Jordi Bertomeu, CEO, Euroleague – “Time to Keep Building On Our Success!”

Jordi Bertomeu, CEO, Euroleague:

It’s been busy times at the Euroleague Basketball office lately!

Writing these lines I had the opportunity to seat with the only company of my keyboard, and think about the events that happened not only in the last year, but also in the last 5 years, since we drafted our strategic plans with the clubs, and even since the summer of 2000, when Euroleague Basketball was born.

Same as the sport, our path all these years has been very dynamic and fast-moving, that is in our DNA since 2000, when the clubs decided to create a structure that had not been seen before in European sports, where the same clubs would own and manage the European club competitions collectively. Since that ground-breaking step and until today, clubs have taken every single decision. This might not be seen today as something shocking, but believe me, it was back in 2000!

In the next 15 years we saw the evolution of a property that grew steadily every single season, in every aspect. From the attractiveness and quality of the games, to the generated collective business.  In that road, we took many decisions and evolved the competition, the product, its distribution and its commercialization in an endless number of ways, and as years went by, such evolutions were more and more frequent, as it could not be another way considering how quick our environment is changing nowadays.

In 2011 the clubs defined the latest strategic plan, which contained very ambitious objectives for the following five years. Its ultimate goal: becoming a TRUE European League. And I am happy to look back at that document and see that every single major objective was met, with the last (and most important) one in the list becoming a reality in 2016 thanks to the agreement with WME/IMG which enabled a truly revolutionary and innovative change in European sports. All major European clubs together in a League, the EuroLeague, where all play all teams under a round-robin format.

Now we could take a seat and enjoy the best quality basketball we have ever seen, or enjoy the greatest numbers in terms of audience and business growth in European basketball history, but there is no time for that. It only proves that we took the right decision, but now it is time to look ahead and pencil the future. It is time to try envisioning how the sports and entertainment landscape will be in the next five to ten years, to know our fans better, to identify the current and upcoming trends and technology. It is time to make sure we continue building more floors on top of the already existing solid pillars. We need to ensure that basketball and the EuroLeague continue to grow and satisfy the needs of the fans of today, and most importantly, of those of tomorrow.

How will fans demand to consume basketball? How will we meet their ever increasing standards? How do we need to improve our product to satisfy them? What technologies will enable us to deliver what they expect us to deliver? These are the questions that need to be answered by any organization in the sports and entertainment business.  And we can only do that if we put the fan at the center of every decision, using every mean possible to listen and understand their desire.

Looks like we will keep on being very busy looking ahead… and we are looking forward to it!