Disruptive ideas for sports teams

Today we bring disruptive ideas for sports teams. Around the world teams can be inspired and create highly profitable digital business models.

Sports market cannot convert into revenues the full magnitude it represents. In professional and eSports, millions of fans leave little money to the teams.

In practice teams make very little cash compared to large business groups, that utilize sport as a platform to sell more. Nielsen presented the Top marketing objetives for companies:

Here some ideas:

1.The most important content is no longer the game

The digital age allows teams to explore beyond the game as an important source of revenue.

Additional content related to live matches or not has more strength than ever before. Highlights and special content about the games show greater interest and huge impact.

PwC′s survey presented interestng data:

Teams need to stop simply posting valuable content on social networks and integrate all this collection of behind-the-scenes, best moments, teams’ idols, technical committee, former stars, in a great project of digital monetization.

If content is gold, it should be treated as such.

2. Being a digital business model

The world today demands that executives think ahead in terms of business. For a long time, teams understood that posting on social networks, raising likes and fan engagement, was enough to leverage sponsorships and marketing revenues.

It is clear that this model has weakened the sporting world, since a very small part of its fans are members of the teams. And millions are on social media.

The approach is to manage large social networks as a sales channel for your digital service. Just as Spotify or Netflix require login to consume, even if it is free, the same needs to happen with teams sports.

It makes no sense big teams have generated billions of dollars in digital engagement to social media cmpamies and didn′t turn into new revenues. Digital model can turn teams into media and retail giants.

3. Be a partner of a large retail

A sports team can′t be a retail operation like a major player in the industry. But it is possible to establish deep business relationships with retail companies and leverage sales.

Global retail moves more than US$ 26 trillion a year, and in sport it represents US$ 270 billion annually in sales. Teams get an insignificant share of everything sold.

Source: SGI Europe

Being a retail and live commerce operation, using exclusive content will exponentially increase teams revenues. They should sell what their fans want, not just shirts or caps.

So even teams that participate in Leagues that control sales of official products, they can help retail companies to sell whatever they want, through their audience of millions of fans.

4. Data driven sponsorships

One of the most exciting themes of today's sport is about the conceptual change of sponsorships as an important marketing tool in the post-pandemic world.

If until very recently the digital environment and social/community issues were treated in a secondary way by many sponsors, this changed radically.

More and more sponsorships will be aligned with relevant purposes. And they will necessarily relate to content marketing and data analytics. It doesn't make more sense to put brands on the court, field or uniforms and not relate this association with increasingly smart and creative activations.

The hyperconnected fan wants to participate and that's all the sponsors need. Nothing is more relevant to brands than being able to relate positively to the target. Sports world offers return on opportunities for sponsors on an unthinkable level

Priority post-pandemic factors for sponsors in Europe (ESA)

More the brand knows about the fan, more assertive their activations and campaigns will be.

5. Crypto is money

Teams around the world have been exploring the countless possibilities of the Crypto world.?However, most projects generate little revenue for teams, being more profitable for their partners.

From token to NFTs, the model is generally focused on association with an already established partner, which generates the data for the teams. Something like what happens on Instagram, YouTube or Tik Tok.

The oil of the current world, the data, does not stay with the club and the partners become the big marketplace, making a lot of revenue from the teams′ fans.

According to the Gemini′s study, Global State of Crypto Report 2022, the largest active Crypto consumers are people from 25-34 yo. In 2022 there was an increase in the younger target 18-24 yo.

6. OTT is more than live broadcasts

The fight over broadcasts is an impossible war for teams. The battle for rights is fierce and teams depend on it to survive.

According to Sports Value′s analysis, the teams' OTT focus should always be on non-live content. All that is own clubs ′content, broadcasts that have not been negotiated, doc series, humor programs, Olympic sports, eSports, the possibilities are infinite.

Having a service of your own OTT, offering the best in terms of content will change the level of revenues, financial and marketing return for partners, being sponsors or a retail operation.

Netflix, without live contet, dominated the world.

There's a lot of money available to sports teams that are disruptive at this time of big changes that we're experiencing.

7. Sport Innovation Lab showed the way,

A study published in 2020 by the Sports Innovation Lab was accurate in its shifts vision that the sports world experienced. These are profound changes to all Sports Industry actors.