The EB Institute Annual Workshops hit the ground running on Monday and Tuesday as club professionals in media, content, marketing and ticketing brainstormed with Euroleague Basketball executives to identify best practices in their fields with an eye towards engaging and entertaining fans in the coming 2019-20 season and beyond. You can get a feel for the event here on iSportconnect TV.

More than 20 club executives in media relations spent all day on Monday reviewing many detailed aspects of communications strategies and tools in order to enhance the EuroLeague’s visibility and interactivity in the sports and entertainment landscape.

Central to the discussions was the primary role that players and coaches have as the protagonists of the competition to engage with fans and the media and how clubs can maximize those efforts for the good of the game. The attendees paid particular attention to the fast-changing nature of the media landscape, taking it as an opportunity to reach new audiences and make new fans.

“In every department, I think it’s great when the Euroleague brings all the clubs together,” Claudio Limardi of AX Armani Exchange Olimpia Milan said. “We are the 18 best teams in Europe not just from a basketball standpoint, but from an organization standpoint. And the fact that we are all moving in the same direction, trying to make the model sustainable, always more fan-friendly and revenue-oriented, that’s great for every department: marketing, communications, the sports side, everything. So, I think it’s one of the most important times of the year.

“Everything from a communications standpoint is changing overnight. So, every year while we are switching to digital communication and using new platforms, new ways of reaching the fans, the opportunity to meet people with great experience who are facing different challenges is always great. It’s most of all a learning experience, even for me who has now been to eight of these meetings.”

Wednesday brought an even larger number of marketing and ticketing executives from the length and breadth of Europe for day-long meetings to strategize about new campaigns and initiatives designed to give fans everywhere an even more exciting experience built around the best club basketball in Europe.

The marketing meetings revolved around rewarding loyal fans with new opportunities while also taking the EuroLeague experience to new settings beyond the traditional platforms in the arena and on television, all with the objective of inspiring the next generation of basketball lovers.

“When you take a deep look, we kind of share the same problems, and we have the same kind of understanding for the sport and the things that are important for us,” Alvaro Vitores, Partnership Activation Manager for Real Madrid, said. “So, it’s great to share thoughts and to discuss the decisions that EuroLeague takes and actually to validate them or complain if we are not happy.

“Being able to see that we all have similar goals and to see where the market is going, and try to adapt ourselves to the future, is really interesting. It’s just like in the game: if you stay still, doing the same things that you’ve done, next year the new guys are going to eat you. And it’s the same in marketing.”

In the ticketing workshop, fans were the focus again as the teams traded ideas on how to tailor their offerings of the game experience and everything that surrounds it to the entertainment needs of a wide and varied range of customers.

“Naturally, the ticketing meeting is enlightening,” Oren Atar, Ticket Sales Director for Maccabi FOX Tel Aviv, said. “Everyone comes here and says all the good and bad things that are happening in their clubs. Every year, I hear things that I don’t know, so I learn, and I try to make it happen during the next season. So, eventually, if you come and you listen, if you renew your thoughts and learn, you will sell better.”

Isle of Man-based production company Greenlight Television has partnered with the global motorsport website Motorsport.tv for the debut season of the road race series King of the Roads which ranks the riders at the main race at each of the 10 road races being televised in 2019.

With initial sponsorship from tyre manufacturer Metzeler, the series takes place across a number of iconic races in Europe and Asia, on closed public roads offering unique road racing not normally seen by TV audiences.

Greenlight’s production crews have been filming the world’s fastest road races for over 25 years and continue innovate using new technology to bring the amazing racing closer than ever to TV audiences. The agreement with Motorsport.tv enables fans to watch even more of the great races than ever before, with two main races from each meeting available the same day and a 1-hour highlight show of the whole event shortly afterwards.

International distribution of the series is being managed by Greenlight International with current agreements including ITV4, Sky Networks NZ, CBS Sports and Fox Sports Australia.

Greenlight Director Rob Hurdman said: “We are thrilled to create a series with Motorsport TV that enables riders to compete for an overall prize fund, it also allows our international audience see and understand the progression the riders have made over the season”

Motorsport TV France CEO Olivier Dufour, a speaker at last week’s iSportconnect Paris Summit,  said “We identified in road racing a unique opportunity to bring to the eyes of the world, via Motorsport.tv, for the first time ever on any screen, the thrill and bravery of those open roads competitions. And when our project materialized to choosing both a commercial and production partner, the obvious choice has been Greenlight whose name and expertise are inseparable from live motor racing.”

The British Grand Prix will stay at Silverstone, which hosts this weekend’s race, for at least the next five years under a new deal announced Wednesday.

The race’s future had been in doubt since 2017, when a break clause was activated to terminate the contract after this weekend’s grand prix.

Reuters reports:

Circuit owners the British Racing Drivers’ Club (BRDC) had argued that the previous contract negotiated with former supremo Bernie Ecclestone was no longer financially viable due to escalating fees.

Formula One said the new deal ensured the circuit, which hosted the first world championship grand prix in 1950, would remain on the calendar until at least the end of 2024.

“We have always said that, if it is to have a long-term future, our sport must preserve its historic venues and Silverstone and Great Britain represent the cradle of this sport,” said Formula One Chairman Chase Carey.

“Formula One is a global sport, held on five continents, watched by an audience of over 500 million fans around the world and our aim is to grow this number by bringing the sport we love to new countries, while also maintaining its roots,” he added.

“Silverstone and the British Grand Prix are an integral part of that vision.”

No financial details were immediately available.

Britain and Italy are the only two countries that have always featured on the Formula One calendar since the debut championship.

A new contract will be a big boost to British motor racing, with seven of the 10 F1 teams based in the country and the motorsport industry providing tens of thousands of jobs.

Mercedes’ five times world champion Hamilton has won five times at Silverstone and last year’s race at the former World War Two airfield was the best attended of any grand prix with a 140,500 crowd on race day.

“This deal has met all of the tests that we set ourselves at the beginning of this exercise,” Silverstone Managing Director Stuart Pringle told Reuters when asked how the new contract differed from the old one.

He added that it was now financially viable.

“It will be different, this deal, because it places an emphasis on both parties working in a far more collaborative fashion to try and develop the British Grand Prix to our mutual benefit,” he added.

Pringle stressed, however, that it would be misleading to suggest there was any sharing of the risk with Formula One management. “We’re still absolutely on the hook,” he said.

Pringle said last month that contract negotiations had been complicated by Formula One’s desire to also hold a street race in London, but he sounded more relaxed on Wednesday.

“We have had our concerns satisfactorily addressed in this agreement,” he said.

The deal switches the focus to Spain, Germany and Mexico — all races without contracts for 2020 and at risk of dropping off the calendar.

INEOS TEAM UK today announced Harken as their latest technical supplier, supporting the team in their campaign for the 36th America’s Cup  As this piece on iSportconnect TV shows, the team have been working closely with Harken designing, testing and manufacturing componentry integral to the performance of the team’s test boat, coded named ‘T5’ and two AC75 race boats.

Harken will also supply the team with deck hardware including winches and pedestals, gearboxes, blocks and hydraulic componentry produced in their two global factories; Pewaukee, Wisconsin USA and Limido Comasco, Italy.

INEOS TEAM UK Team Principal and Skipper Ben Ainslie and CEO Grant Simmer both have historic relationships with Harken.

Harken supported Ben during his successful Olympic campaigns in the Finn dinghy (including London 2012) and Grant has previously worked with the marine hardware company throughout his Cup career.