Fan-data benchmarks | Assessing European football’s domestic champions and their digital strategies

Digital transformation is a continual process and requires sports organizations to take carefully thought-out steps to ensure that their digital inventory serves their business objectives and maximizes the return on investment (ROI). Owning a diverse digital and direct-to-consumer (D2C) product portfolio is one thing – driving commercial growth and audience retention requires a resolute data strategy which underpins one’s entire digital inventory. 

Speaking on this subject in his 2023 mid-year review of the sports industry’s digital transformation, N3XT Sports Chief Executive (CEO) Mounir Zok says “this is true of every rights holder and sports property – no matter their size or popularity”, whereby even the most digitally diverse clubs and leagues can achieve greater levels of digital and data maturity. If we take European football’s leading clubs, for example, there is no one-size-fits-all model for driving digital engagement and capturing first-party fan data.

For the purposes of this article, N3XT Sports carried our proprietary analysis of the reigning champions across five of Europe’s respective men’s leagues, including Barcelona (LaLiga), Bayern Munich (Bundesliga), Manchester City (Premier League), Napoli (Serie A), and Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) (Ligue 1). Clubs are assessed on their customer-facing owned and operated digital touchpoints, including whether they collect fan data via: 

• A newsletter/web login (1pt)
• The club’s official mobile app (1pt)
• Ecommerce (1pt)
• Ticketing (1pt)
• An over-the-top (OTT) streaming subscription (2pts)

And whether: 

• The club utilizes a single sign-on (SSO) for every data touchpoint (3pts)
• The club integrates a women’s football product into its data strategy (1pt)     

Beatriz Indurain, N3XT Sports’ Marketing and Communications Director, says: “By carrying out our very own digital assessments, our team at N3XT Sports is able to provide evidence for where the sports industry – in this case European club football – excels digitally and to demonstrate the different benchmarks for which other sports properties and sectors can take inspiration.

“Meanwhile, women’s football and the growth of the international game is playing an important role in domestic markets, too – whereby the top clubs see an opportunity to integrate their women’s product into their wider fan-data strategy and – outlined in our Women’s Football Business Report 2023 – to unlock fan-led commercial activities across their entire team portfolio.”

In addition to its website and the FC Barcelona Official App, the Catalan club owns and operates the Barça Official Store, a ticketing portal for its entire sporting and business activities, and its dedicated Barça TV+ OTT streaming service, also available via the mobile app. Whereas its Culers members receive limited access to the club’s streaming product, its Culers Premium members are given access to a host of exclusive fan initiatives, including eligibility for discounted tickets, exclusive giveaways and Barça products, as well as access to every match on demand for 39.99€ per year.

Data collection: Culer members can use a unique user login to sign into their personal account via the club website, the FC Barcelona Official App, and Barça TV+. However, this does not extend to some of the LaLiga champions’ other data touchpoints, including its ticketing and ecommerce platforms, which require the user to register separately.

Women’s product: The club collects data from its Barcelona Femení fans, who are able to purchase tickets to the Liga F champions’ fixtures via the official FC Barcelona website. Nevertheless, without an SSO, although the club integrates its women’s product into its digital ecosystem, it does not yet collect data for men’s or women’s ticket sales using a universal login.

N3XT steps: Barcelona’s digital transformation has room to consolidate its entire digital portfolio and data touchpoints, while capitalizing on its substantial women’s fan base by aligning its men’s first team and Femení ticket sales using an SSO.

Toe-to-toe, Bayern Munich owns and operates one of the most diverse digital inventories in European football. Its fan engagement platforms span its official website, the FC Bayern Munich mobile app, FC Bayern online store, official ticket-shop, and the FC Bayern TV PLUS OTT streaming platform, which includes a tiered subscription offering starting at 4€ per month. Alongside the club’s official app and related mobile platforms, the Allianz Arena stadium app also offers users access to a personalized wallet and an in-built “switch” which allows users to navigate matchday and non-matchday modes.   

Data collection: Bayern Munich provides an SSO across all of its digital touchpoints, granting the Bundesliga champions a complete overview of its unique subscriber activity via their respective MyFCB account and to follow the fan journey across each of its D2C platforms.

Women’s product: Although the club directs users to a dedicated ticketing portal for FC Bayern Frauen fixtures held at its FC Bayern Campus, users are able to purchase tickets for the reigning Frauen-Bundesliga champions, as well as the men’s games, using the same login – meaning that the club integrates its data collection for ticket sales across its entire team portfolio.

N3XT steps: The MyFCB user login extends to Bayern’s other affiliated sports teams, including the club’s EuroLeague Basketball outfit FC Bayern Basketball (FCBB) and access to FCBB’s official mobile app. Within its multi-sport organization, the club is able to maximize its impressive content marketing efforts by targeting fans across its football and basketball brands.

Premier League, FA Cup, and UEFA Champions League (UCL) holders Manchester City own and operate far and away the most sophisticated digital inventory of Europe’s reigning domestic champions. The 2022/23 treble winners provide access to the club’s dedicated online shop, ticketing portal, and City+ subscription streaming service via both its website and Manchester City Official App. City+ is a premium offering starting at £4.99 (5.80€) per month. The club also utilizes its CoachingHub mobile app, which enables users to tailor “authentic Manchester City” coaching sessions to different age groups and provides expert advice from the club’s coaching staff.  

Data collection: Every single one of Manchester City’s customer-facing, digital platforms are accessed via their Cityzens membership login. The SSO not only connects users across its official website, mobile app, ticketing, and ecommerce services, but also the club’s OTT platform and CoachingHub app, providing its front office a complete 360° overview of its entire digital offering.

Women’s product: The club’s women’s product sits alongside its male counterpart at every step of the digital fan journey. The club collects ticketing data using the same user login, granting the front office a deeper understanding of its women’s football fans and informs its commercial and content marketing efforts. 

N3XT steps: Manchester City is adding new fan experiences to its digital product portfolio, including the development of a “virtual recreation” of the Etihad Stadium in collaboration with Sony.

Although among football’s elite, having won its third Serie A title and first in 33 years, Napoli’s digital inventory is less diverse compared to Europe’s other domestic champions. Among its digital assets, Napoli owns and operates a dedicated website, mobile app, and online store. The club’s ticket sales are operated by the Italian events and ticketing aggregator TicketTone, while the 2022/23 Serie A winners do not yet have an OTT offering. 

Data collection: While the club’s digital transformation is in its infancy compared to Europe’s richest clubs, Napoli demonstrates a good level of data governance, which leverages a unique user login for the club’s dedicated website and its SSC Napoli Official App. Although its online store requires users to register a separate account via the web and mobile app, the club has the capacity to consolidate and expand its digital offering given the correct guidance.

Women’s product: Napoli is the only domestic title winner of the men’s football leagues assessed not to own an affiliated women’s team. Napoli Femminile, Naples’ top women’s outfit, secured promotion back to Serie A Femminile after being crowned Serie B champions in May. 

N3XT steps: Digital transformation holds the capacity to drive revenue generation. By assessing its existing fan-data strategy, Napoli holds the potential to augment its digital inventory and build on its recent on-field success.

The French champions equal Bayern Munich and Manchester City for their digital diversity and data-collection capability. PSG offers its fans access to content via its dedicated website, PSG Official mobile app, ticketing portal, PSG TV subscription OTT streaming service, and the club’s official online store, which is run in collaboration with the US-based online retailer Fanatics. Subscribers can upgrade to the MyParis Red & Blue membership for 24.90€, as well as gain premium access to Paris TV, starting at 1.99€ per month.

Data collection: PSG collects fan data across its entire digital portfolio using an SSO. What makes PSG unique is the club’s MyParis membership offering, which offers its premium members discounts to in-store and online purchases and stadium tours, as well as access to PSG TV Premium’s annual pass, which is priced at 9.99€ per year for non-members. In doing so, PSG demonstrates an ability to augment its digital revenue streams via multiple data touchpoints.

Women’s product: Subscribers can only buy tickets for Paris Saint-Germain Féminine fixtures using an SSO and is made available to users via both the club’s website and mobile app, cementing PSG’s women’s product firmly within the club’s wider fan-engagement and fan-data strategies.

N3XT steps: PSG is leveraging its MyParis digital membership package to diversify the fan experience during Ligue 1 fixtures held at the club’s Parc des Princes home stadium. In addition to discounts and access to its premium OTT offering, members can win opportunities to watch players training pitchside and the games in dedicated MyParis VIP seating.

With the 2023/24 European football season now up and running, there’s no rest for the sector’s club owners – whether their team sits at the summit of the football pyramid or outside their market’s top league. Football has a unique opportunity to drive commercial growth through fan engagement and its data-management capabilities and is inclusive to all areas of the game, including the ongoing domestic and continental club tournaments, as well as football’s major men’s and women’s national team competitions.

For example, Olivia Archanco, Consumer Strategy Director for LaLiga Tech, the league’s technology subsidiary, says that optimizing fan-data collection has the potential for “hatching new marketplaces” and that the majority of sports organizations will have adopted technology and data-driven initiatives by 2030. Elsewhere, Arnaud Lieutenant, the Digital, Innovation, and Technology Director for the Royal Belgian Football Association (RBFA), outlined the importance of data quality for growing and retaining audiences in an interview with N3XT Sports following the Qatar 2022 men’s FIFA World Cup, adding: “The challenge for a football association is to be able to connect and consolidate different data from different systems. How we build and position the backbone of our competitions, within our digital framework, is a huge part of our digital strategy.”

Our team at N3XT Sports works tirelessly to develop and implement data and digital transformation strategies across a multitude of sports properties at federation level, competition level, and club level. To find out more about how N3XT Sports can serve 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.