How World Sailing Combined With Virtual Regatta To Create Fan Engagement Through Esailing
As a sport which can be difficult to access for much of the general population, sailing has always had a key issue in terms of creating participation and fan engagement. So we spoke to World Sailing and Virtual Regatta to see how they combatted the issue with their highly successful partnership.
How can you get people involved in a sport which, as described by Virtual Regatta’s founder and former professional sailor Philippe Guigné, “may be the most complex sport to practice”?
“You need to have a boat; water; most people don’t live near a lake or the sea; you might need a crew; you can’t go when the weather is bad. Accessing this sport is not always straightforward,” he adds.
Scott Over, World Sailing’s Commercial Director explains, “We saw some partnerships forming between international federations and eSports, and there was quite a difference between eGaming and how that was expanding with a young demographic.”
So how could the organisation work to create more engagement in the sport amongst the general public, and entice those with no experience in sailing into becoming fans of the sport?
World Sailing decided to contact Virtual Regatta, an online sailing game, in 2017 regarding a partnership, which has since created huge traction within both the sailing and non-sailing community.
“We saw an opportunity and approached Virtual Regatta with regards to creating an official eSailing competition,” says Over, “We partnered and launched the eSailing World Championships and it spiralled from there.”
“Twice, years ago, I had previously tried to get World Sailing into Virtual Regatta but they were not interested,” says Guigné, who first started the company in 2006. “Then I was on holiday in Sri Lanka and received contact from Andy Hunt, World Sailing’s previous CEO, when he began his role, saying I’ve seen what you do and I’d like to meet you. He visited us in France a few weeks later, and soon after we had a deal.”
So how does it work? Virtual Regatta has two modes, Inshore and Offshore. Using a motorsport analogy, Inshore, Guigné describes, is “a bit like being a Formula 1 driver, very detailed and you need a high skill level,” whereas in Offshore, “you’re like a rally or off-road driver, it’s much more adventurous.”
Virtual Regatta already had an established playing base within France, but with World Sailing on board, the game has been elevated to a much greater, global audience.
“Because our audience was very different to Virtual Regatta’s, the game became much more international. We bled it into our member nations, partnered events, owned events, and then created a final during our Annual Conference,” explains Over.
“We launched an Offshore game and I believe we had over 350,000 boats playing. We also had to increase our eSailing World Championship number to 25,000 from 5,000. If you compare that to EA Sports and something like FIFA, a completely different world, then relatively these are small numbers, but for sailing it’s fantastic.
“Virtual Regatta developing the game and making it as relevant as possible to sailing was super appealing to us; we could engage pro sailors and Olympians to play, and they enjoyed it. The prospect of coming up against them creates a really cool added value to anyone playing – even if you can say “I was heavily defeated by a professional sailor,” it’s an interaction that didn’t exist before.”
So just how many players are there across Virtual Regatta? “Over the last 12 months, we have had around 1.3 million players,” Guigné states. “And we had over 100,000 people in just the Offshore game alone in April.
“When we produce an event which is big in the physical world, like the Vendée Globe, we have a lot of players. We saw numbers of more than 500,000 for the last edition three years ago, and we expect over a million for this year’s event. We are predicting 2 million players for the next 12 months.”
The partnership has proved extremely fruitful to World Sailing as it has provided them with a new method to engage their audience. During the current coronavirus pandemic, which left many sailors around the world unable to participate in their favourite pastime, it has allowed people to stay involved in the sport and keep in contact with those they would normally sail with.
“There will always be people that don’t see the virtual world as relevant, but now they’re stuck indoors so they’re giving it a go,” says Over. “It’s a big focus for us, as without broadcasts of real-life events, there’s less brand awareness, so where can you do it? You can brand a virtual sailing boat and create sponsorship rights and assets in the virtual world, and the audience is massive.
“We launched a set of three postponed Olympic class regattas, who hadn’t used eSailing before, on Virtual Regatta. As they had to cancel or rearrange their real-life events due to coronavirus, we invited them to engage virtually with an audience who would otherwise miss out. That’s where we’ve seen a huge spike in numbers.”
World Sailing have also recently announced a brand new partnership with Mount Gay Rum to see the drinks brand join as an official eSailing partner for the next two years.
Another key point noted, as well as the difficulties associated with participation, is that the rules of sailing can be fairly complicated. Virtual Regatta is also, therefore, a key model to help provide a greater understanding of the sport.
“In the physical world you may not see the start line, and of course you can’t see the wind, apart from on a flag or trees. In motor racing you know who’s in the lead, whereas in sailing it’s difficult. We can help make this more visible in the game,” says Guigné.
“I’m happy my game is used by World Sailing to help us create greater knowledge for players everywhere, ensuring we both educate existing sailors and welcome new people to sailing. I’m so happy to be able to help my sport develop.”
Over ends by emphasising that a key benefit has been data, something that is not typically easy for sailing to attain from spectators who line the shores of real-life competitions.
“We don’t get a great amount of detail of who turns up to our events; whereas if you log into Virtual Regatta we know if you sail or not, where you’re from, and if you’d be interested in trying sailing in real life. Being able to dive into this data is another reason regattas are engaging with us more.
“We renewed our relationship with Virtual Regatta in October last year and now it’s an underlying thought every time we do something. It’s always an asset that we have to drive engagement to sailing.”
As a sport which can be difficult to access for much of the general population, sailing has always had a key issue in terms of creating participation and fan engagement. So we spoke to World Sailing and Virtual Regatta to see how they combatted the issue with their highly successful partnership.
