LaLiga president insists that football retains its youth appeal

Jay Stuart, Editor-in-Chief of iSportConnect, was the man on the ground in Monaco this week in this article he looks at Javier Tabes’s presentation at Sportel.

“Fake news” was the way LaLiga President Javier Tebas described the view that the audience for football is ageing and declining. He used the English term though he was speaking in Spanish, and he said it many times during his data-rich conference session at Sportel, a highlight of the event’s very full content
programme.

Globally, he revealed, Gen Z (9-24) is actually the demographic most highly interested in football at 60 per cent, while at the other end of the scale among Boomers (57+) the level is only 47 per cent.

“It’s not true that we have to change football because young people don’t want to watch it,” Tebas said. The 16-29 audience is the segment where there is most growth. In Spain, football viewing is up 2 per cent over the past four years.

But audiences are consuming football differently. Viewing on Linear TV alone by 4-24s is down by almost 20 per cent, but if you add other devices and out-of-home viewing, the total figure is actually up more than 20 per cent.

Research shows young people in Spain are watching more football than ever, they’re just not watching it on the TV set at home. Tebas pointed out that there is a North-South divide between northern Europe and Spain, Portugal and Italy when it comes to the financial independence of young people.

“People leave home later in our countries,” Tebas said. Their parents pay for pay-TV and basically control the remote.

LaLiga has invested hugely in growing its presence on social media. It’s not on 17 different platforms in 20 languages. From 59 million in 2017-18 the audience on social has grow to 167 million this season. TikTok is now number one among 16-24s and 60 per cent of total TikTok users consume football.

Social media views are sky high for Spanish football, with 694 million for LaLiga content, 2.8 billion for Real Madrid and over 11 billion for FC Barcelona.

He acknowledged that many young people are not watching whole football matches. But they are consuming football and that’s what matters. “There is no need to make huge changes to football,” Tebas said. “The Super League was looking for excuses and so we have this idea that young people are losing interest. Fake news!”

Member Insights: Sporting appeal is the attraction

Seven out of 10 fans prefer to see female athletes portrayed in an authentic way that focuses on their skill and athleticism rather than their beauty, glamour or sex appeal, according to Getty Images and the Women’s Sport Trust. That is excellent news when it comes to the public’s view of the credibility of women’s sport. But media coverage and attitudes still seem to lag way behind.

To get a sense of just how far we still need to go I did some personal digging and the results were, alas, predictably grim. Try searching for ‘top sporting documentaries’ on Netflix and only two of the Top 12 are about women’s sport. 

And one of those is about the sexual abuse of U.S. female gymnasts.

Have a look at the Top 100 North American Athletes of All Time list compiled by ESPN. There are only six women (three of them tennis legends) on the list. There are also three horses – only reinforcing the ridiculous bias that exists currently.

Recently a New Zealand man won a European Tour golf event and an English woman won an LPGA tournament. Yet even in Britain’s Times newspaper, coverage of the men’s result received five times more column inches. 

But there are positive developments too. 

CBS has moved their coverage of the National Women’s Soccer League into a prime-time slot rather than the previous off-peak scheduling.  The UEFA Women’s Euro 2022 tournament attracted 365 million viewers in 195 countries – this would be a big audience in men’s sport, so this is fantastic to see in women’s sport.

There is clear evidence from the European Broadcasting Union that women’s sports rights are the next hot ticket, with demand growing and competition increasing. Elsa Arapi, the author of the EBU’s report on the subject, will be sharing her insights at the ITF’s Advantage All Global Forum event in Glasgow on the occasion of the finals of the Billie Jean King Cup.

You can sign up to watch the live stream of the Global Forum for free here.

And it doesn’t stop there, global sponsorship investment in women’s sport is growing at 20 per cent, according to the latest SponsorUnited report. For men’s sport, the growth is only 2 per cent. Of course, raw numbers can deceive. The women are coming off a much lower base. But there’s no denying the growth in sponsorship interest with the likes of Microsoft in women’s tennis and Gainbridge sponsoring both the Billie Jean King Cup as well as women’s golf. 

Similarly, AIG have taken a prominent stance in women’s golf by seriously upping the prize money at the British Women’s Open to close the gap with the men’s game. And both Nike and Adidas ran extensive marketing campaigns as partners of the recent Women’s Euros.

Additionally we are seeing new events and new rights being created across women’s sport through products such as the LOVB volleyball series, women’s cricket teams in The Hundred standing side by side with their male counterparts, and the likely creation of a women’s IPL in India, where TV rights for the men’s league are in the billions of dollars. 

The growing interest in women’s sports is also opening the eyes of investors who can see new opportunities. Witness the likes of Angel City and their Hollywood partners and Nike taking a stake in the WNBA.

Bigger audiences, new competitions, more sponsorship and new investment, everything is going the right way. But there is a very long way to go before anything like gender equality is achieved, and we have to work collectively to achieve it.

First speakers announced for ITF Advantage All Global Forum

With the Advantage All Global Forum in partnership with International Tennis Federation fast approaching, we’re delighted to be announcing that some of the world’s largest organisations and women’s sports trailblazers will be joining the discussions, with the likes of the legendary Billie Jean-King, Jacqueline Bourke of Getty Images, Elsa Arapi of European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and Roisin O’Shea of Twitter joining the forum, with more to be announced in the coming days.

The forum is taking place on 14th November 10:30-12 GMT, with the discussions being centred on increasing the visibility and improving the portrayal of women’s sport across the media, how you can contribute to growing and commercialising women’s sport and more.

Don’t miss out, register here to get access to the livestream (or replay if the dates/times aren’t being friendly with your calendar): https://lnkd.in/esKPR-aD

Warner Bros. Discovery Sports announce metaverse partnership with Infinite Reality

Warner Bros. Discovery Sports and Infinite Reality have partnered to offer a new and revolutionary way for audiences to engage with their favourite sports. With this multi-year agreement, Infinite Reality, the leader in premier metaverse engagements, is now Discovery Sports Events’ exclusive metaverse partner.

The organisations will collaborate and launch new avenues for sports communities, athletes and brands to interact with each other within unique virtual environments, specifically developed around upcoming Discovery Sports Events properties.

As a first step, Discovery Sports Events and Infinite Reality will preview a unique metaverse experience during the upcoming UCI Track Champions League, the innovative new series launched last year to elevate track cycling as a thrilling spectator experience for sports fans.                                        

The partnership marks the first time Warner Bros. Discovery Sports has harnessed the potential of Web3 technology for its sports properties in Europe by bringing an international event experience to the metaverse. The company’s commitment to bringing the latest innovations in entertainment to sports presents partners with cutting-edge fan engagement opportunities, as well as the potential for new growth potential that will contribute to the continued development of each sport and event.

François Ribeiro, Head of Discovery Sports Events, said: “Warner Bros. Discovery Sports’ partnership with Infinite Reality outlines how we plan to embrace the latest innovations and opportunities to deepen the connections between our audiences, owned series and brand partners to discover possibilities for new growth areas around different sports properties. We are excited by the potential to engage new audiences around live sport in different ways, extending the experience beyond the live environment and into even more places where people are interacting and spending time. 

“Over the coming years, by breaking new ground in metaverse experiences around live sports events we will empower fans to engage with sport in new and exciting ways. We see the preview during the UCI Track Champions League as an outstanding opportunity to open new avenues for storytelling and fan engagement, providing key learnings as we look to extend our partnership to other assets of Discovery Sports Events’ portfolio.” 

John Acunto, CEO of Infinite Reality, Inc. said: “Infinite Reality is thrilled to partner with and provide the metaverse power for such a dynamic, world-class company. This is just the beginning of connecting amazing content with their audiences in unique and immersive ways. We can’t wait to see the fans’ excitement while engaging with UCI Track Champions League and bringing them closer to the sport they love in a totally new and revolutionary way.”

Fans can watch every round of the second season of the UCI Track Champions League on Warner Bros. Discovery Sports’ platforms, including discovery+, Eurosport and GCN+. Round one begins November 12 in Mallorca.

Member Insights: Tech vibe makes Sportel 2022 hum big time

Jay Stuart has been to more editions of Sportel than he would care to mention. The Editor-in-Chief of iSportConnect, was our man on the ground in Monaco this week in this article he reports back his findings from the event.

Sportel Monaco has come roaring back this year after a tentative post-covid return last autumn. The pandemic seems like a just a bad memory and you can feel the sheer enjoyment of delegates getting to mingle in person again and see a celebratory ebullience to the scale and sophistication of some of the exhibition stands, even if they’re not necessarily new.

The Bundesliga’s big screen is particularly eye-catching and the likes of ESPN, WBD (Warner Bros. Discovery) and Infront loom large, as do less well-known brands like feedconstruct, Sportway and the Eskootr Championship.

The delegate count of close to 2,000 attendees is just a bit shy of the pre-pandemic level. The number of Asia-Pacific participants has ebbed from about 15 per cent of the total to about 5 per cent, which might have less to do with covid than today’s time and budget pressures. The Sportel organisers are looking to get the APAC crowd to the first edition in Bali from February 23-24 next year (more on that later this week).

The tech trend continues to be high profile with many exhibitors covering various aspects of streaming and production, AI and data. You see as many stands for tech providers as content distributors. At least it seems that way.

Former IOC marketing director Michael Payne, who was on the Sportel Awards Jury this year, shared some reflections on the trajectory of Sportel since he first started coming in event’s early days in the 1990s. “It used to be about the big American leagues and broadcasters holding forth and then it was dot.com and then the big thing was China and now it is tech. But it’s interesting that it’s more about digital solutions and you don’t see the big Cloud infrastructure providers here like AWS or Alibaba (a consulting client of his).”

He noted that Cloud-based distribution has exploded since covid. For the Olympics, it used to account for about 2 per cent of the total traffic. For the Tokyo Games it was more like 30 per cent and for the Beijing Winter Games it was closer to 50 per cent.

“That has a big positive knock-on effect,” he said. “It means the broadcasters paying significant rights fees can reduce their costs to ease the pressure. They don’t have to send so many people and pay for accommodation for several weeks.”

Instead of 800 for a big broadcaster, it might be 500. And that’s probably going to continue to come down as remote production becomes the norm. With all of the streaming solutions providers at Sportel, it can be easy to lose sight of the old-fashioned satellite and fibre backbone providers who remain
fundamental to major events distribution. They are here too.

One of the leaders in fibre, Montreal-based Aldea, is at Sportel under a new brand, Vivaro Media. The company’s network delivers a big chunk of the unilateral output for the Olympics and the FIFA World Cup as well as coverage of the EPL, Serie A, LaLiga, MLB and others. But it does streaming delivery too.

“What delivery method you use all comes down to specific needs,” said Larry Tonon on the Vivaro Media stand. Unfortunately, there is another Vivaro Media stand only a few metres away. This Vivaro Media is the number one sports platform in Armenia (showing the NBA, LaLiga et al). At Sportel, the Yerevan-based group is pitching its expertise in setting up OTT channels.

Sportel Nugget: Gold in OTT

For the first time this year there was live production of the Isle of Man TT Races (May 29-June 11). Greenlight Media did the production (with 26 cameras, two helicopters and 120 people) and sold the live fee worldwide, as well as highlights. The government of the Isle of Man, which owns the event, set up a TT+ platform for SVOD of the event with a price tag of £14.99. Guess how many buyers they had?

Fifty-seven thousand.

When Greenlight Media’s Jon Quayle, at Sportel without a stand this time but hoping to exhibit again, told me the figure, I said, “Wow.”

He grinned, “That’s what everybody says.”


Seen around Sportel
David Dellea, long-time head of PwC’s sports operation In Switzerland, is at Sportel for the first time. He is now building the sports practice for consultancy Altman Solon…

Also popping his Sported cherry is Anmol Mahlotra, the head of sports partnerships for SNAP Inc, accompanied by London-based Kahlen Macauley. Anyone who thinks SNAP (363 million active users) is just about short clips is way off the pace. It shows 3-5 min. highlights of all the F1 races (in 10-15 second clips that navigate as they please). The company is developing a mind-blowing array of AR applications. “We have been making the camera (mobile phones) from a device for documenting experience into a communication device,” he says. “The next 10 years will be about making it an AR device.”

Taxes are something you immediately think about when it comes to video content but taking care of the taxation element of pay video services is art of the offer of subscriber management provider Cleeng, which not only automates the calculation of the different American state taxes for NFL+ in the U.S, but does the same globally for the NHL’s digital platform.

Cleeng also provides the chatbots for the NFL platform. “About 80% of customer communications are easily dealt with by the bots,” says Hjalmar Koedijker (another Sportel first-timer). BTW, that’s called the ‘deflection rate.’

Definitely not a Sportel first-timer is Heather White of Indycar, who has attended every single event in Monaco since the start. (I was keeping pace with her until a few years ago before getting back on track this year.) She points out that 15 of the 23 drivers who take part in every Indycar race are international. “We’re holding our own as an American product in the international market. We are a good complementary product. Indycar is shown by most of the F1 broadcasters in Europe.”

The all-time Sportel attendance champ is Karen Manzi of Matchroom, who has not only been at every market in Monaco but all the international editions too.

Rory Renwick has returned to Sportel after an absence of about 15 years (he was here for the Ladies European Tour) with Swedish tech provider Accedo. He sees the tech emphasis as transformational in terms of the way everyone needs to navigate today’s sports market. “Sometimes companies are competing, sometimes they are collaborating and integrating with one another. It can be tricky to unpick the complexities. I think providers should help sports clients more.” He adds, “Sports can be timid when it comes to innovation.”

Christian Osterode is at his first Sportel in his new commercial role with World Rowing after years of attending for the equestrian FEI, he is an industry veteran.

Claude Ruibal is at the market with his multi-faceted Ubiquity Sports. He has invested in a couple of tech start-ups offering personalized clipping (Sizzle) and AI-powered ad serving (Catapult X). He is also looking at investments in sports properties.

Gregory Bolle, formerly of LaLiga, is attending with Playfoot, an advanced metaverse solution to create immersive experiences for fans.

“Gaming is what young people do. Sports need to adapt. We’re a white-label solution to help clubs gameify their content in order to engage the younger demographic in a metaverse environment.”

Jay Stuart has been to more additions of Sportel than he would care to mention. The Editor-in-Chief of iSportConnect, was our man on the ground in Monaco this week, in this article he reports back his findings from the event.

Adidas terminates deal with Kanye West

adidas does not tolerate antisemitism and any other sort of hate speech. Ye’s recent comments and actions have been unacceptable, hateful and dangerous, and they violate the company’s values of diversity and inclusion, mutual respect and fairness.

After a thorough review, the company has taken the decision to terminate the partnership with Ye immediately, end production of Yeezy branded products and stop all payments to Ye and his companies. adidas will stop the adidas Yeezy business with immediate effect.

This is expected to have a short-term negative impact of up to €250 million on the company’s net income in 2022 given the high seasonality of the fourth quarter.  

adidas is the sole owner of all design rights to existing products as well as previous and new colorways under the partnership. More information will be given as part of the company’s upcoming Q3 earnings announcement on November 9, 2022.

Adidas recently came third in Ear to the Ground’s Fan Intelligence Index order it here

Blast appoint CSM as Sales Agency of Record

CSM Sport & Entertainment (CSM) is pleased to announce that global esports tournament series, BLAST Premier, has appointed the agency as its Sales Agency of Record. CSM will work with BLAST Premier to identify and secure commercial partners that match the growth ambitions of the global tournament organiser.

BLAST Premier is a worldwide Counter-Strike tournament series where the best teams and biggest superstars fight it out for glory and a multi-million-dollar prize pool. Famous for its unparalleled production quality and game changing fan-first moments, BLAST Premier events attract tens-of-thousands of fans to big arenas from London and Copenhagen to Miami and Sao Paulo. With millions more watching at home on the global broadcast, fans are tuning in from more than 154 territories and in 25 different languages.

BLAST boasts a strong existing partner portfolio, including Coinbase, MAERSK and Betway. Leveraging its extensive global commercial network, CSM’s remit will be to establish and secure new brand categories for BLAST and help it reach new international markets.

In September, BLAST announced plans to host and produce the first ever Counter-Strike Major to take place in France next May. French President Emmanuel Macron fronted the announcement and followed up on comments made earlier in the year, where he stated a desire for France to host leading esports events such as the Counter-Strike Major in the future and become the ‘country of video games’. The BLAST.tv Major will be BLAST’s first time hosting one of the most watched and loved esports events in the world.

Debs Scott-Bowden, CSM’s Head of Gaming & Esports, said: “We are delighted to be working alongside BLAST Premier as it looks to continue its global expansion. BLAST is at the forefront of elite-level esports entertainment, reaching millions of fans in every corner of the globe, which provides an exciting proposition for prospective partners. With our strong heritage in rights sales and expertise within the esports space, we are confident we can take its commercial strategy to the next level. We’re excited to get that process underway.”

Oliver Clarke, Commercial Director for BLAST Premier, said: “We are delighted to have CSM on board as our Sales Agency of Record. With their growing influence in the world of esports, reinforced by years of experience working with major rights holders on their commercial strategies, we feel they are the perfect agency to help further develop and grow BLAST Premier’s global commercial portfolio. We have some exciting growth plans in the next 18 months, and we look forward to working with CSM to achieve these aims.”

The news follows CSM recently hiring Adam Mundie as its new Senior Account Director for esports and gaming. He joins CSM from renowned British competitive gaming culture brand EXCEL Esports, having spent two years with the organisation managing and activating global esports partnerships. Prior to this, he held similar roles at both Betway and Sportfive.

In addition to this, CSM also recently announced that experienced esports executive, Brian Millman, has joined the business as VP of Properties & Brand Strategy. The pair will work closely with Head of Gaming & Esports, Debs Scott-Bowden, to unlock further opportunities for clients and partners in the rapidly evolving gaming and esports sectors.

Audi reach agreement with Sauber to enter F1 in 2026

Audi have reached an agreement with Sauber to make the Swiss Formula 1 operation their works team from 2026.

The German manufacturer announced in August that they will join F1 as a power unit supplier, when new regulations that feature increased electrical power and 100% sustainable fuels will be introduced in four years.

Ahead of the Mexican Grand Prix, Audi said Sauber – who are currently running under the Alfa Romeo banner – will become their “strategic partner” for their F1 programme and that the automotive company plans to acquire a stake in the Sauber Group.

Audi will create their power unit at their base in Neuburg in Germany – where already more than 120 people are working on the project – while Sauber will develop and manufacture their race car at their headquarters in Hinwil, Switzerland. Sauber will also be responsible for planning and executing the race operations.

“We are delighted to have gained such an experienced and competent partner for our ambitious Formula 1 project,” said Oliver Hoffmann, Audi AG Board Member responsible for the F1 programme.

“We already know the Sauber Group with its state-of-the-art facility and experienced team from previous collaborations and are convinced that together we will form a strong team.”

Sauber Chairman of the Board of Directors Finn Rausing added: “Audi is the best strategic partner for the Sauber Group. It is clear that we share values and a vision, and we look forward to achieving our common goals in a strong and successful partnership.”

Sauber Motorsport CEO and Team Principal Fred Vasseur said: “The partnership between Audi AG and Sauber Motorsport is a key step for our team as we continue to make progress towards the front of the grid.

“To become Audi’s official works team is not only an honour and a great responsibility: it’s the best option for the future and we are fully confident we can help Audi achieve the objectives they have set for their journey in Formula 1.”

Adam Baker, managing director of the F1 project, added: “We are looking forward to working with an experienced team that has helped shape many eras of Formula 1 history.”

Stefano Domenicali, President and CEO of F1 said: “It is great news to hear that Audi will have a partnership with Sauber for their entry into Formula 1 in 2026. The combination of those two names is a very exciting prospect for our sport.

“It highlights the strong momentum that Formula 1 has and the belief in our strategy to further grow and enhance the sport while delivering on our sustainability plans to be Net Zero Carbon by 2030 with advanced sustainable fuels in the cars in 2026. We look forward to seeing their progress over the coming years and the car on the grid for the team’s first race.”

Ahead of Audi’s arrival, Alfa Romeo will end their title sponsorship of Sauber at the end of the 2023 campaign. The Swiss team will continue to use Ferrari power units through to the end of 2025, before taking on Audi power for the following campaign.

Audi – who are part of the Volkswagen Group – say expansion of their Neuburg facility in terms of personnel, buildings and technical infrastructure should “be largely in place in 2023”. They intend to do their first tests of the 2026 power unit in an F1 test car in 2025.

Lego ranked as most culturally relevant brand by Ear to the Ground

Ear to the Ground’s annual Fan Intelligence® Index ranks the most culturally relevant brands in sports, esports and gaming.

Culture is a constantly shifting entity, and every year the Fan Intelligence Index throws up surprising new twists. They tweaked their methodology to match the changing times and saw new brands come to the fore. In addition, sports, esports and gaming are now all ranked equally, which also had an impact on the ranking.

LEGO took top spot after a stellar year within sports, esports and gaming. From breaking gender stereotypes with a Women’s Euro campaign to launching a new Horizon Forbidden West LEGO set alongside the game’s launch, the toy maker held the attention of the New Breed of Fan all year long. 

LEGO’s rise shows the power of a dedicated strategy in sports, esports and gaming to drive cultural relevance and see results with the New Breed of Fan.

Amazon are another winner of this year’s Fan Intelligence® Index, rising 32 places to fourth in the overall ranking. The sporting fly-on-the-wall All Or Nothing documentary series provides fans with unmatched insights into some of the biggest sports teams in the world. Fans love getting closer and being educated about the teams and personalities they admire. 

Amazon continue to invest in and evolve sports broadcasting. Their recent Premier League live gameweek saw them trial managers interviewing each other in a switch-up of the post-match interview, and fans completely loved the irreverent nature. A debut Thursday Night Football NFL programme also saw Amazon Prime break the record for sign ups in a 3-hour period. Combined with regular drops of exclusive loot for Prime Gaming fans and you have a potent, culturally relevant offering designed to appeal to the New Breed of Fan.

For the full ranking, plus deep dives into the trends at play in the coming year, click here:

Genius Sports Limited extends data partnership with bet365

Genius Sports Limited, the official data, technology and commercial partner that powers the ecosystem connecting sports, betting and media, has clinched a long-term extension of its official data partnership with bet365.

Genius Sports will provide bet365 with its exclusive portfolio of official data rights including the Premier League, NFL, CFL, AHL, NASCAR and more. In addition, as the official data partner to the Mid-American Conference, Genius Sports will provide bet365 with the first and only official data feed for betting on NCAA sports. 

In another first, Genius Sports and bet365 will explore the implementation of Genius’ unique suite of ground-breaking betting products powered by its Second Spectrum tracking and augmentation technology.

“Expanding our partnership with bet365, the largest sports betting brand in the world, demonstrates our commitment to delivering the most innovative and compelling products for our customers,” said Mark Locke, CEO of Genius Sports. “Across thousands of events a year, including top-tier competitions such as the Premier League and NFL, we will provide bet365 with the highest quality content and first-of-its-kind betting experience to power immersive and real-time betting markets for millions of customers worldwide.”