Sorry Damon, it's EVERYTHING to do with vorsprung durch technik, you know

In terms of sport, it’s hard not to be a Germanophile. They have arguably one of the coolest football leagues, they manufacture some of the coolest racing cars and they host a mean sports business event.

Speaking of which, the sports world will be descending on Hamburg next week for the return of SPOBIS. Europe’s largest such event (or so they claim) has been uniting rights holders, media companies and technology providers for over a quarter of a century now, growing a reputation as a key platform to share ideas, discuss best practice and showcase innovation.

A cursory glance at the event’s agenda shows technology is the unifying thread across a range of topics spanning athlete development, fan engagement, sponsorship, sustainability and more.

One topic sure to be discussed is last week’s announcement that the Bundesliga has become the first European Sports league to launch on Roblox, the online gaming metaverse aimed at Gen Z / Gen Z Alpha.

The Bundesliga Clubhouse, built in collaboration with leading international gaming agency Build A Rocket, features five unique experiences designed to engage younger fans ranging from “obbies” – obstacle course style platform games – to a free kick simulator. Players will be able to personalize avatars, collect items and engage with both Bundesliga and Bundesliga partner content.

The new Roblox activation is a youth focused component of “Football as it’s meant to be”, a wider marketing campaign designed by the DFL Deutsche Fu?ball Liga - the body responsible for league football in Germany – to “ignite and sustainably strengthen enthusiasm among Bundesliga fans”.

Turning to Roblox to futureproof the league’s fandom shows the DFL’s willingness to embrace innovation and early signs are the venture will be a success, with in excess of 1.3m visiting the experience in its first four days on the platform.

However, while they are undoubtedly pioneers in terms of leagues using the platform, they are not the first sports property to recognize its potential to engage an audience whose habits are more rooted in a digital, game playing environment. They are not even the first in Germany, with their counterparts at the German Football Federation (DFB) one of the first national federations to launch a dedicated experience inside FIFA World, the digital environment FIFA launched ahead of the 2022 World Cup.

To date, FIFA World has garnered more than 25m visits putting it on a par with the experiences of other major sporting properties like NHL and the Australian Open the platform, but they are all dwarfed by their American Football counterparts. The NFL Universe experience, launched way back in 2018, has amassed an incredible 440m visits to date and (at the time of typing) is averaging over 1m visits per day in January 2025.

Other than longevity and time to build an audience, the NFL’s success can perhaps be found in providing an experience that is rooted in the sports reality, with players having to complete challenges that mimic real like game play such as blocking players and gaining yards. This bodes well for the Bundesliga and their free-kick game, and it will be interesting to see both the success of their experiences and the tactics other European football leagues adopt when they undoubtedly follow suit..

I say undoubtedly because the Bundesliga have long been innovators and early adopters of technology to improve their product and the way they engage their fans.? The league, who publicly profess an aim to be “at the forefront of technology”, were one of the first leagues to implement both Goal Line Technology and VAR to improve on field decision making. They were amongst the first to offer 5G in stadia and to implement virtual advertising, enabling regionally targeted promotional opportunities for brands. They have also embraced innovative tools to improve fan experience ranging from augmented reality experiences in partnership with BILD newspaper, to? the world’s first vertical broadcast of a football match aimed specifically at fans watching on mobile phones.

In a world increasingly dominated by the potential of AI, the league’s ongoing drive to innovate is underpinned by their groundbreaking partnership with Amazon AWS. Announced as Official Technology Partner in 2020, AWS’s involvement was expanded in 2024 to include being the Official Generative AI Provider of the DFL. This added focus on generative AI is at the heart of new projects aimed at driving innovation in fan experience, media production and data services across the German Football pyramid.

Amazon AWS is not the only technology partner driving innovation in German football. FC Bayern Munich is able to leverage the expertise of leading German technology business, SAP to drive the digital transformation of its activities on and off the pitch and the German Women’s national team is able to call upon the digital knowhow of their partner Google.

Similarly, football is not the only German sport leveraging tech partnerships to enhance their product. The BMW Group provides innovative tech solutions for a range of German winter sports, through their partnerships with the German Ski Association (DSV) and The German Bobsleigh, Luge and Skeleton Federation (BSD). From using the car company’s Aerolab wind tunnel to improve the ski team’s performance to 3D printing the perfect spikes for German bobsledders, BMW’s technological expertise is being used to unlock gains for their winter athletes.??

That German sport should be synonymous with innovation should come as no surprise… Vorsprung Durch Technik (Advancement through Technology) as the good folk at Audi once said… just as technology’s leading role in the SPOBIS agenda is hardly surprising either. Their programming regularly captures the pulse of the sports industry and the decision to feature a panel this year on how brands can leverage platforms like Roblox to engage younger audiences feels particularly prescient, in light of the Bundesliga’s announcement.

It will be fascinating to see how the Bundesliga’s metaverse experiment plays out. Innovating? to build communities and engagement on platforms like Roblox is great but when that community is one Presidential decree away from being blocked, as Roblox users experienced in Turkey last year and US rights holders found with their TikTok followings just the other day, you do wonder whether the wiser, long-term play would be to focus innovation on building first party experiences, realistic or otherwise, that can be owned and protected against governmental whim. Another one for SPOBIS-ians to mull over next week…

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TEC will be among those embracing their Germanophilia next week, with a senior team attending SPOBIS to learn from, and add to, discussions with industry leaders around how technology can be used to further sports management and performance. If you’re attending and fancy a coffee to discuss anything from live event technology to the best Romanian player to grace the Bundesliga, please get in touch.?