A number of research reports, opinion pieces and news articles have been published recently addressing similar digital themes (a number of which Strive Sponsorship has been asked for its perspective on).
All, either directly or indirectly, highlight how important it is for sports/eSports entities to understand the opportunities and threats the digital world presents their commercial models.
Rather than examine each in detail here, we have summarised them and provided a link to more information. We hope you find them as useful and interesting as we have.
- Commercial trends in sport 2017 (from Nielsen Sports): Summarises the key changes across the commercial sport sponsorship landscape. “Politically, socially and technologically, the world is in the midst of one of the most disruptive periods in living memory—this disruption is affecting where investment in sports is coming from, how sports content is created and distributed, and changing the dynamics of relationships between rights holders, sponsors and fans.”
- eSports | Stability is key for Overwatch League (from Sport Business International): Stability is not a word that has been commonly associated with eSports. However, if Activision Blizzard has its way, that is about to change with Overwatch League. Whereas eSports have given traditional sports food for thought in terms of innovation, accessibility and fan engagement, the tables appear to have turned with the Overwatch League having borrowed concepts from established sports.
- eSports media: How it’s broadcast to fans, and how traditional TV is getting involved (from Sport Business International): Twitch and YouTube are battling for market share and conventional TV is trying different routes to get involved, including acquiring esports content producers and creating its own content. The challenges for conventional TV include authenticity and lack of interactivity, both important to a passionate and highly engaged audience.
- A sporting commercial model for the digital age (from Ben Wells of Well Said): Most sports organisations are undervalued. That is because they have not yet fully understood what ‘digital’ is and what it could mean for their commercial models. All around us businesses that have harnessed the power of new technologies and marketing methodologies have built dynamic, exponential high-margin revenue models. There is much that can be applied to reshape the rigid analogue model, driving better long-term customer relationships that translate into improved revenue models, a more attractive sponsorship proposition and ultimately the pathway to broadcasting our own content.
- SuperData eSports research report 2017: A summary report forcasting total revenues, sources of income, audience sizes, the battle for younger views amongst streaming and broadcast platforms and Overwatch‘s ability to establish itself as a major eSports title.
- Video: Demystifying eSports – what are eSports and what’s law got to do with it? Topics covered and addressed included; the eSports audience (e.g. Is the lack of females a concern for the industry and if so, are any steps being taken to address this?), non-endemic brands (e.g. what has prompted the influx of non-endemic brands and what sort of commercial partnerships are we seeing and likely to continue to see?), games publishers: (e.g. What are the differing approaches taken by leading publishers as rights holders?), grassroots gaming (e.g. what are the opportunities for brands in this context?), media rights (e.g. what does the current media rights landscape look like and what is the role of traditional broadcasters within that?), regulatory issues (e.g. what are some of the regulatory issues affecting the eSports industry?) and traditional sport and eSports (e.g. what are the underlying objectives behind the differing approaches by traditional sports teams and what commercial models and approaches are they adopting to engage?).
–ENDS–