By Mounir Zok
Welcome to a new year filled with new possibilities. The Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games is a key moment in the digitalization journey of – not only International Federations (IF) and their sporting disciplines on display – but the sports industry at large. How rights holders engage fans around the world following Paris 2024 will depend on the digital infrastructure and processes they put in place during the build-up to this summer’s global gathering.
N3XT Sports continues to help sports organizations and rights holders to enhance their digital infrastructure and fan-data capabilities. As we saw an uptick in properties undertaking their own digital transformation initiatives through 2023, we expect to see a surge again in 2024. The Olympic and Paralympic year presents a surge in fan interest that can be captured and engaged over the next Olympic cycle to 2028.
As part of our ongoing commitment to sport’s digitalization, our upcoming International Federation Fan Data Guide 2024 showcases the Olympic Movement’s opportunity to digitalize from its current nascent state. N3XT Sports proprietary research demonstrates disparities between the types of digital products IFs deploy and their current levels of first-party fan data collection.
Whereas the majority of Olympic IFs (78.2 percent) collect first-party fan data, only 50 percent do so via multiple data touchpoints, highlighting varying levels of digital and data maturity across the sector. By comparison, our benchmarking reports show similar trends in other sporting ecosystems. For example, our assessment of last year’s men’s Rugby World Cup and Cricket World Cup shows that many national governing bodies do not collect first-party fan data, while – of the entities that do – the vast majority do not consolidate the collection of fan data.
Furthermore, what’s also clear from the research is that sports organizations with a higher level of digital and data maturity own a much wider audience reach, particularly via social media. Although this does not present a direct correlation, it does give a window into how organizations with the infrastructure in place to ingest and manage first-party fan data, and leverage fan intelligence, are able to personalize and maximize their engagement with digital audiences via different platforms.
As the industry looks to expand its digital capabilities, there are several steps sports organizations and rights holders can first take to improve their internal processes, including their data governance, before they are able to optimize the use of fan intelligence. These include:
- Establishing a solid digital foundation built on modern technologies, effective processes, and digitech capabilities;
- Defining a data and digital transformation strategy – i.e. examining internally where and when to introduce customer-facing data touchpoints and how the front office should be using them to collect fan data;
- Consolidating siloed data sets, ensuring that all departments have access to centralized fan, athlete, and stakeholder data via a single source of truth.
Within our client portfolio, there are several rights holders undergoing digital transformation projects that proactively consolidate their digital touchpoints via an omnichannel experience and, in doing so, are able to centralize fan, athlete, and stakeholder data.
Data consolidation is making it easier for sports organizations to inform their ongoing business decisions and improve customer relationship management (CRM). Meanwhile, as the industry looks to adopt the latest technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) to analyze user data – a step we see many organizations exploring in 2024 – in order to expand their capabilities and tackle these latest trends, sports properties must first lay the groundwork by implementing a digital infrastructure that consolidates their existing data sources.
As we will examine further, automated and AI-driven technologies will become valuable tools for leveraging fan data in the years to come. However, without first taking the aforementioned steps to digital transparency, sports entities without a clear data strategy won’t benefit from new digital solutions and the latest assistive technologies on the market. It is therefore imperative that they establish a solid foundation before expanding their digital portfolios, beginning with their data governance.
SPORTS ORGANIZATIONS USE ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE TO PERSONALIZE THE FAN EXPERIENCE
Automation and generative information-processing solutions are assisting organizations across multiple verticals, no matter their digital maturity or operational objectives. According to Gartner, by 2025, up to 60 percent of business process automation (BPA) vendors will provide software solutions which offer services featuring generative AI functions to help reduce process development times.
At this time, banking, financial services, insurance, government, and manufacturing sectors are leading the BPA sector’s market growth, which is expected to surpass US$3.6 billion by 2027. In our upcoming Digital Trends in the Sports Industry Report 2024, we will explore how the sports industry is embracing automation to leverage fan data and areas for growth.
By way of example, our research shows that fewer than half (46.8 percent) of the IFs which govern the sports on display at this year’s Paris 2024 Olympic Games enable subscribers to personalize their individual experience – whereas several IFs are going further by automating the distribution of personalized, generative video content based on fan behaviors and geolocation.
Meanwhile, the integration of automated and generative technologies such as AI will play an increasingly important role in how executives learn from the data at their disposal, helping to convert fans into paying subscribers further along the fan funnel. This also helps them to augment their commercial strategies through the creation of personalized content that appeals to stakeholders and sponsors.
We expect to see more sports properties explore the use of AI and machine learning to enhance the customer experience (CX). Throughout 2024, sport organizations and rights holders with the appropriate digital and data maturity will also adopt AI-driven tools to serve the employee experience (EX). This will allow employees to: (1) query information by asking questions of their centralized data; (2) perform quick and accurate searches of the information, accessible via a single source of truth; and (3) optimize language processing, tailored to their audience via their communications and marketing channels.
As the industry continues to digitalize, automated processes will serve the sustainable growth of our clients’ operations – helping to increase efficiency and reduce their cost spend, while also helping reduce the industry’s social and environmental impact through digital and paperless processes.
WHAT’S N3XT?
Data is at the forefront of sport’s digital revolution. Sports organizations – including several of our clients – are making enhancements to maximize exposure and fan engagement during Paris 2024 and to drive the conversion and retention of their digital subscribers post-Games. This will be imperative as rights holders establish the infrastructure required to meet the growing demand for digital fan and stakeholder experiences.
We are encouraged by the increasing number of sports properties that see value in digital transformation. As our client base expands, it is evident that digitalization is becoming a cornerstone of the sports industry’s sustainable growth. Moreover, sports properties now understand the value of technology adoption and data consolidation for optimizing their commercial strategy, while our team continues to guide each of our clients on their respective digital transformation journeys.
We want to hear about the direction you are taking your sport and how digitally focused fan-data strategies can help take you there. To find out more about how N3XT Sports can serve your organization, fill out the form below, and we’ll be in touch. We wish you all the best for the year ahead and look forward to helping our clients in their continued search for excellence.