Insights from Mounir Zok and Hisham Shehabi
Digital transformation isn’t only about adopting a new digital products to engage fans in ways that will drive media rights and sponsorship revenues. There’s always a strategy that underpins changes within a business. In the modern age of sport, that is no different for how the development of a rights holder’s digital infrastructure impacts the productivity of its internal operations.
By optimizing its digital framework, to simplify the flow of information throughout the organization, and to dismantle data silos, digitalization lays the groundwork for sports entities to scale their digital acumen and technology adoption to meet present and future demands – for whenever the time comes to make significant changes.
Within its development, sustainability – and how sport can drastically reduce its environmental impact – is an ongoing concern for a global sector that relies on heavy industry to build stadium infrastructure, various modes of transport for fans and teams to move between events, and moderate weather conditions, for the most part, to reduce the chance of postponements and event cancellations.
“Digital transformation is already helping rights holders reduce the environmental impact of sports events,” Mounir Zok, N3XT Sports co-founder and Chief Executive (CEO) told ThinkSport ahead of The SPOT 2023. “This might include how remote-broadcast technologies reduce the production footfall at sporting venues, as well as the opportunity for digitizing the in-stadia fan experience through, for example, the adoption of mobile ticketing.
“With the ability to scale operations to meet customer needs and urgent industry demands, digitizing the way in which the industry engages the fan, communicates with stakeholders, and leverages data will have a dramatic impact on the sector’s ability to drive meaningful societal change and meet environmental challenges head on.”
Amid concerns about the climate crisis, sports organizations also have a desire to reduce their carbon footprint. For example, Formula 1 has set itself a target to become net-zero by 2030, including ambitions to drastically reduce carbon emissions across its grid and global operations. The initiative involves increasing the use of sustainable materials, promoting environmentally friendly practices across its logistics services, and to set a benchmark for other global, multi-venue and multi-stakeholder events to follow when adopting technologies to reduce their carbon footprint.
One way that technology is being used to promote sustainability in sports is through the use of data analytics. By collecting and analyzing data on their supply chains, sports venues and properties can identify areas of inefficiency and waste, and make changes that help reduce their environmental impact, while the act of optimizing dataflow can help an entity increase productivity and reduce resource-heavy processes.
According to a report by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, sports venues in the United States consume an estimated 1.3 terawatt-hours of electricity each year, which is equivalent to the electricity consumed by approximately 115,000 households. In a bid to counter this trend, Seattle’s Climate Pledge Arena, home to the National Hockey League’s (NHL) Seattle Kraken and the Women’s National Basketball Association’s (NWBA) Seattle Storm, for which the ecommerce giant Amazon owns the naming rights, is aiming to be the “most progressive, responsible, and sustainable venue in the world”, says Tim Leiweke, CEO of the venue’s developer Oak View Group.
In order to meet its targets, the venue’s management proactively calculates the facility’s entire carbon footprint – from its construction to operation. This included the launch of a public-facing dashboard to provide data insights into the arena’s sustainability commitments within carbon emissions, energy consumption, food, and waste, helping reduce its long-term environmental impact and to highlight the role data can play in making sporting venues more sustainable.
INTERNATIONAL FEDERATIONS FOCUSED ON A VARIETY OF SUSTAINABILITY VERTICALS
The inclusion of a sustainability strategy has, for many sports organizations and venues, become a staple for their business development and draws its own fiscal benefits. For example, according to the Sustainable Sport Index Benchmarking Report 2022, close to half (48 percent) of venues reported an increase in sponsorship revenue in relation to owning a sustainability program.
Meanwhile, the International Olympic Committee’s (IOC) Sustainability Strategy “will fundamentally shape the working practices of the IOC, the Olympic Games, and the Olympic Movement”, the governing body’s president Thomas Bach outlines in the document. With a shift towards making their own operations more sustainable, several International Federations (IF) have followed suit by outlining their own sustainability goals, including some common targets across the board.
Impact on the climate and environment: The International Climbing and Mountaineering Federation (UIAA) is committed to promoting sustainable practices and preserving mountain environments through its Mountain Protection Commission. The UIAA works with local organizations, governments, and stakeholders to create guidelines and promote responsible mountain activities. Its initiatives include developing standards for mountaineering equipment, creating sustainable tourism practices, and promoting environmental education.
Energy consumption: The World Curling Federation (WCF) has launched a new green facilities initiative aimed at reducing the environmental impact of its member associations (MA). As part of the initiative, the WCF aims to support its MA ecosystem to build and maintain curling facilities powered by renewable energy sources. The WCF also aims to promote sustainable energy practices in curling facilities by improving energy efficiency, reducing water consumption, and improving waste management.
Education and engagement: The International Surfing Association (ISA) is committed to promoting sustainability in the sport of surfing. The organization offers educational resources through its ISA Development Programs, which includes courses on sustainable surfing practices and ocean conservation. The ISA also partners with the IOC in support of the United Nations (UN) CleanSeas Campaign, launched in 2017, which engages governments, the general public, civil society and the private sector in the fight against marine plastic pollution.
WHAT’S N3XT?
How the sports industry measures its productivity and stakeholder management will play a key role in delivering the sector’s sustainability initiatives. Another area where the sports industry can support the sustainable development of its competitions is through local procurement. For example, World Archery is committed to supporting local suppliers by sourcing goods and services from businesses in the regions where their events are going to be held.
By adopting this approach, IFs can build a supply chain that both helps to create economic growth by increasing consumer use and the sale of local products, facilities, and services, while generating economic growth and reducing the environmental impact of transporting goods. In order to maximize partner and stakeholder management, sports organizations are digitizing their communications processes, including via the creation of customer portals that support their stakeholders’ role in the delivery of a major competition or event.
“Just as data sharing is key to the sustainable development of the Climate Pledge Arena, in Seattle, the growth of operational data warehouses for event organizers helps them better plan for capacities, people flows, and have a proactive approach to event sustainability. For example, World Triathlon uses OnePlan to support more efficient planning of all of its events worldwide, reducing excesses from any operation and better anticipating hosting requirements for the countries they host events in. Moreover, they extended this license to all national federations to bring more efficiency to triathlon events worldwide.” explains Hisham Shehabi, N3XT Sports Chief Operating Officer (COO).
“At United World Wrestling (UWW), they are actively finding efficiencies across all workflows at events, utilizing digital solutions and cloud-based, artificial intelligence-powered (AI) tools that can reduce the travel of staff to the venues where the events happen. In this way every cost saving is also a carbon saving, helping sports organizations attain better bottom lines across their business and environmental outcomes. This is critical to many sports organizations as they adjust to a prolonged difficult economic environment.”
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, 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.