It’s no secret that direct-to-consumer (D2C) media is changing the way fans engage with the sports they follow and where they choose to watch them. The latest research from Deloitte indicates that the shift towards digital sports consumption is partly generational – whereby fewer Gen Z and millennial viewers prefer to watch live sports compared to the average population and are less likely to do so on television (see table below) than the rest of the population.
This correlates with data collated by the London-based Ampere Analysis, cited in N3XT Sports’ State of the Industry | Digital Roadmap 2030 report, which shows that, while over-the-top (OTT) services make up 14.8 percent of the major broadcast rights markets in Europe and the US, an increase from 4.7 percent recorded pre-Covid, more viewers aged between 18 and 24 prefer to watch live sports exclusively via a streaming platform compared to the average viewer. Furthermore, a survey carried out by the Global Sports Innovation Center (GSIC) positions fan engagement and digital adoption high on the list of priorities when it comes to sport’s ongoing digital transformation.
As sports organizations continue to augment their D2C portfolios to drive engagement and enhance their ability to capture first-party fan data, the delivery of personalized content to segmented audiences is also becoming a focal point within their digital strategies. Speaking about the importance of “digital diversity” to enhance the live sports experience, Mounir Zok, N3XT Sports’ Chief Executive (CEO), says: “It’s hard to fathom what that experience would be without the digital capabilities at our fingertips; those that enable fans to watch the biggest sporting occasions via the platforms of their choice. This variety is key to capturing new fans.”
Understanding the motivations of the user, including what they like about the product and, in the case of sports, how and when they prefer to watch live content, is fundamental to driving fan engagement. Fan intelligence provides sports properties with the foundations for implementing a fan funnel which differentiates casual supporters from the fanatics and establishes the types of D2C products that appeal to their fan base. One way to do this is to leverage artificial intelligence (AI) to help analyze fan data in granular detail.
As part of a three-part series on the role of AI in the sports industry, including how machine learning serves the front-office employee as well as athletic performance, our latest article explores how this applies to the creation of content that appeals to audiences. According to a study carried out by the WHU-Otto Beisheim School of Management, in collaboration with the German Football League (DFL) and Amazon Web Services (AWS), sports executives foresee AI becoming increasingly important in the production of personalized and immersive fan experiences by 2030 – driven by the demand of younger generations for digital sports content.
“Sports properties are continually finding new ways to increase productivity and engagement, such as the creation of personalized, generative video content and highlights,” explains Motasem El Bawab, N3XT Sports Chief Information Officer (CIO). “Whereas AI adoption is still an early concept for sports business analytics, it can actually serve the rights holder at every stage of its data and digital development, including the evolution of the fan journey.”
FAN-DATA COLLECTION PIVOTAL IN THE CREATION OF GENERATIVE VIDEO CONTENT
While digital adoption will become “table stakes” by the end of the decade, Hisham Shehabi, N3XT Sports’ Chief Operating Officer (COO), says the sports industry has already witnessed “an explosion” of AI-based solutions for generating automated and personalized content for rights holders and their media partners since the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, and is only going to become more prevalent as sports organizations look to segment their content distribution.
As a result, he says that Paris 2024 will see the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and its RHB partners and stakeholders “generate greater volumes of content … personalized to their digital audiences” and will significantly change the way the Olympic Movement leverages live-streaming technology to deliver video content to its regional fans. Among the contributors supporting the industry, the Israeli sports video company WSC Sports uses AI and machine learning technology to create short-form, generative content for its sporting clients.
Among them, Volleyball World engaged a tournament-record 16 million fans across its digital platforms during the Beach Volleyball World Championships, held in Rome last year. Throughout the championships, athletes, broadcasters and sponsors were fed customized highlights via WSC’s AI-driven video editing service, which also helped almost treble video views via Volleyball World TV and Volleyball World’s social media channels.
The International Basketball Federation (FIBA) was also shortlisted for the Most Innovative Sports Partnership at the 2017 Sports Technology Awards after its collaboration with WSC achieved significant growth in engagement across its competitions portfolio, including millions of video views during the Basketball Champions League, EuroLeague Women, and Liga de las Americas. Patrick Comninos, CEO of the Basketball Champions League, said: “In this, our inaugural season of the competition … we have been able to create and share excellent video highlights with our clubs in quick turnaround times.”
Fan data is the key ingredient for a sports organization to diversify and segment its digital content delivery, while AI can serve the collection and management of first-party data across every department. Speaking on the subject, Aviv Arnon, WSC’s co-founder and Chief Business Development Officer, says that there are now “more capabilities to create more suggestive content and really personalize the fan experience” while its role is to help its clients to “localize and tailor content for each market … in different formats and for different platforms”, adding that the challenge of servicing sports fans “is continuously developing and growing”.
Despite the opportunities AI-powered content creation offers the industry, as things stand, there is a disparity in the use of fan data across the board, demonstrated by N3XT Sports proprietary research, which ranges from the Olympic Movement to other sporting sectors. According to our Olympic Digital Transformation Report 2023, while the majority of International Federations (IF) represented at Paris 2024 collect fan data, many do not own a digital portfolio capable of driving fan engagement or retaining audiences post-Games.
“On the face of it, this might be expected given that governing bodies are at different stages of their own digital transformation journeys,” Hisham continues, “yet, it also raises concerns for the sports on the Olympic roster and what their futures entail, especially considering the speed at which privately-owned leagues and clubs, and other governing bodies are bringing their own digital products to market.
“We’re experiencing a dramatic shift towards digital sports consumption. This presents the Olympic Movement with an opportunity to drive digital engagement, as outlined under the IOC’s Olympic Agenda 2020+5 recommendations, and the prospect of raising the commercial appeal of its respective Olympic stakeholders through the power of digital transformation.”
WHAT’S N3XT?
As demand grows for multi-functional, streaming-based sports apps, our research shows an opportunity for sports organizations to personalize the fan journey by leveraging first-party fan data and augmenting their digital inventories based on user behaviors. Furthermore, there is a strong correlation between the digital maturity of a sports body and its ability to drive fan engagement, particularly on social media (see graphs below).
“Our team is constantly assessing the different ways the latest software solutions and D2C platforms can be tailored to our clients’ needs and diversify their digital inventory and data-collection capabilities,” Mota says. For example, with the support of N3XT Sports, United World Wrestling (UWW), the governing body for Olympic wrestling, has launched its very own premium OTT offering called UWW+, which serves to maximize the federation’s live and on-demand (VOD) video distribution, and consolidate the collection of user data via web and mobile using a unique user login.
Gordon Templeman, UWW’s Director of Commercial Operations and Communications, says: “Whereas, in the past, the majority of our interactions with fans were through third-party platforms, we’re establishing a digital portfolio and customer relationship management (CRM) capability which allows us to offer a personalized fan experience. Our digital transformation is progressing in a way that creates fewer data silos, allows us to work seamlessly as an organization, and to capitalize on our digital capabilities.”
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.