On The Front Foot - Issue 5

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PSN

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ON THE FRONT FOOT Mar 2019

Issue Five

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Boys into men Man United legend Nicky Butt talks management, pathways and player care

Back in the game Billy Vunipola’s return from injury to a place in the England squad

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£210m flyer

CVC’s deal to gain a stake in Premiership Rugby

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GOTHAM BOLD TITLE

INTERNATIONAL PLAYER CARE CONFERENCE NOVEMBER 12, 2019 LONDON

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he 4th International Player Care Conference will be bigger than ever offering more networking, more international speakers and new audiences. This, the leading event for player care managers across sport, will focus on the many challenges facing sports people, clubs and organisations who operate in an increasingly global market.

Past speakers have included senior executives from Premier League, Serie A, Bundesliga, MLS and Ligue 1 clubs with representatives from other sports including rugby, boxing, tennis, F1 and athletics.

This year’s conference will be more international than ever with speakers and delegates drawn from across the global world of sport heading for London in November. Delegates will benchmark

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against best practice in player care and gain new strategies for the day-to-day challenges of a high pressure environment.

The International Player Care Conference is an essential date in the calendar for agents, player liaison officers, coaches, medical staff, players’ union officials, targeted service suppliers and club administrators who are responsible for prioritising athlete welfare in a global sporting landscape.

International Player Care is an invitation-only event guaranteeing the best possible networking and contact making in an environment which is as conducive as possible to learning and development. This year’s conference will be double the size of 2018 with capacity for up to 500 delegates. To secure you place contact the Premier Sports Network - details below.

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Welcome to the March edition of On The Front Foot magazine. Personalities and business decision making dominate this issue in line with our Finance in Sport conference.

Issue # 5 Contents 4 Conference preview 12 Big interview: Nicky Butt 15 Reputation on the line 16 A £250m flyer: CVC takes a stake in Premiership Rugby 18 Back in the game: one-on-one

with Billy Vunipola 20 In brief 22 Deals to be done: sponsorship

roundup & data-led decisions

Our big interview this month is with Manchester United Class of ‘92 legend turned Youth Team manager Nicky Butt. He brings a unique perspective on the transition from player to manager and shares his views on the pressure on today’s young players.

Then in the first of several business-focused pieces we look at the recent investment into Premiership Rugby asking what CVC have got their hands on. Sticking with the rugby theme, Billy Vunipola opens up about ambition, injury and overcoming demons.

It’s back to business with a look at sponsorship deal making and stadium development projects.

Then we switch focus to potential opportunities in China before opening the digital debate to explore ways to monetise video.

Finally, I’d like to draw your attention to the preview of our upcoming Finance in Sport Conference. As you read, we are hard at work preparing to make it the best yet and I hope you’ll be able to join us.

Happy Reading Spencer Hidge Director Premier Sports Network t. 0208 4191100

26 Stadium developments 28 Enter the dragon 30 Digital debate: monetising video 32 Sports venturing into a new era 33 Behind the Scenes Awards 34 About turn: one-on-one with

Ryan Mason

Publisher Spencer Hidge Editor Phil Savage Design SB Communications To send feedback or articles for publication contact Phil Savage at editor@premiersports.agency To enquire about advertising contact David Watts at davidw@premiersports.agency On The Front Foot is published by the Premier Sports Network copyright ©2019. All rights reserved. No part of this publication can be reproduced without permission.

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CONFERENCE PREVIEW

Finance in Sport Conference

With board-level speakers and leading experts, this event on Tuesday 19th March will be a step up from the previous edition.

Anyone working in finance, whether in sport or industry, will be keenly aware of the backdrop of uncertainty which is making planning difficult. This year’s Finance in Sport conference may not clear the fog but it will explore ways for financial directors to manage through it.

A quick glance through the list of delegates shows that interest in financial management in sport is not confined to any particular code.

Neither are the big team sports clubs immune to the worries faced by smaller organisations. In fact there is the widest cross section that the Premier Sports Network has seen at a conference with as many as 20 sports represented including football, rugby, racing, tennis, cricket and F1.

The opportunity to network with peers from around worldwide sport will be one of the main benefits of attending the Finance in Sport conference as Finance Directors, CEOs and Commercial Directors from across the industry gather at the Institute of Directors in London. They will be treated to presentations, panels sessions, discussions & Q&A’s from some of sport’s leading practitioners.

Keynote speaker Barry Hearn has been one of the most successful promoters in sport. His Matchroom Sport agency has pointed the way for underexploited sports to thrive and prosper to the benefit of players and fans and he will be giving delegates the benefit of his experience.

Sport has been adept at creating new revenue streams which have ridden the wave of technological change we have all experienced. Now the future of some of these revenues is being called into question with continued stellar growth in sponsorship and media rights seeming to tail off. Dan Jones, Senior Partner of Deloitte’s Sport Business Group has

predicted revenues in sport for many years and his view of the earnings outlook will be extremely instructive. He will be joined by executives from F1 and World Dodgeball to see how the forecasts measure up to reality.

To bolt on new revenues many are turning to new technology to monetise a back catalogue of video content and use the close relationship with fans to unlock new opportunities. Leading experts from Bcaster and The Fan Experience Company will explore the limitations to these and how fans can be brought on board.

Bringing eveything back to reality, sport needs to be played in a venue and stadium developments have occupied the minds of many a Finance Director in recent years. Raising funds, maximising revenues and future proofing these investments will be explored by the boss of Saracens, Architects Populous and the CEO of QPR. Cost control is a vital part of financial management and one which is often misunderstood in sport where vast rewards go to top performers and vital backroom functions are left to struggle. The FA’s head of procurement will do a Q&A and senior execs from Galatasaray and Inter Milan will explore how the gap can be bridged between the haves and the have nots. Also on show will be innovative ways that costs can be accounted for and managed making the day a truly comprehensive one for financial managers in sport.

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Growth is out there

With traditional sponsorship revenue flatlining, Formula 1’s Chris Travers will tell Finance in Sport how they have driven growth.

“Sponsorship is not a harder sell these days,” says Chris Travers, Formula 1’s Director of Global Partnerships, “but what I would say is that brands understand the marketplace better and have better metrics to measure return versus investment. That means the challenge is to find an offering which genuinely drives success for our partners.”

Since the Liberty takeover of F1 from Bernie Ecclestone, the organisation has come up with some new approaches to the way it operates that are already driving growth in what were previously tough markets.

“The big global partnerships are taken as a given,” says Travers. “But growth has come in other areas. Take China: F1 has had a race in China for 15 years but haven’t had a single local Chinese sponsor during that period.”

Part of the reason is that, while F1 is a global

sport followed by people on five continents, all its outputs were English language only.

“This year we will launch a distribution feed in Chinese and Spanish and other languages so now we can go into those markets at a local level with a message that they can engage through F1 content at a local level.”

That decision didn’t come cheap but it’s already paying dividends. “The shift has driven a 207% increase in local audience in China and we’re looking at a similar uplift in engagement in other markets.”

Owning content in other languages has also brought new digital opportunities. “We are growing F1-TV in territories around the world so that we can commercialise other areas. You have to realise that just because someone doesn’t engage with a Grand Prix for three hours they still have a value.

“Our biggest success has been with digital content and that has become a huge channel for us. We have set up our own digital ad sales business to amplified those platforms and we continue to see opportunities to increase revenue.”

One of the biggest changes has been a new approach to pricing. “We used to have two tiers of partners – global partners and official sponsors – but from looking at what other sports are doing we found we needed to be more flexible to commercialise in other territories. We started from the view that there should be a place for every company that wants to be involved in Formula 1. Now we have five layers which enables us to have conversations with a much wider range of brands.”

Chris Travers will be sharing more of their strategy at the Finance in Sport conference .

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CONFERENCE PREVIEW

FINANCE IN SPORT

Tuesday 19th March, Institute of Directors, London CONFIRMED SPEAKERS

Barry Hearn, Chairman, Matchroom Sport

David Orman, Founding Partner, Hatch House

Mitesh Velani, CEO, Saracens Rugby Club

Chris Travers, Director of Global Partnerships, Formula 1

Christopher Lee, Senior Principal, Populous

Adam Bazely, Senior Director UK National Sales, SAP Concur

Tom Hickson, President, World Dodgeball

Diarmuid Crowley, CEO, Druid

Lee Hoos, CEO, QPR FC

Scott McLeod, Head of Fan Engagement, Everton FC

Nathan Homer, CMO, Ryder Cup and European Tour

Dorukhan Acar, Board Member, Galatasaray

Dan Jones, Senior Partner, Deloitte Sports Business Group

Mark Bradley, Director, The Fan Experience Company

Janne Neuvonen, CEO, Bcaster

Julia Chapman, Finance Director, Northampton Saints

Tim Williams, CFO, Inter Milan

Tom Warwick, Senior Business Manager, The FA

Jim Boyle, CEO, Jim Boyle Racing

Ruaidhri Dunn, Head of Procurement, The FA

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Martin Blake, Partner, Farrer & Co

Simon Steele, Finance Director, Lawn Tennis Association

Joel Seymour-Hyde, Head of UK, Octagon

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Adam Leventhal, Sky Sports News, Moderator

AGENDA 9.00am

Complimentary breakfast and networking

9.40am

Conference commences

10.20am Funding Redevelopment Projects and Sourcing Naming Rights As a sports organisation’s most important asset the way venues are designed, delivered and funded is critical to fulfilling their commercial potential and lifetime value 10.55am Q&A Cost Saving Procurement 11.50am

Financial Challenges for Elite Sports Organisations

Top tips to deal with a range of challenges from the pressure of lumpy cashflows to better ways to control costs 12.20pm New Revenue Opportunities from Technology and Fan Engagement Monetising digital assets and building the event experience to match fan expectations and budgets 12.50pm Q&A Turning Niche Sports into Major TV Attractions 2.40pm

Bridging the Gap

How clubs with fewer resources can close the performance gap with their richer rivals and manage money and facilities to compete effectively 3.10pm

Q&A Financial Challenges of Hosting Major Sporting Events

3.30pm

The Future of Media Rights, Image Rights and Sponsorship

These revenue streams form a large part of the global sports industry’s turnover, so it is vital to have visibility on where values are going and what broadcasters, sponsors and tax authorities are looking for

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CONFERENCE PROGRAMME

@SportsNetwork 10.20AM

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FUNDING STADIUM RE-DEVELOPMENT PROJECTS & SOURCING NAMING RIGHTS From rebranding, to modernisation, to capacity increases; stadium re-developments and new stadium projects are becoming headline hitters for the amount of money they involve and the importance and scale of commercial ambition they suggest. Through perspectives from both sports organisations and industry leading advisors, ‘funding stadium redevelopment projects and sourcing naming rights’ provides a 360 view on the do’s and don’ts of taking on these large scale projects.

Mitesh Velani, Saracens RFC

Martin Blake, Farrer & Co

Lee Hoos, QPR FC

Christopher Lee, Populous

Diarmuid Crowley, Druid

10.55 AM

KEYNOTE ADDRESS AND ONE-ON-ONE

COST SAVING PROCUREMENT Ruaidhri Dunn, Head of Procurement, The FA

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12TH NOVEMBER CORINTHIA HOTEL,11.50AM LONDON

FINANCIAL CHALLENGES FOR ELITE SPORTS ORGANISATIONS Professional sports is a business, and the success of any business is directly correlated to it’s financial strength and stability. Whilst managing the books of any organisation is tough, it can be even tougher when under the pressure of being in a particularly cut-throat industry like elite-level sports, where strong financial management is fundamental to achieving any objectives both on and off the field. Whether it’s cutting costs or heavily investing into staff, no matter what level of competition, every club in every league of every sport faces a multitude of financial challenges; so how do they overcome them?

Julia Chapman, Adam Bazely, Northampton Saints SAP Concur

David Orman, Hatch House

Simon Steele, Lawn Tennis Association

12.20PM

CREATING REVENUE STREAMS THROUGH FAN ENGAGEMENT & USE OF TECHNOLOGY With the rise in technology and social media, today’s empowered fans are now following teams in a way that wasn’t possible in the past. In exchange for their loyalty, they demand a new level of intimacy from sports teams - from chatting on social media to a behind the scenes glimpse of the action. Fan engagement is important for creating emotional bonds and longer lasting experiences during and beyond sporting events themselves as well as creating and maximising the commercial potential of new revenue streams for sports organisations in return.

Scott McLeod, Everton FC

Mark Bradley, The Nathan Homer, Fan Experience Ryder Cup and Company European Tour

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Janne Neuvonen, CEO, Bcaster

INTERNATIONAL PLAYER CARE | PAGE 09

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CONFERENCE PROGRAMME

@SportsNetwork 12.50 PM

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KEYNOTE ADDRESS AND ONE-ON-ONE

TURNING NICHE SPORTS INTO MAJOR TV ATTRACTIONS Barry Hearn, Chairman Matchroomsport

2.40 PM

BRIDGING THE GAP On or off the pitch there’s a vast number of factors that contribute to both individual and team success besides financial power, and in professional sports in particular, even the smallest of margins can have a major impact on the future pathway of an athlete and their club. This is why we see clubs investing heavily into securing the ‘best facilities’ and the ‘best athletes’ in order to give them that edge. But money does not guarantee success, so whether its through: youth development, high quality coaching, savvy negotiations or working on building team spirit and comradery; ‘bridging the gap’ explores what sports organisations can do to compete with those at the very top of the game, in an often-imbalanced financial playing field.

Tim Williams, Inter Milan

Jim Boyle, Jim Boyle Racing

Dorukhan Acar, Galatasaray

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12TH NOVEMBER CORINTHIA HOTEL, LONDON 3.10PM

KEYNOTE ADDRESS AND ONE-ON-ONE

FINANCIAL CHALLENGES OF HOSTING MAJOR SPORTING EVENTS (UEFA Euro 2020 & UEFA Women’s Euro 2021)

3.30PM

THE FUTURE OF SPONSORSHIP & MEDIA RIGHTS In the past, sports sponsorship was relatively simple, often consisting of a logo on a shirt or beside a pitch, kitting out an athlete or perhaps sponsoring a trophy, and this model worked because media was limited. These rules no longer apply.

Social media has revolutionised audience behaviour and sports can now be consumed everywhere. Sponsor brands have to understand the interconnectivity of platforms and build content toolkits which can interact across every digital touchpoint, while being agile and responsive to changes and data; so what is the future of sponsorship and media rights for professional sports in the ever-changing, and ever-evolving digital age?

Chris Travers, Formula 1

Tom Hickson, World Dodgeball

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Dan Jones, Deloitte Sports Business Group

Joel SeymourHyde, Octagon

INTERNATIONAL PLAYER CARE | PAGE 11

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BIG INTERVIEW

Boys into men Manchester United legend and boss of the club’s youth academy talked management, pathways and player welfare at the Premier Sports Network’s recent event.

Nicky Butt is one of the most successful products of Manchester United Academy’s and his face is among those that adorn the walls of the Carrington training ground. Now just turned 44, Butt is the director of the academy where he launched his career and can observe first hand what makes a young player successful.

“Young kids today get a lot of stick,” he says. “People say they don’t work as hard and have it all too easy. But if you’d asked Bryan Robson or Steve Bruce, they’d have said we had it too easy. Football just moves on like every other walk of life.

“From what I see, the young players that are going to be successful know how to sweat and how to graft. The top ones always do: they do it right, they listen and learn, and they kick on to the next level.

The ones at the bottom are the ones that won’t work as hard, won’t listen and they’ll be the ones that fail. The challenge comes with the middle-of-the-road ones who get treated like superstars when they’re not. You get mediocre players who think they’re better than they are.

They perhaps sign the big contracts and the big-money moves and get a reputation without earning it.”

“I tend to think If you’re hungry enough the money’s not going to change you. The one who’s not working now isn’t going to be working later on either. If they’re like that at 18-19 they’ll be same at 25 and 30.”

“I had a lot of problems when I was younger. I got into trouble when I was 19 and got put in a police line up for something I didn’t do.

Fortunately for me Sir Alex was there with me which was really good and it made me notice how he went about things; how he made you feel good when he dropped you, how he’d go round your house and talk to your parents, what I learned from him and other managers I’ve worked with was amazing.

“So, for me, that was player care. I was really lucky, but you do need a lot of help. With the lads that I work with our approach is first time we show them how to do it, second time we help them to do it but third time they’ve got to do it for themselves. The stats tell us that 94% of the kids won’t be in our academy at 19, and when they leave they’ve got to be able to cope with life away from Man Utd. As coaches our job is to prepare them for football, but it’s the support staff that help them to be a human being and look after themselves.

“When we signed with Man United, we didn’t get the money, we got some but the rest went into an investment account. If we’d said, ‘I want all my money up front’ then alarm bells would have been ringing and they’d have said ‘this isn’t the kind of guy I want in my club’. Nowadays player care is a massive thing – you don’t need to do it for them, but they do need to know how to operate. With the money in the game it’s only going to get bigger. It’s not the kids fault but you have to work with them and help them. Our support staff advise and help them prepare for life but they won’t get things done for them: the youngsters need to learn to do it for themselves.”

So, is he concerned about the lack of opportunity for his young players to come through to the senior squad?

“I’m a great believer that if you’re good enough you’ll get there.

Talking about pathways is a bit of a windup for me. If Marcus [Rashford] is good enough at 18 then he’ll play and if he’s good enough to play for England at 18 then he’ll play there too. For someone else they might not come through until they’re 23 but then they can play an important role. There’s huge pressure on managers and clubs. Owners are running big businesses with a corporate mentality which is sometimes difficult to understand.

“As a manager you’re not going to go to the owner ‘I’m going to sell your best players and replace them with a bunch of spotty kids who won’t win anything but in 3-4 years they’ll be really good’. My job is to give the manager a player who can play and hope that he’ll play him but any 18 year old going into a first team environment is going to make mistakes. There are not many managers who can take that risk and that’s not going to change until a rule comes in where a manager can’t be sacked during the season.”

So, does he compare his career after playing professional football with those of his peers?

“I’ve never been one to make firm plans about where I want to be.

I think that if you prepare yourself the best way you can, then when the opportunities come up you’re ready to take your chances. At the moment I’m in the best role for me at the best club in the world, so if you offered me a job as coach in first team role, I’m not sure I’d take it.

“Maybe I could become a manager in 5 years but why would I leave the job I’ve got now which is the best job in the world. I’m taking on as much advice as I can and learning all the time but at the minute I’m in the place I need to be.”

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Reputation on the line Tom Rudkin of Farrer & Co discusses the reputation risks facing professional sports people and how to confront them.

Kiss and tell. Tax affairs on the front pages. Tweets coming back to haunt you. Protecting reputation and privacy may not always be seen as the key to stellar performances on the field, and rightly so.

Nevertheless, many a sports star has felt the repercussions of a reputation crisis, whether it be financially, emotionally or even on the field.

Tiger Woods’ performances fell off a cliff after the exposure of his affairs, while Manny Pacquiao’s sponsorship agreement with Nike was terminated after he made homophonic remarks in a television interview. The picture also extends beyond the sporting career with all but the most wealthy of athletes needing to secure a smooth transition to a career off the field. Negative publicity is likely to undermine that process (although it should be said that a degree of notoriety might also prove attractive to some employers; controversial views never go amiss in the world of broadcasting).

It is also no longer just negative publicity that poses a threat to reputation and privacy, in the context of the risks created by a combination of huge volumes of personal data being held by

multiple organisations and the emergence of sophisticated cyber criminals (as well as the odd rogue employee). Data breaches have seen the tax affairs of the rich and famous become front page news, not to mention David Beckham’s views on an impending knighthood.

Protecting reputation and privacy effectively involves a combination of making good choices, practical steps and the right advice.

Communications advisers, forensic and intelligence professionals and (yes I’m afraid) lawyers all have a role to play. Steps that athletes should consider include general crisis planning, digital audits to assess whether sensitive information is available online (using technical experts if appropriate), and ensuring security of personal data. The law can then be used to take action where information is misused or false allegations are published. By way of example, the laws of defamation and privacy can be relied on to hold newspapers and online media outlets to account. Meanwhile, data protection legislation is the basis of the so-called “right to be forgotten” which is ever more frequently utilised to remove inaccurate, excessive or outdated content from search engines and social media. And where a data breach occurs, an action may exist against the organisation holding the data for failure to

ensure appropriate security, whether because of its own omissions or on the basis of vicarious liability due to the conduct of a rogue employee.

There is no question that the challenges to athletes’ reputations are becoming increasingly diverse. If they wish to meet those challenges successfully, a proactive and flexible approach is the best way forward. We therefore assist athletes and other sports people in identifying specific areas of reputation risk and advising them on the appropriate preparation and, where necessary, response. Our work includes advising on adverse media coverage; potential harassment by the paparazzi; removal of content from search engines and the use of the ‘right to be forgotten’; and data breaches. In order to achieve best results for our clients, we will often work closely with communications specialists, security experts and other professional advisers.

To find out more, please contact Tom Rudkin: thomas.rudkin@farrer.co.uk and 020 3375 7586.

To subscribe to our Farrer & Co newsletters, please visit http://www.farrer.co.uk

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INVESTMENT FOCUS

A £210m flyer

CVC purchase of a strategic stake in rugby’s Premiership could be the deal that transforms the sport.

We are used to telephone number sums in top-flight football so £210 million for 27% of an entire premier league in another long-established, popular international team sport sounds like a snip. The league in question was English rugby union’s top-tier Premiership which, in the run up to Christmas, got its deal with CVC Capital Partners, the Luxembourg-based private equity firm, over the line.

The £210-million investment was agreed unanimously by the 12 clubs that make up the league after Premiership Rugby rejected an earlier proposal from CVC to take a majority stake, in a deal worth £252 million.

Ian Ritchie, Premiership Rugby’s chairman, insisted that the investment would not simply result in wage inflation for players (an obvious sideswipe at football), but would instead be used to improve club

facilities and increase the league’s global exposure and appeal.

“We have agreed that the proceeds from CVC Fund VII’s investment will be re-invested to drive continued growth in the sport, for the benefit of the fans, Clubs and players,” he said. “The structure of the deal ensures that there is strong alignment of interests between CVC and the Premiership Rugby Clubs. CVC support our vision of growing the sport and we are looking forward to working closely with them to take Premiership Rugby to the next level.”

Comparisons between the round and oval ball games are invidious. For one thing, rugby union has been a professional sport for less than a quarter of a century but what is undoubtedly true is that investment in club facilities is sorely needed.

One of the top teams in Europe, Saracens has not finished outside the top-four for 10 years. It won the rugby equivalent of the Champions League two seasons ago and the year before that. Their current starting fifteen boasts eight England internationals

and they play to sell-out crowds in North London.

But a sell-out crowd in the Heineken Champions Cup is rather different from one in the Champions League. Juventus’ Allianz Stadium seats 41,507 spectators; Manchester United’s Old Trafford, 74,994; Bayern’s Allianz Arena, 75,000 and Barcelona’s Nou Camp 99,354. Saracens’ Allianz Park holds just 10,000 - that’s about the equivalent of a typical stadium capacity in the English Football League’s fourth-tier League 2 - and the club doesn’t even own it. It’s owned by the local Barnet Council and shared with two athletics clubs. Indeed, that 10,000 capacity can only be reached by building two temporary stands over each end of the running track.

It’s a similar story elsewhere in the Premiership: only one club has a stadium capacity of over 20,000 (Leicester’s Welford Road), apart from those sharing football grounds, such as Wasps (which now own Ricoh Arena but share it with Coventry City) and Bristol (Bristol City’s Ashton Gate).

Of course, the biggest occasions in the sport

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are not all played at club stadia. Really big games are staged at much bigger grounds like England’s Twickenham Stadium, Wembley or the former Olympic Stadium which is now the home of the Premier League’s West Ham United.

It is easy to see why the deal with CVC was attractive to the clubs. A new income stream is considered vital given that collectively they lose about £30 million a year. That’s around £2.3 million per club on average but Worcester Warriors lost £8 million and Harlequins £6 million in the last accounting year, while only current table toppers Exeter Chiefs made a profit.

It goes without saying that in a digitallyconnected world there’s much more to a league than the capacity of its stadia. The deal means that CVC, which previously held a controlling stake in Formula 1 and believes that the Premiership is undervaluing itself, will run its commercial arm but not the league itself. It has been reported that each club will receive a lump sum of £18 million and benefit from further increases in broadcasting and sponsorship revenues achieved by CVC. The 2018-19 season is the first with title sponsor Gallagher, the US insurance broker, and the second in an improved four-year broadcast rights contract with UK pay-TV broadcaster BT Sport, which involves 80 matches per season being shown live, of which five are also available free-to-air on commercial network Channel 5. So, the shop window for the Premiership is already there.

But how long will it last? BT contributes over half of the Premiership’s annual revenues of about £80 million, and it may yet walk away from its lossleading investments in sport. Yes, it has renewed some rights, but it didn’t’ even bother rebidding for LaLiga, Serie A and UFC.

“There is strong alignment of interests between CVC and the Clubs.

We are looking forward to working with them to take Premiership Rugby to the next level.”

Sport serves to mitigate BT’s broadband risk and has helped it to launch its own mobile service, but the company may soon decide its job is done leaving the Premiership no alternative but to return to Sky. Murdoch’s former trophy asset has previously tried

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to centralise the sport whose various competitions are available via a bewildering array of broadcasters.

Three of the clubs, Bath, Saracens and Bristol may have owners with deep enough pockets not to care, but the others which make up the Premiership would struggle calling into question the league proposition.

There is something very appealing about rugby’s homespun image: homely, matey, blokey (but also family-friendly), old-fashioned and still, after 24 years, in many ways amateurish.

Rugby clubs are typically a long- and deeplyestablished part of their local community.

They tend to work collaboratively through partnerships with the likes of local councils, universities and other local sports clubs.

Indeed, Saracens recently took a 50% stake in Mavericks, the club that competes in netball’s UK Superleague, renaming the club Saracens Mavericks.

The two clubs aim to share resources related to elite player performance, gain access to a wider fanbase, commit to community outreach programmes and integrate key business functions.

All of that may make the Premiership sustainable in the longer term but CVC’s commercial muscle will certainly be welcome as well. The Premiership seems to have got the best part of the deal for now, but the investors have a track record of making money from sport which will make the unfolding relationship between the two parties an interesting watch for the neutral.

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ONE ON ONE

Back in the game Billly Vunipola has battled injuries and more to get back to fitness

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As the whole rugby world knows, Billy Vunipola has spent most of the past two years away from the pitch recovering from a succession of injuries. He had become such a crucial pillar in England’s revival under Eddie Jones but until the start of the Six Nations Championships he had played only one and a half games for his country in the past 18 months.

“The latest injury, a left forearm fracture, sustained whilst playing for Saracens against Glasgow Warriors, was a bitter blow after he had broken his other arm twice the previous season. It prompted some “dark days” as he contemplated another spell on the sidelines and heard the whispers that he was worryingly injury-prone.

He had just been getting back into his stride, having given his finest performance of the season the previous week in a hardfought victory away to Harlequins. The game had been fiercely confrontational, the crowd had goaded Vunipola and he responded in kind. He relished the battle and finished the game with the broadest of grins on his face.

“Being with the team,” he says. “Playing against a tough team, playing in a hostile environment, coming out on top. That’s what gets me through all the dark days. There aren’t many dark days now but there will always be a few when you’re injured. I know people have said that I’ve turned into the next Manu [Tuilagi] and that sort of thing can get to you. But I know it’s all part of the game.”

The one positive aspect to suffering such a cruel litany of injuries is that he is becoming better at the rehabilitation process. Much better, in fact, given that he developed a worrying tendency to deal with the anguish of his absences by refuelling in a manner that did not always help his recovery.

So his last rehabilitation felt different. He was more patient, looking after his body better and the results can be seen on his forearms, where the surgeries have left him with the matching stigmata of an injury-ravaged couple of years. On the left forearm, the wound has healed neatly, in marked contrast to a more jagged version on the right.

“You can tell the difference with my scars, the way they’ve healed,” he says.

“If I look after my body, my body will look after me. Yeah, I’ve looked after my body this time. Those are the lessons I’ve learnt.”

“With the other injuries, I didn’t look after myself as well as I could,” he says. “I started doing silly things, just normal things that kids do. Going out, not recovering, staying up late, all the stupid things that come with drinking, doing things I probably shouldn’t be doing.”

He pauses, hands clasped, eyes down. “I’m uncomfortable talking about it even now. I’m truly sorry for living a life that was opposite to what I was taught by my parents. If you burn the candle at both ends, eventually they’re going to meet. I guess I got to that point where I needed a new candle.”

The penny dropped with a clatter last summer after a dressing down about his drinking from his family.

“I had a lecture off my mum and dad, and my brother, and I finally listened to them,” he says. “I’ve stopped drinking.”

His indulgences now tend to come after attending church on a Sunday morning.

“It’s been good going back to my faith, it’s calming, it’s nice,” he says. “Especially the tea and biscuits afterwards.”

The fact that he listened to his parents this time, he thinks, is a tangible sign of progress, an indication of increasing maturity. An essentially gentle, playful soul, far removed from the destructive figure he cuts on a rugby field, it has taken a while to realise that there is a time and place for direct confrontation. There are times, though, when his parents, despite their best intentions, are not so helpful in the quest to keep their son’s body in peak condition.

“If my mum is cooking for three of us, she’ll make enough for eight,” he says. “You have to have seconds and take some home, that’s mum’s motto. She does a lovely apricot chicken, which she says is healthy because of the apricot, but I see her put two tubs of double cream in there. But I never say no to mum.”

Along with his own more balanced outlook, Vunipola was sustained during his latest layoff by words of encouragement from Jones, whose hard-nosed approach was the subject of criticism during England’s run of poor defeats last year. But Vunipola has thrived under his management and says that there is a more caring side to the coach’s modus operandi that is seldom given due credit.

“Eddie texted me a few times, which is a kind thing to do, he’s a busy man,” Vunipola says. “I reckon he’s got the equivalent of a Real Madrid job in rugby. Even when we’re doing great there will always be some people not happy with him. A little message from him means a lot to someone like me.”

Having fought his way back into contention he is cautious about getting ahead of himself having learnt the hard way, particularly when injury ruled him out of the British & Irish Lions tour to New Zealand last year, that opportunities can quickly be snatched away.

“I used to use the World Cup as a motivation but I can’t do that any more,” he says.

No one should doubt his commitment to going to Japan, however.

“If I don’t make it I’ll be crying for three weeks, I know what it does to you to miss out on a goal like that. I’d be gutted not to be playing.”

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IN BRIEF

Big divisions Rotherham manager, Paul Warne says ‘obscene’ finances are dividing the Championship.

Paul Warne says the Championship has become “Premier League 2 and the rest” because of the “obscene amounts of money” being spent.

Little window

January’s transfer spending was the smallest since 2012.

Premier League spending in January fell sharply with a quiet deadline day ending a relatively low-budget window.

Deadline-day and January spending were less than half of last year’s totals, with 12 deals on 31 January totalling £50m - bringing the month’s spending to £180m, according to figures from the Sports Business Group at Deloitte. By contrast, January 2018 saw £430m spent by Premier League clubs, with £150m on deadline day alone. However, the Premier League was still the highest-spending league in European football this January, ahead of Italy’s Serie A on around £140m.

Among the highlights on deadline day was Newcastle breaking their 13-year club record to sign Paraguayan playmaker Miguel Almiron for £21m, Peter Crouch’s return to the Premier League joining Burnley from Stoke and League One Sunderland’s £4m deal with Wigan for striker Will Grigg, one of the 10 most expensive signings of the window.

Deloitte say there are essentially three reasons for the reduction. First, the ‘big six’ clubs have been less active reduced activity from the ‘big six’ clubs avoiding the domino effect where the rest chase replacements. Next, there is a perceived lack of value in the transfer market, not unusual in itself but in combination it explains some of the downturn. And finally, with broadcast rights only slightly higher than the previous cycle, clubs’ ability and desire to spend was reduced with both Arsenal and Spurs among those to prioritise loan deals over acquisitions.

Others have pointed to increased scrutiny of the backroom team as having an effect. One insider said: “Years ago, the chief scout would operate below the radar and often stay in his job through numerous managerial changes. These days, with the director of football role taking a higher profile, there is much more accountability and they are much more aware that their jobs may be on the line if they make an expensive mistake.”

January may have been quiet, but the 2018-19 season has seen the secondhighest spend in Premier League history. Across the summer and January transfer windows combined, Premier League clubs spent an estimated £1.4bn, the second highest for an entire season following record spend of £1.9 billion in 201718. The Premier League remains the highest importer of overseas talent, with 72% of the players bought by clubs in 2018-19 coming from abroad.

The club only made one signing in the January transfer window - midfielder Matt Crookes - despite having made no secret of their determination to land a new striker.

“If the smaller teams come up, the task is getting greater and greater and it’s turning into a Premier League 2 and the rest in my opinion. I think it was the Brentford manager after we played them who said there are 19 teams in the division who are ex Premier League.

“The parachute payments are crucial, they make a massive difference, but the money from being in the Premier League allows you to improve your facilities and infrastructure. I think now the divide is getting bigger and bigger.

“There are some owners who are throwing obscene amounts of money at it. If you look at Bournemouth, the money they threw and the success they’ve got, it is encouraging people to throw money at it because they all want the promised land of the Premier League.

“The problem is if two or three in the Championship throw real money at it, then the others do as well if they want to compete and it’s a rolling effect, it gets greater and greater.”

Former Wigan owner David Sharpe agreed that the levels of finances in the Championship were “scary”.

Sharpe stepped down from his role as chairman of the Latics last November after his grandfather, Dave Whelan, sold the club to Hong Kong-based International Entertainment Corporation.

“I did four years and I’ve got to say I really enjoyed it, but I’m glad my family’s out of it now, because the levels of finance in the Championship are scary,” Sharpe told Talksport.

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Work together to tackle racism Millwall CEO calls for football authorities to work together to tackle racist violence Racism isn’t “just a Millwall thing” but is a problem “across society”, says club chief executive Steve Kavanagh.

He was defending the club in the wake of ugly scenes which broke out during the club’s recent FA Cup win against Everton which left one rival fan with life-changing facial injuries.

The Football Association and the Metropolitan Police are investigating and Millwall could face penalties under the FA’s recently beefed up powers. But Kavanagh insists the problem is wider than the club.

“If a person has gone and bought a top that says Millwall, does that make me responsible for that person? Or is society responsible for them?” he said.

Speaking to the BBC, Kavanagh added: “Let’s face it: our society is having a bit of a rough time at the moment and people are having a go at each other about various different things.

“There is a rise in racism so you will never win this, because there are always people who aren’t educated. It’s an issue that is out there in society.

We will take responsibility for our guys, but let’s find a way to try and work together to find different solutions to get this across.”

Millwall, which has put huge effort into rehabilitating its reputation, have said they will “ban for life” anyone indentified using racist abuse. But Kavanagh believes more needs to be done to eradicate the problem, which he says requires numerous authorities to work together as one.

“If you think you can come to Millwall and chant racism, no you can’t. This

is a safe place to come,” he said. “We’re being damaged by 30-40 people. We haven’t won this. No one has won. But this isn’t just a Millwall problem.

“As Millwall Football Club, we can’t be responsible for educating the whole of south east London. We need the authorities, the FA, Kick It Out, ourselves and other clubs; we need to all come together and find a way of actually using football’s place in society to educate people.

“It has been swept under the carpet by football, I agree with that, but I can assure you it hasn’t been swept under the carpet by Millwall.”

The chanting at Millwall comes weeks after Chelsea faced allegations of racist abuse and chanting at games, including the alleged racist abuse of Manchester City and England midfielder Raheem Sterling in December.

Commenting on the fans’ behaviour Kick It Out’s Troy Townsend said there was an opportunity for football to make a difference.

“The small minority is carrying a very loud voice through football,” he said. “it’s something that the game needs to stand up to and tackle for the better of the game. That will then hopefully have an impact on society.”

In 2013, Millwall avoided FA punishment but were warned future misconduct could result in sanctions after two fans were arrested and charged by police and given lifetime bans by the club following racist abuse during matches against Birmingham City and Leeds United. During the club’s run to the FA Cup quarter-finals in 2017, Millwall fans were accused of racially abusing Tottenham Hotspur forward Son Heung-min at White Hart Lane but, again, the club escaped sanction.

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SPONSORSHIP

Deals to be done

Sponsorship contracts signed in the final quarter of 2018 point to an industry in rude health.

Sponsorship’s doom mongers pointed to an apparent cut priced Guiness deal for the Six Nations as proving that the market is soft in general. So, as we enter a year of potentially huge political and economic turmoil, are they right?

The short answer is ‘no’ with strong evidence that the UK sponsorship industry continues to thrive. There will obviously be headwinds to negotiate over the coming months but the list of major brands entering or returning to sponsorship as a key marketing platform in the UK is impressive.

Coca-Cola is poised to launch its sponsorship of the Premier League, completing a line-up of top-tier partners for the competition that includes Cadburys, Carling, Nike and Barclays. The deal announced in September, is Coke’s first major UK-focused sports sponsorship since its naming rights contract with the Football League ended in 2010.

The alcohol industry’s love affair with sport endures with Heineken making a return to club rugby with title sponsorship of the European Champions Cup the northern hemisphere club rugby’s premier knock-out competition.

Meanwhile, British Airways has become principal partner to Twickenham Stadium and official airline partner to England Rugby in their first major foray into sport since the London 2012 Olympics and Paralympics.

Headwinds Big brands doing big deals is the best gauge of the relative buoyancy of the market, but what about

those headwinds that might begin to buffet the industry in 2019?

First, there is Brexit and the UK’s decision to leave the European Union will inevitably have an impact on the sponsorship industry as a result of its effect on the businesses of sponsors themselves. This was, without doubt, a factor in the struggle to sell rights to the Six Nations, a uniquely European tournament which will take place in the shadow of Brexit day itself.

Second, there is the widely discussed decline of traditional TV as the primary driver of the value of sports sponsorship properties. Ultimately, however, audiences are still there and rights holders have only to offer more flexible ways for those audiences to experience sport and for sponsors to reach them.

Finally, there are moves afoot to reduce the amount of gaming advertising and sponsorship on sport. The mooted whistle-to-whistle ban on gaming advertising may have an impact but, with Sky Bet extending its sponsorship of the Football League until 2024 and nearly half of Premier League teams now sponsored by gaming companies, there is a long way to go before gaming is outlawed in the same way as tobacco sponsorship.

Long-term relationships Whatever the short-term impact of various economic or regulatory challenges, the Sky Bet and Guinness Six Nations deals underline the fact that sponsorship remains an attractive long-term investment offering a marketing platform for brands seeking to build long-term relationships with customers.

There are new commercial opportunities on the horizon including the continued promise offered

by eSports. This year also offers substantial opportunities in women’s sport. The Netball World Cup comes to Liverpool in July with a promise to build on the success of the Vitality Super League.

The insurance brand renewed its investment in the sport as recently as October and England will take to the court as the Vitality Roses as a result of that deal.

Football’s Women’s World Cup also takes place next summer and the FA’s commercial department will hope that the women can advance a stage beyond their male counterparts in Russia last year and trigger the win-bonus clauses of sponsor contracts with partners including SSE, Nike and Continental.

US sports Added to high confidence levels in Europe, the march of US sport continues apace with rumours abounding that the decade-long presence of NFL regular season games in London might be about to supercharged by the arrival of the Oakland Raiders for the entire duration of the 2019-20 season.

Following NFL and NBA success, Major League Baseball will finally cross the pond in earnest in June when the London Stadium will host a sell-out two-game series between the Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees, two of the most famous sporting brands in the world and the biggest and oldest rivalry in US sport.

With new sporting properties drawing the crowds and more established ones continuing to attract substantial investment, it is safe to say that the UK sport sponsorship market is in rude health. As Major League Baseball and any other rights holder knows, it’s just a case of getting the pitch right.

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SPONSORSHIP

Data-driven decisions Clubs are far from equal when it comes to their ability to attract high-value sponsors but new data may cause brands to revisit the numbers with both winners and losers.

It will not be news to anyone at a club below the top-6 in the Premier League that equality of opportunity is a long way off. But a new report shows that high-value deals don’t necessarily translate into high levels of recognition and certainly not affection among fans.

Arsenal’s long-standing shirt sponsorship deal with Emirates is the most recognised in the Premier League among fans, according to a Europe-wide study by market research company Statista. The North London club’s partnership with the Dubai-based airline, which is reportedly worth £40 million annually, generated 78% awareness among the 3,000 fans who took part in the study.

So far, so unsurprising. Arsenal’s relationship with Emirates dates from 2006 and is the longestrunning in the Premier League, so high levels of awareness are only to be expected. What is

perhaps less predictable is fact that the deal is also the Leagues’ most popular among fans with 23% of those polled reporting a positive attitude towards the brand.

At the other end of the spectrum Crystal Palace’s shirt sponsor ManBetX is recognised by only 3% of fans with a woeful 0.4% reporting positive feelings towards the deal. Again this is not so surprising: the deal was inked only 18 months ago and the betting operator is the classic challenger brand.

Contrast both deals with Southampton’s tie-up with telecommunications giant Virgin Media and Brighton & Hove Albion’s with American Express.

Both partnerships are recognised by 75% of fans despite having run for only one complete season in Southampton’s case and five years in that of their South coast rivals.

Virgin has been particularly successful in converting its awareness into likeability as the only brand to top Emirate’s score at 28%. Amex comes third on the rapidly tapering list at 14%

and is one of only five to hit double figures.

The same Statista report showed fans were quite discerning when it came to brands that suited their clubs but there was little or no correlation between ‘fit’ and likeability. Standard Chartered is seen as a good fit by 70% of fans yet languishes at 5% in the popularity stakes.

Overall, the report revealed that shirt sponsors in English soccer’s top flight have an average awareness of 34% among fans. Six shirt sponsors were known by less than 10% of fans, with Huddersfield Town’s deal with betting website OPE Sports achieving only 3% awareness among the group of quizzed supporters.

In total, 80% of Premier League fans expressed satisfaction with their club’s shirt sponsors, despite the growing condemnation of the prevalence of gambling companies, which account for almost half of the league’s shirt deals.

Of the ten least liked sponsors, five – ManBetX (Crystal Palace), M88 (Bournemouth), OPE Sports (Huddersfield), Sport Pesa (Everton) and Fun88

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(Newcastle) – were gambling firms, with each scoring less than 2% for likeability among supporters.

“The perceived fit of a sponsor is closely related to how well the brand values of the sponsor reflect those of the club,” commented Alexander Kunst, a Senior Researcher at Statista.

“When we look at the six shirt sponsors who have both high awareness with fans and are considered a good fit with the club, we see that they score well for the very same attributes the club has.”

The report authors draw very few conclusions from the data except the obvious; that new betting market entrants struggle to make an impact (Bet365 by contrast achieves 72% awareness and 13% likeability with its sponsorship of Stoke which was in the EPL at the time the data was gathered). But they do illustrate that the underlying picture is one which bears close scrutiny.

They analysed both club and shirt sponsor across a range of dimensions and compared

the result of Manchester City and Etihad (64% awareness, 12% likeability) with Newcastle and Fun88 (11% awareness, 1% likeability).

As the data above shows, the perceived fit between club and brand is a close one in City’s case and very poor in Newcastle’s. This may not be the full story, but there is opportunity for those presenting sponsorships at smaller clubs, in lower leagues and other sports to work on achieving good fit as a way of delivering value and ultimately boosting value.

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can I make it as convenient, secure and simple as possible for my customers to make payments using their mobile devices?

26

STADIUM DEVELOPMENTS

Design-led business planning Christopher Lee, Managing Director at Populous EMEA considers ways to maximise stadium revenue generation potential through innovative design.

While the last decade has seen billions of pounds injected into elite sport from TV rights sales, the income generated from the commercialisation of stadiums has become more significant and increasingly the differentiating factor in helping clubs to achieve sustained year-on-year success and long-term financial stability.

But as fans’ expectations of the matchday experience continue to grow — demanding better views, better facilities, first-class audio-visual technology, and a food and drink offering to rival the high street — stadium operators must respond by providing new and exciting experiences or risk diminishing attendances. This requires a reevaluation of the traditional method for business planning.

Traditionally business planners operate

separately from designers. They do the market research, crunch the numbers, build revenue models, and then designers become involved. That disconnect means opportunities for innovation and creativity at the very earliest stages may be lost with a considerable loss of revenue in unrealised business opportunities.

As a practice that specialises in designing stadiums and has designed and delivered some of the most iconic stadiums around the world;

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from Wembley stadium to The New York Yankees stadium; from Emirates Stadium to the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, Populous understands the business of sport. We work with clubs all over the world to create new experiences and better brand activation and naming rights opportunities, driving maximum revenue from venues while responding to the needs of all fans.

What is design-led business planning?

Design-led business planning is a holistic approach to business planning that seeks to create new and innovative revenue generation opportunities. Unlike existing venue business planning models that are removed from the design and planning of the actual venues, design-led business planning intricately links design, revenue generation and costs. Business planners sit next to designers forming one, unified team. This leads to the creation of venues that are specifically tailored to maximise spectator experience and revenue generation while minimising capital and operational costs.

By putting design at the heart of the planning

process, it enables clients to tap into the latent potential of typically underutilised spaces within a stadium, as we have helped Tottenham Hotspur to do with the Tunnel Club (pictured below) and the Sky Lounges at the club’s new stadium. These spaces, which redefine the hospitality matchday experience and provide a significant new income stream for the club, might not have developed using a traditional business planning approach.

Making all fans feel valued while driving the maximum commercial return But hospitality ticket holders aren’t the only ones who benefit from a design-led approach to business planning. At the new Tottenham Hotspur stadium, fan experience has been elevated right across the board. In the South Stand fan zone, we’ve worked closely with the club and Beavertown Brewery to deliver a first-of-its-kind in-stadium microbrewery which will be open to all fans pre- and post-match. Like the Sky Lounges, there was no precedent for this kind of facility within a stadium, and it is only through involving

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designers at the early stages of the business planning process that it has been made possible.

Of course, a key part of any stadium business planning process is identifying potential sponsorship and naming rights opportunities.

Here again a design-led approach offers an advantage. Our 35 years of experience as stadium designers allows us to find innovative new ways of incorporating sponsors’ branding into the design of a building without compromising the integrity of a club’s own branding. This involves undertaking thorough research to identify the most suitable sponsors, then creating activation opportunities that drive the highest possible value for the client.

By working in this way, with design at the heart of what we do, Populous can offer a full and holistic design service, helping our clients to navigate the difficult early stages of a project and deliver a world-class venue that meets the needs of all stakeholders.

Connect with tom.jones@populous.com for more information.

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CHINA SPECIAL

Enter the dragon Entry strategies for the world’s last great untapped market.

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The turn of the year brought with it a tale of two Manchester clubs: both have global ambitions, both have China in their sites, but both are employing different strategies.

Chinese fans account for a tiny fraction of those taking their places at either Old Trafford or the Etihad on matchdays, yet both Manchester clubs have recently announced new partnership deals in the country.

In a strategy which we might call ‘boots on the ground’, United, in partnership with leading Chinese property developer, Harves, plans to open a series of club-themed entertainment and experience centres throughout China. The first Manchester United Entertainment and Experience Centres are scheduled to open in Beijing, Shanghai and Shenyang by the end of 2020.

They will use interactive attractions and exhibitions which the partners claim will bring the excitement of Manchester United and its Old Trafford stadium to the iconic club’s 100 million followers in China, giving fans a place to celebrate the team they so passionately support and further deepening the special relationship the club has with China.

Although centred around a restaurant and club retail store, each venue will feature interactive and immersive experiences using state-of-the-art technology to bring Manchester United to life. Fans who visit will apparently be able to experience the thrill of a matchday at Old Trafford as well as learn about the history and heritage of one of English football’s most successful and storied clubs.

United’s rivals don’t have the luxury of an existing passionate fanbase to exploit but they are still determined to spread their own brand of football albeit using a radically different approach.

Last year the club became the first in the Premier League to launch a Fifa Online team in China. The team, which competed in the Online Star League (FSL) included highly sought-after players such as 2017’s Most Valuable Player Zhang Jun, and Aruya and Liu Chao, who have both excelled in the FSL over the past two seasons. It also included two players selected by fans as part of a competition by the club marking a significant ramp up in Manchester City’s strategy to engage with Chinese fans.

Manchester City Football Club’s chief marketing officer Nuria Tarre told media, “China is a very big market for us; it is a huge growth market with almost 60% of the population interested in football.”

The launch of an eSports team in China is an extension of a strategy Manchester City has been engaged in globally targeting

its core audience. However, given China’s dominance in the eSports market, Tarre admits it was only a matter of time.

“Our research shows one of the key ways to engage young fans is through eSports and that’s how we get to connect with our core audience of under 35-year olds,” says Tarre.

That research points to a huge commercial opportunity. The professional gaming industry may have been born in South Korea, but China, with its $32.5 billion gaming market, now eclipses both its southerly neighbour and the United States. Asia makes up half of the global gaming market, with China’s huge population accounting for a large slice of that pie.

China is by far the world’s biggest market but also the toughest to break, whatever your business. It is by no means straightforward for brands to make their mark. Local customs and reams of red tape, plus the infamous Great Firewall of China, can be near-insurmountable. But in eSports, there exists a sort of backdoor for Western brands which City and its commercial brand partners are hoping to walk through. Event sponsorship, plus product placement and the sponsorship of professional teams are perhaps the easiest routes to China’s 250 millionstrong eSports audience.

As Tarre says: “We like to be seen as creative and innovative and we have a very strong digital-first strategy that applies to everything we do, so connecting with a community like gamers makes sense, especially in China.”

Commentators are watching developments with interest citing the global nature of eSports as working in the club’s favour. In the same way that Chinese fans watching the English Premier League are influenced by adverts and sponsorship from Western brands, nearly all eSports tournaments are streamed globally. If a brand is part of a major tournament anywhere in the world, Chinese fans will see it.

The desire among Chinese consumers for genuine Western goods is huge, presenting abundant opportunities for brands to have their products seen by a Chinese audience as objects of desire.

In this context, the Man City approach is especially interesting. It looks to build mass ‘followership’ rather than add diehard fans, something eSports lends itself well to owing to its strength in building mass engagement and encouraging interaction. It also recognises that China has a very different digital landscape from any other market in the world. Chinese consumers use digital platforms and share content in a unique way.

Whether City will be painting China light blue anytime soon is far from certain however. Brands looking to break China through eSports still need local knowledge and trusted partners with boots on the ground. It may seem like low hanging fruit but not every club has the financial clout of Manchester City.

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DIGITAL DEBATE

Capturing the eyeballs and interest of digital natives Liverpool CEO rings alarm bell over risk of generational shift but new ways to monetise content may ride to the rescue.

Liverpool Chief Executive Peter Moore has admitted that football and sport in general must embrace new technologies to avoid losing younger fans to things like video games. He should know having previously held roles with video game companies SEGA of America and EA Sports before joining the top-flight English outfit in 2017. Moore says the Merseyside club are not only battling with other teams for new fans, but also with video games like Fortnite.

He fears that younger fans are no longer happy to sit and watch full 90-minute games, and pointed to viewing and attendance figures of millennial males as a particular cause for concern.

“90 minutes is a long time for a millennial male to sit down on a couch,” Moore told the Arabian Business magazine. “When I look at viewing and attendance figures of millennial males, I’m concerned as a chief executive of a football club that relies on the next generation of fans coming through.

“If we don’t build technological prowess we will lose them. There’s so much pressure on time now and only 24 hours in a day… there are only so many hours to play Fortnite.”

Moore added that in order to compete with new offerings clubs now need to find different routes to millennial audiences through content which has a lifespan beyond the 90 minutes of a soccer game.

“We are an industry that needs to harness technology to make sure we don’t miss an entire generation of young people growing up that don’t have that love for football. We need to package content in bites of 60 to 90 seconds to keep their engagement.”

Liverpool recorded 463 million interactions across their four main social media channels in 2018, a figure that was only bettered in England by Manchester United and ranked fifth in world soccer.

Moore also revealed that Liverpool are working with technology giant IBM to optimise their website and apps so that they can provide fans with more personalised, relevant content that they are more likely to consume.

“That’s something I learned in video games. I can push you all kinds of stuff on particular players, but if you’re only interested in Mohamed Salah, and I don’t know that, my outreach is wasted,” Moore said.

“You might like Gini Wijnaldum. The more we learn about you, the more we can push Gini Wijnaldum stuff that you’ll click or engage. The key is that I need to know who you are.”

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Another thing which Moore will know is the impact of including video clips in its digital interactions with fans. One research house estimates that social video generates 1200% more shares than regular text and image posts combined. When you consider that online video attracted over 2 billion viewers in 2018 - accounting for 62% of the world’s internet users - it is clear to see why clubs, with the amount of content they generate, are currently adapting to exploit its potential.

One of the challenges has been coming up with a financial justification for the effort involved but monetisation of video content has got much easier in the last couple of years.

A good place to start with video monetisation is advertising says Raflin Sarkisyan of digital video platform WildMoka.

“For clubs that already have a wealth of live content, the practice of re-purposing footage allows them to expand on their reach while satisfying sponsorship agreements via online ads,” she says.

“The main options for integrating adverts are pre-roll, mid-roll and post roll – running before, during or after the content – and dynamic overlays where graphics are positioned on top of a clip.

There are benefits to each approach. Pre-roll delivers a lot of eyeballs, post-roll targets a highly interested audience and overlays tend to build a connection with the content in the mind of the viewer. Serving online ads used to be complicated, but modern video editing technology is much more user-friendly.

Sarkisyan says: “Our platform allows a content owner to create galleries of graphical assets in order to generate templates in advance. It’s then up to them to hit “apply” and feed their branded clip to the masses. Given the lifespan of live content and pressure of capturing an audience “in the moment”, it’s no wonder we have seen that increased speed of delivery has been well-received.”

Other approaches have seen content owners taking to social media with ads and overlays for their clips (and as an aside, two minutes is emerging as the sweet spot in terms of length). UEFA integrates a promotional push for MasterCard with highlights from Champions League matches. The social networks themselves are making it easier for broadcasters to monetise their content through services that enable the pairing of high-quality clips with ad revenues.

YouTube with its Partner Program and Facebook’s Branded Content service

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both enable content owners to earn revenue from their video assets. Twitter Amplify has also proven especially popular due to its recent prioritisation of live streams, which now receive favourable treatment on the news feed.

Another way of effectively distributing video content is via an official app – a tactic deployed by pay-TV providers who don’t have the rights to seed it through social media. For example, beIN SPORTS has created a hub for French soccer that delivers instant highlights, end-of-day summaries and other footage to paid users of the service. This is a creative approach to monetisation with beIN using its existing rights to enhance its audience and generate new streams of revenue.

Despite offering a golden goose to content owners, the monetisation of live video brings challenges not least of which is a lack of traffic and viewership in the early stages.

Ad blockers are another thorn in the side as although they generally affect conventional display advertising, they can reduce revenues.

Finally, there is the challenge inherent to live video: its lifespan. New events happen every day, and while memorable moments can stay with someone forever, the best and biggest audience is likely to come straight after it occurs. Thankfully, there are ways these obstacles can be overcome.

“By building a presence on social media,” Sarkisyan explains, “any live content owner can access a whole new channel for their videos. Some have taken things further by promoting clips in order to get them in front of the exact audiences their advertisers want to target.

“Ad blockers can be circumvented by baking ads into the content itself or opting for a subscription service. Tackling the lifespan of live events is trickier, but there are solutions that can ensure every content owner captures their audience at the right time. Content providers should be looking for genuine end-to-end technologies which can optimise their editorial workflow and handle a range of different tasks.

“In choosing between different video clipping and content distribution platforms content owners should consider ease of clipping live footage for repurposing on multiple platforms; availability of templates for positioning dynamic overlays, pre-roll and post-roll ads within content and social media platform integration.”

New monetisation opportunities and audiences are there for any producer of live video content especially sport. The key to success is in finding the right approach, and the right technology, to lead the way.

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THE FUTURE OF SPORT?

Sports venturing into a new era

A prosperous future awaits those with a digital strategy that enables them to capitalise on their current and future customers, says David Orman, Founder of Hatch House, The Venture Consultancy After the rapid innovation of the past 10 years, sport businesses have been slower to grasp opportunities of technology says David Orman, founding partner of Hatch House.

“People spend a lot of time talking about the future of technology in sport,” he says, “but could rights holders be doing more, or acting quicker?

Compared to other sectors, the sports industry have been slow to address how they can deliver growth and create value in a world where technology and access to content has become ubiquitous.

“The major US sports and franchise owners have been more forwardlooking for over a decade now. Organisations in Europe, ranging from the Premier League through to smaller sports are now alive to the importance of controlling their own distribution, data and fundamentally their destiny.”

David spent the early part of his career as Head of the UK market for Eurosport, and then as Commercial and Marketing Director at QPR FC (under the Briatore and Ecclestone era). From there he launched a new career as an investor, funding startups across the sports, media and technology sectors. Blending his experiences together, David has a unique insight into the strategies required in today’s world to help companies create long term value, considerate of short term revenue generation.

“As a lifelong QPR season ticket holder, I remember my first day at the Club, in my dream job, when I had this realisation about challenges of working inside of a Football Club.”

“Marketing in football is probably the hardest conundrum to solve.

Communicating with a diverse and increasingly global fanbase is a challenge.

Fans want you to be transparent but there are so many factors operating against you. An understanding of how best to utilise the array of technologies available today can do so much to help develop new communication and commercialisation strategies” “RIghts holders must create their own platforms to find new ways to excite their audiences, engage with their passions and add value - creating a long term, mutually rewarding relationship.”

Orman’s Hatch House company works with a diverse range of companies from start ups to global corporations, always seemingly on the cutting edge of innovation. Over the past couple of years, Hatch-House have worked on a range of projects, from helping to launch TheRacingManager.com, successfully completing an ICO for a blockchain video technology business called Verasity, developing a global growth strategy for Walljam, through to

advising IMG (Endeavor) about new routes to market.

That distribution question also goes to the heart of the core media revenues that sport generates. Orman talks through the concept of how sports companies, and not the social media giants, should own the end-toend customer experience for the sports fan, allowing them to have greater control of potential commercial opportunities.

“Take distribution: a content owner currently has to decide whether to set about creating their own platforms and acquire their own audiences, or distribute their content through platforms like Facebook or YouTube - which will take up to 45% of revenue generated. Considering that those users and all related data, belongs to to those platforms and not the broadcaster or rights owner, how can I, as a content owner, utilise available and new technologies to create a better experience for all parties?”

“Simon Jordan, former Crystal Palace owner, was speaking on TalkSport the other day about a topic Hatch-House has been working on for the past 5 years. He pointed out that 100 million subscribers paying £8 per month for Premier League content would dwarf the current media rights deal.”

“The technology is accessible now, and is sufficiently robust and affordable for sports organisations to take back control. The future of broadcast deals could or maybe should incorporate the development or management of technology to help rights holders to distribute, market and monetise their content, thereby increasing revenue.”

“People talk about the future of OTT models predicated on transactional or subscription VOD, but once a user is engaged in your environment, rights holders have an opportunity to sell them a club shirt, hospitality tickets, engage them in community projects, and so on..”

David Orman will be asking ‘how can we use technology to drive rights holders’ commercial growth at the Premier Sports Network’s Finance in Sport conference on March 19th in London.

“The technology is available and it’s robust so now is the time for sport to take back control.”

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BEHIND-THE-SCENES AWARDS 2019 The 3rd edition of the Behind the Scenes Awards will celebrate the unsung heroes of Player Care.

Last year’s winners: Outstanding services to Player Support

Outstanding services to Education

CEO, The Rugby Players’ Association

Head of Education, Kick It Out

Damian Hopley Damian was recognised by judges for his twenty years of service at the Rugby Players Association having founded the organisation in 1998. He has worked tirelessly to champion the cause of Player Care, development and support in rugby.

Troy Townsend Troy has been at the very heart of educating the world of football on equality and diversity. His work has supported aspiring individuals with mentoring conferences he has inspired many in the game to tackle racism and inequality.

Outstanding services to Youth Development

Above and Beyond Award

Head of Youth Development, Chelsea FC

First Team Player Liaison Officer, Fulham FC

Neil Bath

Neil has dedicated 25 years of his career to the Youth Academy at Chelsea and has overseen the most successful period of the team’s history. Judges praised his vision and personal care for the lads in his charge.

Mark Maunders

Mark was singled out as an individual who has genuinely gone above and beyond in his 20 years stint as Fulham’s Player Engagement Manager. He is held in great esteem at the club for his reliability, trustworthiness and dedication.

CLICK HERE online to nominate someone for next year’s awards Nominate at premiersportsnetwork.com/vote/

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ONE-TO-ONE: RYAN MASON

About turn

Ryan Mason was living the dream until a head injury brought his career to a rapid and untimely end. He tells On The Front Foot his story.

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When Ryan Mason came through the ranks to be selected for the first team at Spurs, his local club, it was the culmination of his boyhood dream. He was just 17 but had been with the club since he was eight.

“I remember the moment I was told,” he says.

“They are very fond memories. I achieved something that not many people get to do. For as long as I can remember I had visualised playing at the top level for Tottenham so when it came I felt like I’d already been there. I have a good family around me who have all put a lot of work in. so when I got the opportunity I made sure I took it.”

Breaking through to the top level wasn’t easy, he recalls. There were some challenges along the way but it’s part of the game.

“Getting to an elite level in any sport is tough. I had loan spells that didn’t go so well. When you’re in a hotel on your own, a lot of times people can find it too tough, but you have to learn to deal with it and turn bad experiences into lessons to learn from.

“I saw teammates who weren’t able to deal with the pressure but it helped me grow up so that when I ultimately got into the first team I was ready. Football is a ruthless industry. People think it’s a fantastic lifestyle and it is, but you’re tested each week. If you can’t survive you’ll just get swallowed up.”

Mason thinks back to some big players he’s known in his career who stumbled or took a misstep along the way.

“I remember when John Bostock joined Spurs.

He came with huge reputation which is maybe why he felt the pressure and it didn’t work out for him. There have been times when I’ve been in that position; sitting on the bench in the championship and people I viewed as behind me in the pecking order getting in the first team. It fuelled my fire and made me want to get back into that first team as soon as possible but sometimes it doesn’t work out. It’s not necessarily the fault of anyone, it just

doesn’t work.

“As I’ve gone through different stages in my career I’ve worked with sports psychologists and mental coaches and the mental part for me is a massive part of preparing for the situation before it comes. The club put people around us and I spoke to them at different times especially when I had my injury. It’s good to have people outside your close circle of family and friends who you can rely on. I’ve known guys in the dressing room who wouldn’t ask for help. It’s part of our culture in England but it should be complete opposite.

I’ve seen players get injured then start drinking or gambling and I think you have to find people to help you channel things in a helpful way to help you get back.”

Mason’s career was going well until Hull City, for whom he was playing at the time, came up against Chelsea in a Premier League game in January 2017.

A clash of heads with defender Gary Cahill left him inches from death and needing surgery for a fractured skull. He spent the rest of the year in rehab until it became clear that the risk of further injury was too great to continue playing.

“It was a very difficult 18 months,” he admits.

“The head injury was life threatening, but I had good surgeons and medical help. I’m proud of how I dealt with it but it was challenging for me, my family and the people I’m close to just to get back to living a normal life. I was up in Hull, my missus was pregnant but I wanted to give myself the best opportunity to get back to playing. There were so many challenges, so many steps to take to get back but I’ve come out the other side and I’m healthy and in a good place. To achieve a positive outcome from the situation I was in, mentally you have to be so strong.

“In a way it was a relief at some level when I retired. I know throughout my career that I gave as much as I could and worked hard so I’m proud of what I achieved. I’ve got my England cap at home and I’m proud of that. I’d hoped for more but playing for Tottenham in the Premier League means more to me if I’m honest. I’d worked so

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hard to get there and it was my dream as a kid.”

Mason was always determined to work in football once his playing career was over and he’s now back at the club working with youngsters who he feels he has something to offer.

“It helps that I have gone through all the stages they are experiencing so I can help the boys coming through. My work with the academy is quite flexible, and works around my life and my young family but it’s something I always wanted to do. I was lucky to have had great coaches and that helped me achieve my dream so I always promised I’d go back and help the young people to do the same. I’m sure something will come up that I’ll be able to commit to but meantime I’m fortunate to be doing something useful.

“When one of those young lads gets into the first team I’ll be happy about the role I’ve played and I make sure they realise what they’ve achieved and make the most of it.”

His experience has made him a strong advocate of young players putting their money into a trust and formed his views about wages for young players.

“Luckily for me I come from a good family who gave me good financial advice. I see too many young footballers who haven’t made a single first team appearance but they’ve got a first team contract and they start living that life. I think maybe we need a cap on what you can give young players because I’ve seen it where it takes the hunger away. They feel like they’ve made it and they never reach that potential. Maybe there should be a cap on different ages earning different amounts before you’ve made your first team debut.”

Either way he will never stop telling aspiring players to make the most of their opportunities.

“I don’t have any regrets,” he says, “and no hard feelings towards Gary. It was just one of those things. But I do make sure the lads know how easily it can all be taken away from you and hopefully that message sinks in and they be the best they can be.”

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