The DataPOWA view on the most important talking points in the worlds of sport sponsorship, digital & AI.
THE RISE OF GAMING INDUSTRY AS A MAJOR NEW ENTERTAINMENT MEDIA CHANNEL
Gaming giants are no longer each other’s biggest competition. Instead, the industry needs to widen its focus to properly consider the social media and ecommerce behemoths who are making gaming a strategic priority. Roughly 2.5 billion people play games, even if many of these don’t count themselves as ‘gamers’, and so it’s little surprise that Amazon, Google, Facebook and Apple are making big bets on gaming.
For more on this story, head to The Drum
PANDEMIC PUSHES VIEWING EVOLUTION FROM FAN CUTOUTS TO VIRTUAL STADIUMS
You could say Tex Schramm saw this coming. Back in 1980, the NFL Hall of Famer, who had a hand in everything from the NFL-AFL merger to the popularity of the Cowboys cheerleaders to the use of instant replay in officiating, told Skip Bayless (of all people) that one day the league would play its games on a “made-for-TV soundstage” without fans.
For more on this story, head to Sportico
THE GROWING IMPORTANCE OF MEASUREMENT IN SPONSORSHIP
The word is often maligned, overlooked and some cases completely ignored, but the importance of measurement in a post-COVID world cannot be overstated. Only 20% of respondents to Frontier felt they were able to measure the success of their sponsorship against their objectives. The increasing array of tools at our disposal has enabled us to deliver accurate, holistic, and bespoke sponsorship evaluation. So why aren’t more people able to measure it and how do people know they should repeat the exercise?
For more on this story, head to MKTG
MAN CITY RESULT DISPIRITING FOR UEFA BUT NOT A GAMECHANGER FOR FFP
It may go down as one of Manchester City’s greatest away wins in Europe. On Monday, the club succeeded in convincing sport’s self-styled supreme court, the Court of Arbitration for Sport based in Switzerland, to strike down a two-year ban imposed on the club by UEFA for breaches of its Financial Fair Play (FFP) regulations.
For more on this story, head to Irish Examiner
HOW MEDIACOM WILL MARKET BRAZIL’S NEXT SUPERSTAR
Mediacom Sport and Entertainment’s announcement that it has signed Real Madrid and Brazil star Vinícius Jr. on a long-term commercial management deal represented a major coup for the company but was otherwise unsurprising.
For more on this story, head to SportBusiness
SPONSORS TAKE HEART: SPORTS TEAMS WILL REACH FANS WITH OR WITHOUT ATTENDANCE
Teams and brands are concerned about sponsorship value if fans cannot or do not attend this season. If fans can’t attend games, does it mean teams won’t reach them as much or as effectively?
For more on this story, head to Forbes
SPAIN BANS GAMBLING FIRMS FROM LA LIGA SPONSORSHIPS
Spanish authorities are cracking down on gambling sponsorships in sports, implementing a ban on such arrangements in La Liga beginning in the 2020-2021 season.
For more on this story, head to Casino.org
GOOD SHOUT
FOOTBALL CRITIC: Clubs going into administration – how it happens and how they recover
UNOFFICIALPARTNER: Simon Oliveira podcast
DUGOUT: ‘No one gets closer than us’
FORBES: What The Washington Redskins Rebranding Process Looks Like From Here
THE DRUM: How Zak helped New Balance kick off in football
BIZBEHINDSPORTS: The Economics of Indian Premier League