array of digital and technological solutions, the JFA’s digital strategy identifies a deep understanding of its fan base and the combination of user-facing services that works both to drive engagement in their home market and serve the customer relationship.
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 optimize your data-collection capability, 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.