Hookit Analysis: March Madness Is Pretty Crazy On Twitter Too

The annual NCCA Men’s Basketball tournament is called March Madness for good reason.

What makes it so special and enjoyable for fans is that it’s wildly unpredictable with loads of upsets and new heroes appearing from nowhere every year.

It’s not only next to impossible to predict the Final Four. Just figuring out which teams will make it out of the early rounds is a challenge.

This quick presentation from sponsorship analytics and evaluation company Hookit covering Team Mentions on Twitter during the tournament captures the March Madness spirit while delivering some fascinating insights into the volatility of fluctuating social media interaction.

Watch them go up and down and see if you can guess who winds up on top.

News Corp Joins SportAccord As Top Media Partner

SportAccord has confirmed News Corp as Top Media Partner for SportAccord 2019, set to take place from May 5-10, 2019 in Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia.

Selected as Top Media Partner for their comprehensive regional media coverage, each month, more than 16 million Australians consume news and information across the News Corp suite of digital and traditional print products, exceeding more than any other media group in Australia.

Jason Scott, Managing Director, News Corp QLD, NNSW & NT said: “News Corp is delighted to be the top media partner for SportAccord and we welcome the world of sport to our backyard again, so soon after the successful Commonwealth Games.

“While the focus of SportAccord is to discuss how sport and its governance can continue to contribute to our communities, we are proud to share in the conversation as we strive to grow our connectivity between sport and our audiences.

“Sport in Australia is more than a pastime, it’s fundamental to our way of life. And nowhere is that more evident than here in South East Queensland where we are blessed with 300 days of sunshine and world-class facilities.

“On behalf of all Queenslanders, welcome to the Gold Coast.”

iSportconnect will be present at SportAccord as a Principal Media Partner.

Rugby League World Cup Teams Up With Deloitte

The Rugby League World Cup 2021 has announced Deloitte as its Official Professional Services Partner. The two organisations will work together to deliver the tournament’s strategic goal of being the most digitally-connected sports entertainment event in 2021.

Over the next two and a half years, Deloitte will collaborate with RLWC2021 to help create and implement the tournament’s digital strategy, which will play a critical role in providing a world class and innovative fan experience before, during and after the tournament.

As the latest commercial partner of the tournament, Deloitte will develop an activation programme that supports the values and ambition of RLWC2021

The Deloitte team will help RLWC2021 to develop their digital ecosystem and put a strategy in place to support and deliver a digitally driven tournament aligned with RLWC2021 strategic goals.

In 2021, England will welcome nations to the 16th Rugby League World Cup, where for the first time in history, the men’s, women’s and wheelchair games will be played concurrently – championing inclusivity, which has been at the forefront of RLWC2021 planning.

RLWC2021 Chief Executive Jon Dutton (at right in the photo above) said: “For this tournament to be a success, we have to offer a unique experience and engage with both core fans and a new group of customers. Digital presence is absolutely crucial to reach new and existing fans, but also to ensure an event experience like no other.

“We are absolutely delighted to be collaborating with Deloitte – which is known across the globe – to help shape and build our digital strategy. This is a true team-effort, where our shared goal is to become the most digitally-connected sports entertainment event in 2021. We can’t wait to develop our collaboration and enhance the World Cup experience for the hundreds of thousands who will attend matches and the millions who will follow the tournament.”

Stuart Cottee, Deloitte practice Senior Partner for Yorkshire & the North East (at left in the photo), said: “The Rugby League World Cup 2021 is a truly global event taking place right on our doorstep. Nearly 90% of the tournament’s games, including all three finals, will be held in the Northern Powerhouse. The Rugby League World Cup 2021 will firmly put the North of England on the world stage. Deloitte employs over 1400 people across our offices in the North, we are proud to be sponsoring the tournament and supporting its development to be the most digitally-connected sports entertainment event in 2021.”

Sean Beech, Partner for Deloitte in the North West (centre in the photo), added: “The foundations of Rugby League were built in the North before becoming one of this country’s greatest sporting exports. Our sponsorship of the Rugby League World Cup 2021 aligns really well with Deloitte’s values, most especially in respect of inclusivity. This tournament will provide a stage for the best players in the men’s, women’s and wheelchair game to shine together for the first time and all three finals will be played in the North. We are really proud to be playing our part in this landmark event.”

UK Athletics Names Jockey Club To Manage Finances

UK Athletics has appointed Jockey Club Services (JCS) to manage its financial processing function.

The appointment will see JCS manage transactional processing, treasury, debtor management, expenses and financial reporting for the next three years, providing the sport with an up-to-date system at best possible value.

Jonathan Orr, Chief Financial and Operations Officer of UK Athletics, said: “We have studied the experiences of a number of NGBs who have effectively outsourced various business services to Jockey Club Services and the feedback has been exceptionally positive. Like all governing bodies we are continually challenging ourselves to have a resilient but cost effective back-office operation in order to drive core investment to the sport of athletics.

“In JCS we have found an organisation that has extensive experience in the NGB sector who will work closely with us to provide the depth of financial management and expertise that we need as we head to Tokyo and beyond.”

Since its inception, JCS has provided a number of different business services to a wide cross-section of professional sports in the UK including Badminton England, Table Tennis England, England Squash and British Fencing.

Rob Quick, Director of Jockey Club Services, said: “It’s a real honour for Jockey Club Services to be chosen by a governing body with the size, scale and pedigree of UK Athletics to manage their financial operational requirements for the next three years.

“The appointment from our perspective confirms the quality of the JCS offer and the depth of support that we are able to offer.

“We very much look forward to working with the team at UKA to deliver a first-class financial management service.”

Jockey Club Services clients include the provision of Ticketing Services to three first-class County Cricket Clubs, Finance and Accounting for numerous NGBs, Procurement Support for a range of leading sports organisations and Loyalty programmes through the creation of Rewards4Cricket with half of the UK’s professional cricket clubs.

 

Mediaset Will Drop Pay-TV Channels, Moving Content To Streaming Apps

Italy’s top commercial broadcaster Mediaset plans to close its pay-TV channels and move their content to a video streaming service after losing 80 percent of its paying clients in six months, a source close to the matter said.

The move is part of a downsizing of the group’s pay-TV unit, which is called Mediaset Premium, following years of losses and a failed sale to French media group Vivendi.

Reuters reports:

A second source confirmed the shift to streaming but was unable to provide details about customer numbers.

After years of heavy spending to secure soccer rights as it competed with rival Sky Italia, Mediaset Premium then cut back on investment.

Last year it lost rights to broadcast Serie A and UEFA Champions League soccer matches, leading to a large loss of subscribers.

The first source said Mediaset Premium’s clients had shrunk to just 300,000 customers by the start of this year from around 1.5 million in mid-2018, mostly as a consequence of having dropped soccer from the pay-TV offer.

Mediaset is controlled by the family of former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi. Embroiled in a legal battle with Vivendi over the failed Premium sale, Mediaset has shifted focus back to its core free-to-air business and will decide by the end of July whether to expand in Europe.

It will give its remaining Premium clients notice of the channels’ switch-off from digital terrestrial television at the beginning of May, the first source said.

Customers will be given the opportunity to migrate to a video-streaming app service which would include most of the pay-TV channels’ content, both sources said.

As part of a wider agreement sealed last year with Sky Italia, Mediaset Premium’s movie and TV drama packages will continue to be available to customers of Comcast’s Sky Italia.

Jamaica Scratches This Weekend’s IAAF Meeting

Jamaica’s only international invitational athletics meeting has been cancelled for financial reasons, officials said on Monday, with one athlete’s agent concerned it could affect their preparations for this year’s world championships.

The meeting, held since 2004, where multiple-Olympic champion Usain Bolt ran his first sub 10-second 100 meters in 2008, had been scheduled for this coming Saturday in Kingston.

Reuters reports:

“It is with regret that we inform you that due to budget issues the 2019 staging of the Jamaica International Invitational IAAF World Challenge Meeting has been cancelled,” a statement on the meeting’s website said.

Warren Blake, Chair of the event’s Organizing Committee and President of the Jamaica Administrative Athletics Association, told Reuters he was optimistic the meeting, held since 2004, would return next year.

“We are confident that we will return next year,” Blake said.

The meeting has traditionally been the first stop for a number of top athletes and its cancellation would likely have an impact on their preparations for the world championships later this year according to the agent of Jamaica’s Yohan Blake.

“It means that there is now one less meet for Jamaicans to compete in,” Cubie Seegogin, the agent for 2011 world 100m champion Blake, told Reuters from Los Angeles.

“So we’ve not only lost another meet in Jamaica, but we’ve also lost a key meet in preparation for the (national) championships.

“I don’t know where the athletes will get enough races to be prepared for the trials.”

Jamaica’s national championships, scheduled for June 20-23, also serve as the trials for the country’s team for the world championships that start on September 27 in Doha.

FanDuel Links With Sportradar To Launch First U.S. In-Game Betting App

In a first for the nascent U.S. sports betting market, FanDuel has signed a deal with Sportradar AG to allow sports fans to place wagers on a game while they are watching it on a mobile app,

The deal is set to be officially announced today after the service was rolled out late last week in New Jersey, where FanDuel, a unit of Irish bookmaker Paddy Power Betfair PLC, has the largest market share of all sportsbooks.

Reuters reports:

The deal highlights one way the media industry and the sports betting market are colliding, blurring the line for viewers who want to place a bet from their livestream.

Last May, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned a 1992 federal law that banned sports betting in all but a few places. That created a new market overnight, with eight states offering it and more expected.

So far, major U.S. media companies have trod cautiously, creating programming that includes sports betting content such as displaying odds – but without offering features to let viewers make bets while watching.

Most of the U.S. leagues staunchly opposed the legalization of sports betting until it became clear that consumer appetite for it had grown and the court was likely to overturn the ban.

“We’re trying to build the most engaging and entertaining sports betting experience in the U.S.,” said Niall Connell, General Manager of the sportsbook at FanDuel Group.

The service will only be available in New Jersey for now, but FanDuel said it hopes to offer it in other states as they allow mobile sports wagering.

Being able to watch a match and bet on it from within a mobile betting app has been around in Europe for some time.

However, American football fans should not expect to be able to watch the Super Bowl and bet on it inside an app any time soon.

While that is something both companies said they might one day be able to consider, media rights for the big four U.S. professional leagues – football, baseball, basketball and hockey – are more difficult to manoeuvre than in Europe.

FanDuel will start with tennis and European soccer.

A live stream on the lower tier, non-core sports is expected to double the number of bets on those sports, Connell said.

And with matches from overseas, “the ability to watch 24/7 is a key aspect of this,” said Neale Deeley, Sportradar’s Vice President of sales.

Viewers will be able to see live odds displayed in one part of the screen, in a section that allows them to place a bet while never leaving the game’s livestream.

Neither company would disclose financial terms of the non-exclusive agreement.

INTRODUCING: Podcast Interview – FC Zenit Saint Petersburg’s New Media Director

iSportconnect is delighted to introduce a new collaboration with @SportsContentStrategy, a podcast by @MrRichardClarke exploring sports content, digital and social media by talking to players, executives, coaches, creators and specialists.

The first edition features Russian football club FC Zenit Saint Petersburg, which has just started creating online content in Persian, the 15th language it its repertoire.*

Zenit’s New Media Director Egor Kretsan believes the Russian club has the widest range of multi-lingual content in world football.

Speaking to the SportsContentStrategy podcast, he outlined his approach.

Here some excerpts:

“Firstly, we don’t use the word ‘post,’ we prefer to use the word ‘talk.’ Obviously Russian is our main language. So, 100% of the content we produce is in Russian and the percentage reduces from there. In English, we’re going to have maybe 80%, and then lower and lower [for different languages]. Recently, we have started to produce content to talk to our fans in Persian, specifically a language called Farsi.”

“That happened because of Sardar Azmoun, the most popular athlete and one of the most popular people in Iran, joined the team. It was impossible to ignore how many Iranian fans came to our platforms, especially Instagram and Telegram. There was no choice, we just had to find a solution. So, we found an editor to help us with that.”

“[A few years ago] we noticed that we have a [wide] fanbase abroad. There were groups on Facebook and other platforms, where they kept posting content in their own languages. And there was an audience too. So, we built a programme, we called them ‘official fan blogs.’ We just said ‘OK, we’re going to give you a platform, we’re going to give you support, we are going to give you benefits like access to the team itself, or if we play in your country, we can provide you with tickets, or even media credentials’. That way you can become a part of a club, you can participate. And for some people, it really means something.”

“We decided not to go with an agency just because you lose the personal touch. They treat it like a very formal job. They put in the text and then, at the end of the month, they charge you for a specific amount of words. It is just a technical job.“

“At first, we took more of an opportunistic approach [to new languages]. Now, it has become a strategy. We have seen that it has worked so now we can replicate. We even have an internal competition between bloggers every month. We compare the numbers and we give a special prize to the fan blog that has performed the best.”

“For us, it’s about building relationships. It’s not like, ‘OK, we’re going to send you something twice a week just translate it and put it on the website.’ Now we have a community, a true community, and people talking to each other. They talk to us and we talk to them on a daily basis. It has worked out well for us.”

  • The full list: Russian, English, Portuguese, Italian, Spanish, German, French, Polish, Japanese, Chinese, Danish, Finish, Hebrew, Hindi, Persian.

For the full interview with Egor Kretsan and the back catalogue click here.

Olympic Channel and Minnesota Vikings Join 2019 Madrid Summit Speaker Lineup

iSportconnect is pleased to announce that Mark Parkman from the Olympic Channel and Scott Kegley from the NFL’s Minnesota Vikings will be joining us at our 2019 Madrid Summit. To be held on Friday 31st May, the day prior to the highly anticipated UEFA Champions League Final hosted at Atlético Madrid’s Wanda Metropolitano, this event will kick off iSportconnect’s Global Event Series. 

In partnership with LaLiga, iSportconnect has assembled a content programme that will bring together thought leaders from premier rights owners and brands to discuss and debate strategic issues impacting the future of the global sports business, including digital content strategies, sponsorship and partnership issues, hosting major events and the future of sporting facilities.

The speaker lineup includes the following:

  • Mark Parkman, General Manager, Olympic Channel
  • Scott Kegley, Executive Director of Digital Media & Innovation, Minnesota Vikings
  • Ellie Norman, Director of Marketing and Communications, Formula 1
  • David Hopkinson, Global Head of Partnerships, Real Madrid CF

Mark is responsible for overseeing the content creation, technical delivery and digital platform development, as well as integrating partnerships with Olympic Rights Holding Broadcasters, sponsors, International Sports Federations (IFs), National Olympic Committees (NOCs) and organising committees of the Olympic Games (OCOGs).  In its first year of operation, the Olympic Channel was named the Best Sport Thematic Channel by the TV Sports Awards.

Before joining OCS, Mark served as the Operations Executive for Olympic Broadcasting Services (OBS) and Vice-President of International Sports Broadcasting (ISB), where he oversaw the operations of the host broadcaster for the Olympic Games. He was awarded an Emmy for his work on the host broadcaster team for the Olympic Winter Games Salt Lake City 2002, and he recently managed operations for 1,800 hours of televised competition for the Olympic Winter Games Sochi 2014, overseeing production, engineering, logistics, planning, crewing and broadcaster relations. Mark previously worked in marketing, public relations and international television coordination with Turner Broadcasting System and Cohn & Wolfe, where he led media efforts for the NFL, NBA, MLB, NASCAR, PGA Golf.

Entering his fifth season with the Minnesota Vikings, Scott oversees all aspects of digital media, social media, mobile strategy and online editorial content. Under Scott’s leadership, the team has created several innovative digital content campaigns, winning two Shorty Awards and one Webby Award. With a unique approach to digital storytelling, the Vikings consistently rank in the top quartile in content engagement amongst NFL teams. The Vikings mobile app is a pillar of the team’s digital ticketing and fan experience initiatives at U.S. Bank Stadium. Prior to joining the Vikings, Scott spent nine seasons with the San Francisco 49ers as the head of their social and digital team. Scott was named to Leaders Under 40 Class of 2017.

Sree Varma, Founder & CEO of iSportconnect said: “I am absolutely thrilled to announce the Madrid Summit in partnership with our great friends at LaLiga. Our summits have had attendees from the sports industry around the globe and we are excited to bring this exclusive event to Spain again. It will be the first of our summits this year as we continue to connect with our global members.”

With a maximum of 150 invite-only delegates, iSportconnect provides a media/agency free opportunity to network with influential senior-level sports business executives. We are famous for our intimate and relaxed environment, encouraging ideas exchange and helping to introduce you to the right new connections.

To register your interest in attending the 2019 Madrid Summit, please contact Chloe McCombie at info@isportconnect.com

Invitation Policy: The Madrid Summit is a complimentary event for iSportconnect members who are from governing bodies, sports teams, brands and broadcasters. There is no fee to become an iSportconnect member. No sports agencies, professional service providers & suppliers are allowed.

For limited partnership opportunities, please contact Hugo Millns at info@isportconnect.com

 

America’s Cup: “We Are Re-Inventing The Broadcasting Platform”

The 36th America’s Cup presented by Prada will take place in Auckland, New Zealand, from March 6–21, 2021.

The world’s most prestigious sailing event will be contested by the winner of the 2017 America’s Cup, Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron, represented by Emirates Team New Zealand, and the winner of the Prada Cup, the challenger selection series in January-February 2021.

As Stephen Nuttall, Managing Director, Production & Media Rights, of the America’s Cup, points out in this interview, the event is unique in that it’s basically re-invented for every edition. The winner of the most recent one gets to make all the rules, so the Kiwis are very much at the helm of how the next competition shapes up.

But it’s not just the racing that changes.

“We have to re-invent the technology platform that underpins the broadcast operations,” he said.

Enjoy learning about what’s in store for the media coverage of this spectacular sports entertainment.