Ken Borland

Nielsen Sports, the provider of analytics for the sports industry, recently gave their annual presentation on the biggest trends in sports business and the two major talking points over the last year are the rise of e-Sports and the fact that sports bodies and their sponsors have to know who their fans are in this rapidly evolving marketplace.

Their research shows that, on average, only 10-15% of any sport’s fans are actually ‘game experts’ – people who have intimate knowledge of the rules, history, players, tactics etc. So any sports body or sponsor that only targets this section of the fan base are clearly missing out, for instance, on the 30-35% of ‘connection fans’ – for them it’s about the big event and they are the people packing out the stadia for Pink Day, the Cape Town Sevens rugby or the Durban July.

In the past, the relationship between a sport and a brand was based on the sponsor wanting visibility and the sport just wanting money. But this relationship is now much broader and the rights a sports body sells need to be more flexible and more tailored to their specific partners. Sponsors these days want to own stories and content rules in this digital age in which internet advertising spend overtook that for TV worldwide last year.

It was disappointing to hear that our traditional sports like rugby and cricket are battling to grow in this environment. In South Africa, 25% fewer millennials are interested in rugby, and cricket has seen the same drop in support.

The fastest growing sport in the world is e-Sports, which is basically what professional, competitive gaming is called, and unfortunately, rugby and cricket just don’t have games on the market that are good enough. Research has shown that there is a strong crossover between people who play the virtual game on their computers and supporting the actual ‘live’ sport. For instance, Fifa’s eWorldCup drew seven million gamers last year and Formula One enjoyed similar success with their eSports Final, the winner of which gained a one-year contract as a simulator driver for McLaren.

That e-Sports is rapidly evolving into a major player in the sports industry is shown by the fact that one-third of all their fans came onboard in the last year and they are typically millennial men with money to spend. Which means major global brands like Gillette, C-Smart and Mercedes are moving into that space, the higher LSM also attracting sponsors like Audi and Mountain Dew. Gaming is a $32 billion industry now and at the competitive level it is a mega-production, a whole show with adverts, sponsored decks and kids packed into stadia.

This year’s Overwatch League features 12 franchises based in cities like Boston, London and Shanghai who paid $20 million each to participate. The broadcast rights were sold for $90 million and the average audience is 280 000 per minute.

Speaking of broadcast rights, this field has also become extraordinarily broad for sponsors and sports bodies. Pay TV’s influence is still stable, but there are disruptors now in the picture, especially tech giants like Amazon and Facebook and even Twitter.

The cellphone has become a way of life and we are living in a mobile-first generation. Although high data costs hold us back in South Africa, 20% of local football viewers watch via internet streams, with 69% of those people watching the game live and 42% of those watching the whole game.

Rugby has 25% of its viewers streaming the game, 68% of that watching live and 48% for the whole game; cricket’s figures are 22% streaming, 78% of that live and 40% watching the full game.

The sports industry is certainly a very fluid environment for rights-holders and sponsors to get their heads around.

https://www.pressreader.com/south-africa/the-citizen-kzn/20180623/282484299488829

Friday’s presentation at the IRB’s Talent Optimisation Programme in Stellenbosch was entitled “Where Is Rugby Going?” and it’s a safe bet that it is going onwards and upwards in many countries thanks to courses such as this one.

The Talent Optimisation Programme is into its ninth edition and it was hosted for the eighth time by the Stellenbosch Academy of Sport, about 50km east of Cape Town and situated in an historic rugby centre. It targets coaches, trainers and match officials from the Tier 2 nations who don’t have their own high performance programme.

This year’s course had 34 participants from countries like Canada, Fiji, Georgia, Japan, Kenya, Netherlands, Romania and Russia, but was also attended by delegates from Argentina and Scotland.

The South African Rugby Union (Saru) are highly supportive of T.O.P. and this year the participants enjoyed a rare treat when Springbok coach Heyneke Meyer and his management team gave a presentation on their plans for next year’s World Cup.

“Both the quality of input – the presenters we had – and the application of the delegates were absolutely wonderful and it was a big week for them. We had 12 coaches, eight match officials and four of their coaches, and 10 strength and conditioning trainers attending. All these guys have come through the IRB educational pathways, levels one to three, and this was like a finishing school for them,” Mark Harrington, the IRB head of technical services, said.

“Saru have been brilliant, providing all their coaching staff, including Heyneke Meyer, and Nick Mallett and Mark Lawrence were also heavily involved. The feedback we received was hugely positive, especially Heyneke’s presentation, while Nick got them really thinking around the current preferred style of play in rugby. He even predicted what would happen to the Sharks five days before the game!”

Other countries represented at T.O.P. were Tonga, Singapore, Portugal, Brazil, Belgium, Germany, Hong Kong, United Arab Emirates, USA, Mexico, Uruguay and Spain and all the participants have significant experience and qualifications which just need to be polished in a high-performance environment.

The course was run under the watchful eyes of ex-Scotland coach Richie Dixon, former Wales lock Phil Davies, Steph Nel of the Western Province Institute, Bernd Gabbei, the IRB referee development consultant, Des Ryan, the head of sports medicine and athletic development at the Arsenal Academy, and Liam Hennessy, Ireland’s former head of fitness.

The uprising of enthusiasm within the delegates was noticeable and there is no doubt they will return to their countries eager to impart the knowledge they have obtained at T.O.P.

“It’s one of the best courses I’ve ever been to and I can’t wait to pass on the knowledge from here to other coaches back home. It was phenomenal what I learnt in terms of technique, tactics and administration too,” Kevin Mwema, a Kenyan high performance coach said.

His compatriot, Michael Owino, is a strength and conditioning coach in the national sevens programme, and he expressed similar sentiments.

“It was a great week, learning day in, day out, from someone like Liam Hennessy, who trained guys like Brian O’Driscoll and Paul O’Connell. He’s one of the best guys to get the knowledge from and I can’t wait to get home to share it all. With the kind of knowledge I now have, I can change mindsets and ensure we have the right culture in our teams,” Owino said.

“That knowledge-sharing aspect is very important and once the course is done, we will have points of further contact with the participants if they need further support. It’s all about info sharing,” Harrington said.

The strength of the T.O.P. is that the IRB have ensured that they have high-quality presenters – ex international coaches like Jake White, Mallett, Gert Smal, Alistair Coetzee, Pieter de Villiers and Jacques Nienaber, former Test stars like Brendan Venter, Rassie Erasmus and David Campese, leading sports scientists like Professor Tim Noakes and Ross Tucker, top referees such as Steve Walsh, Craig Joubert, Jaco Peyper and Lawrence, and even leadership and high performance development author Rasmus Ankerson of The Goldmine Effect.

“We have a specific focus on getting the big guns to come and speak, it’s really important that they are current experts and people that the participants can really learn from. We have twice as many applicants as we have space for and it’s really encouraging to see the depth across the Tier 2 nations,” Jock Peggie, the IRB training manager said.

That can only be good news for the future of rugby and its expansion across the globe.

http://www.irb.com/newsmedia/regional/newsid=2072791.html#unions+plot+path+top