Member Insights: Baseball “Will Add To The Magic Of The Olympic Games”, Says World Baseball Softball Confederation’s Fraccari
January 23, 2020
It is now just six months until the baseball competition at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics begins, with the sport returning to the games for the first time since 2008.
With this in mind, iSportconnect spoke to Riccardo Fraccari, President of the World Baseball Softball Confederation, about their new Baseball5 format, preparations for Tokyo 2020 and technological developments.
Tell us about the progress of the new Baseball Fives format, do you think it can bring baseball popularity in new countries that do not play the traditional sport?
Baseball5 is booming out of proportions and far behind our expectations. In less than 2 years we have evidence of implementation in 69 countries, which raises the adoption rate to 50%. Baseball5 is taking the funding principles of baseball and softball to new and unimaginable places like, Burundi, Myanmar, Palestine and Jordan just to mention a few. In the latest Executive Board meeting we approved the first Baseball5 World Cup, it will take place in Mexico next December and will feature mixed teams in U-15 and senior categories. Just recently Baseball5 was added to the programme of the Youth Olympic Games Dakar 2022.
How are preparations for Tokyo 2020 proceeding? The baseball and softball competitions will be very popular tickets…
From the technical aspect we are all set and ready to go. The test events went smoothly and both venues are world-class. For the softball tournament all the teams have already qualified, and the excitement is building up among the softball community. For the baseball tournament two seeds are still up for grabs, they will be contested on between the end of March and the beginning of April in the Americas and Last WBSC qualifiers.
Japan has true, passionate fans, the IOC, Tokyo 2020 and us we are all expecting not only to be among the highest ticket sales in figures but also very vivid and enthusiastic crowds that will add to the magic of the Olympic Games.
How about technology? Will the broadcast coverage feature any of the sort of graphics that we see in American baseball like the virtual strike zone? What do you think of these innovations?
No doubt that technology is increasingly playing a key role in presenting and delivering the sport product to the global audience. Although to this respect TV production is managed by OBS and each taker will have the opportunity to partly personalise the product. Be sure, you can expect surprises.
What can you tell us about your OTT development? How has the response been?
WBSC is now present on both mobile and internet with our Game Time platform. We are happy with the numbers collected during the Premier12, and especially with the retention after that event ended. This means that we delivered a user-friendly high-quality product. There is still work to be done, but we are confident that in 2020 we will keep the growth pace going.
