SportBusiness Professional
Features
Mariachi, masks and mixed martial arts | How a little local flavour can bring big success in combat sports
If you're a broadcaster or sponsor, partnerships with global, A-list combat events are fantastic to have. But if fighters’ identities and abilities don’t resonate with your audience, the properties or events they appear on are almost never A-list enough to warrant the investment.
Q&A | Bucks president Peter Feigin on the team’s 25-year stadium naming deal with Fiserv
Fintech firm based in Wisconsin, but the ‘backbone’ of financial transactions around world
Fiserv will streamline payment provision in arena and use it as a ‘test lab’ for new ways to transact
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Atlanta Falcons’ concession-pricing trades small revenue dip for major goodwill gains
NFL franchise slashed the price of food and drink at their new Mercedes-Benz Stadium
Revenue decline less than anticipated; fan response greater
Ascot digs into customer data to help double hospitality revenues
Ascot digs into customer data to help double hospitality revenues in five years, adopting a data-driven approach to fine dining.
Rights-holders welcome Ticketmaster’s closure of secondary sites
Ticketmaster’s decision to close its secondary ticketing platforms Seatwave and GetMeIn looks like a response to hardening of the political and legislative stance on secondary ticketing sites in Britain and Ireland. Ben Cronin examines what it means for rights-holders.
MP calls for Scottish football clubs to ban betting sponsorships
A UK Member of Parliament has proposed that the 42 Scottish professional football clubs sign a charter agreement to stop all gambling sponsorships between clubs and operators
Maltock confirmed as permanent OFC chief
Lambert Maltock has been confirmed as the permanent president of the Oceania Football Confederation (OFC).
Maltock, from Vanuatu, will serve a four-year term
Anta-led consortium snaps up Amer Sports
The Mascot Bidco Oy consortium, led by Chinese sportswear giant Anta Sports Products, has completed a deal to acquire Finland-based Amer Sports, marking a significant step into the winter sports market
IAAF to elect first female VP
The International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) has confirmed that it will elect its first female vice-president this year as it continues its push for greater gender equality in the governance…
GroupM shuffles the pack | Two Circles becomes flagship rights-holder facing agency
ESP Properties was launched in June 2015 as WPP’s attempt to create a sports marketing major to challenge the likes of IMG. Last year, its UK team was absorbed by its Two Circles division. In July 2018, its US operations were sold off. GroupM, the WPP subsidiary which created ESP, doesn’t see this as a failure or retrenchment. Some rivals and independent sponsorship experts have a different view.
Relevent Sports’ International Champions Cup reaches the point of profitability
Relevent Sports' executive chairman Charlie Stillitano explains how Stephen Ross’s $100m investment in the exclusive pre-season tournament is finally paying off, while Bayern Munich’s key board members illustrate the different ways the club benefits from participating. Bob Williams reports.
Hackathons: the benefits to sports businesses from staging them
Over the last five years the hackathon has been adopted by several major rights-holders. Kevin McCullagh discusses the impact of hackathons on sports businesses.
Philadelphia Eagles opt for long-term stability, creating bespoke commercial partnerships
The Philadelphia Eagles’ Ari Roitman explains the long-term thinking behind his stability-first commercial strategy, and discusses how the team still managed to take maximum advantage of their unexpected Super Bowl victory.
FFF hopes to capitalise on World Cup win with regional sponsorship deals and product licensing
The victory of the French men’s national team in the Fifa World Cup has triggered performance bonuses in three of its sponsorship deals and opened up new product licensing and regional sponsorship opportunities. Ben Cronin speaks to FFF marketing director François Vasseur about the commercial impact of the win.
US Digest | Tiger effect lifts PGA Championship TV ratings
Welcome to the US Digest, rounding up the big news and developments coming out of the world’s biggest sports market
‘People’s Club’ philosophy guides Everton’s fan engagement strategy
Everton director of marketing, Richard Kenyon, explains how innovative pricing and engagement with young fans have helped the Premier League club shore up ailing attendances.
‘Footfall is our friend’ | Fiserv Forum allows Bucks to transition to ‘real estate and content company’
The Milwaukee Buck's brand new Fiserv Forum opens on 26 August. Ben Cronin speaks to executives from the team about how the new arena and an adjoining entertainment district are designed to cater for a year-round calendar of sport, entertainment and festivals and how the inclusion of 100 residential properties will see the team transition to being a real estate company.
US Digest | Woods-Mickelson showdown set for Thanksgiving weekend
Welcome to the US Digest, rounding up the big news and developments coming out of the world’s biggest sports market
Woods-Mickelson showdown set for Thanksgiving weekend
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US sports tweak rules and presentation to keep audiences hooked
US major leagues are tweaking their rules to make sure fans stay tuned in as concerns build about distracted audiences. Data is playing a critical role, with leading rights-holders employing sophisticated, data-led decision-making to make the changes.
Gambling sponsorship ban threatens Italian rights-holders
SportBusiness explores how a new ban on gambling advertising in Italy will affect sports rights owners and sponsors.
US Digest | NBA strikes deal with MGM to provide data to gamblers
Welcome to the US Digest, rounding up the big news and developments coming out of the world’s biggest sports market
All upside for NFL from ‘win-win’ Nike-Fanatics deal
The NFL will get a healthy increase in combined sponsorship and licensed merchandise revenue from its three-way agreement with sporting goods brand Nike and the online sports retailer Fanatics, industry…
Amazon Web Services gets global seat at Formula One table
Amazon Web Services, the cloud computing subsidiary of Amazon
The Scudamore years | The search for a successor
The Premier League has expanded at such a precipitous rate under Richard Scudamore’s leadership that most experts seem to agree that it will need to appoint more than one person to replace the outgoing c…
The Scudamore years: Match attendances and the fan
Richard Scudamore summarised his measures of success for the Premier League in an interview in 2015: “Attendance No1. Global audience No2. That’s it. Ho
The Scudamore years | International expansion and the 39th game
The almost unchecked expansion in overseas media-rights revenues for the Premier League tells its own story about the extraordinary success of the competition as an international export
The Scudamore years | Sponsorship
From a sponsorship perspective, Peter Daire, founding partner at sports rights and marketing agency Sport Collective, thinks Scudamore ought to be remembered more for the partnerships the Premier League r…
The Scudamore years | Media rights sales
Scudamore’s former media advisor Phil Lines argues that his old boss could be directly credited with creating a formal tender process for the selling of the league’s rights and for professionalising the…