Football's digital transformation

FOOTBALL’S DIGITAL

TRANSFORMATION

Growth opportunities for football clubs in the digital age

2 Football’s Digital Transformation

Foreword ............................................................................................................. 3

The Digital Forever ........................................................................................... 4

Digital Ecosystem .............................................................................................. 9

Crowdsourcing ............................................................................................... 14

Audience Development ................................................................................ 19

Match Data and Wearables ......................................................................... 24

Transfer Market ............................................................................................. 30

References ........................................................................................................ 37

Contacts ............................................................................................................ 39

CONTENTS

Dear Reader,

ARE YOU READY TO SURVIVE, GROW AND WIN IN THE DIGITAL AGE?

Football is special, that much is clear. It is indeed the beautiful game, and its appeal is

unrivalled and universal. Yet, in the space of only a few brief years, the extent to which

football fans now engage with football has changed signicantly. The most notable aspect

of this evolution is the rapidly increasing use of social media. The digital transformation –

and the technology that fuels it – has enabled fans to interact with their club way beyond

the 90 minutes of the actual matches themselves. Indeed, digital ensures that the match

never ends. While the fans’ desire for their team to win remains undimmed, digital has now

taken centre stage and many fans expect their club to deliver an appealing and connected

experience which meets their increasing demand for year-round engagement with the teams

they support.

Deciding how to make the most of today’s digital opportunities can be complex, overwhelming

and distracting for football clubs. That is why most clubs are still taking a wait-and-see

approach. Refusing to embrace the opportunities the digital world has to offer is now no

longer an option. What is certain is that clubs will need a whole new business strategy for the

digital age – and not just a digital strategy to incorporate into their existing model.

The future is now. The underlying potential of recent digital developments has prompted us to

take a closer look at the future transformation of the football business in the digital age. Since

digital will continue to drive change at an unprecedented rate, this publication cannot claim

to provide a comprehensive overview of the digital revolution that is transforming football.

Instead, we aim to reect on a number of distinct yet intertwined areas and highlight their

potential impact on the way football operations are run today.

We hope this will provide interesting insights into the opportunities and risks associated

with these imminent trends. Those who are aware and prepared will be in a better position to

survive, grow and win as the digital tide continues to roll in. We hope you enjoy reading our

review.

FOREWORD

David Dellea

PwC Sports Business Advisory

Marcel Schmid

International Football Arena

Frank Zahn

Exozet

THE DIGITAL FOREVER

Everything you thought you knew about success will be challenged.

Digital will impact every industry, every service, and every corner of an

increasingly connected world. We are now in the digital forever.

THE WORLD IS IN BETA

Digital is fundamentally changing every aspect of our lives, from

the way we work to the way we play to the way we manage our

nances and protect our health

The Digital Forever 5

9.6

7.0

5.9

1.9

2012

15.0

7.2

8.0

5.36

2015

50.0

7.6

11.0

7.8

2020

Numbers in billions

World Population

Mobile Phones

Smartphones

Online Devices (incl. sensors, etc.)

DIGITAL IS CHANGING OUR

WORLD, FAST

Product development has been going

on since the invention of the wheel. But

digital is speeding up the development and

life cycle of many products. While it took

centuries to develop a ship that propelled

itself, it took just decades to shrink the

personal computer to the size we see today

and mere years to move from MP3 to online

music streaming.

Time to market will continue to accelerate,

and what is more, as the delineations

between industries are

blurred by the relentless

march of technology,

industries and elds which

have so far escaped the

digital tidal wave will be

drawn in and reinvented.

As market barriers

continue to be torn down,

the time from disruption to normalisation is

now mere months or even week.

Figure 1: Growth in the number of online devices will signicantly outpace that of other devices

and of the human population (Source: PwC analysis)

THE REVOLUTION IS HERE

The future is now. Digital has already

fundamentally changed the way we

interact with the world around us, shrinking

the globe, vastly increasing the array of

products and services on offer and changing

the way we access them.

It is fair to say that we are not entering a

digital era. Rather we have run headlong, in

some cases unsuspectingly, into the digital

forever. In this new normal, everything we

ever thought we knew about success will be

challenged, tested and in many cases forced

to change. To a large degree,

football is not an exception.

The future is now.

Digital will continue

to drive change at an

unprecedented rate.

6 The Digital Forever

CONSUMERS EXPECT, DECIDE

AND INTERACT DIFFERENTLY

In 2013, digital natives began to outnumber

traditional consumers. By 2017, they

will outnumber digital converts and will

dominate economic activity. This new breed

of customer has grown up with digital; they

run their lives on smart, connected devices.

These are the “always on” consumers

who want to be able to access goods

and services anywhere, anytime and on

anything. They expect the organisations

that they interact with, work for or buy

from to provide them with seamless digital

Traditional consumer

Converts

Digital natives

2000 20252005 2010 2015 2020

Figure 2: By 2017, digital natives will be the dominant force in economic activity (Source: PwC analysis)

connectivity and the quality of the digital

offering will form part of their decision-

making process.

With this unprecedented ability to connect

comes a power to opine very publicly on a

company, product or service. Businesses

can no longer hope to hide their failures or

faux pas. Indeed transparency is changing

from being a means for a company to

differentiate itself to an essential tool for

survival. Loyalty is now transient, and

consumers will make choices based on the

experiences of their peers, which can now

be accessed all too easily.

Ninety percent of all

the world’s data has

come into existence

since 2011.

DATA, DATA EVERYWHERE

In the 3

century BC it was declared that

the Library of Alexandria held within its

walls the “sum total of human knowledge”.

Today, one group of researchers

suggest that if we took all of the

data in existence right now and

stored it in on paper, we could

cover an area equivalent in size

to the United States at least 13

times. What makes this truly

astonishing is that, according to

The Foundation for Scientic and

Industrial Research SINTEF, 90% of this data

has come into existence since 2011.

This explosion in data is a result of

“datacation”, or the ability to codify

entirely new classes of information in

digital form. Social media has “dataed” our

hobbies, interests, thoughts, emotions and

relationships. The widespread use of GPS

technology in smart devices has dataed

the location and movement habits of billions

of people. Digital payments have dataed

our spending habits and wearable tech is

datafying our lifestyle, exercise and dieting

preferences.

The Digital Forever 7

This presents forward-thinking businesses

with an incredible opportunity. Those who

can harness this data to gain a better under-

standing of the issues facing consumers

today and use the insights they gain

from it to guide and inform their ongoing

development and strategy will be the leaders

of the digital world. Every second 31,000

“likes” are registered on Facebook, or, to

put it another way, that is an opportunity for

business to understand how or what 31,000

people are responding to every second.

OUT WITH THE OLD, IN WITH …?

INNOVATION, AGILITY AND

FLEXIBILITY

The keys to success in the digital world

are not intuitively obvious to many

businesses and their leaders. Flexibility and

a willingness to try and fail are not integral

features of the success stories behind many

established companies that are around

today. But the sheer rate of change in the

digital world means these are the attributes

that are absolutely essential to stay relevant.

THE WAVES OF THE DIGITAL TIDE

KEEP ROLLING IN

Looking to the future, we see three waves

of opportunity for organisations to generate

protable growth:

FIRST DIGITAL WAVE: DIGITAL COMMERCE

Improve e-commerce protability with

a better customer experience, more

compelling propositions, more effective

distribution or smarter pricing.

SECOND DIGITAL WAVE: DIGITAL

CONSUMPTION

Develop propositions that encourage your

customers to share their consumption data.

That way you increase customer loyalty,

increase revenue and reduce operating

costs even further.

THIRD DIGITAL WAVE: DIGITAL IDENTITIES

Act as a trusted fourth party on behalf of

customers to aggregate their digital data

and to meet their needs through managing

relationships with companies offering

products and services.

Consumption chain

Demand chain

Customer service

Marketing

Sales

Channel integration

E2E supply chain integration

Increasing degrees of digital fitness are required to play and win

Increasing issues, threats and opportunities in the digital economy

First digital wave:

digital commerce

The next

digital wave?

E-commerce is

used to transact,

to advertise, as a

marketing platform

and to provide

customer self-care

services

Ongoing operational

integration across the

supply chain, including

suppliers and partners

Consumption data is

shared with the

customer to enable

outcomes

Buying brands

and digital

identities emerge

Third digital wave:

digital identity

Second digital wave:

digital consumption

Time

Supply chain (operations)

Operating model

change

Business model

change

Figure 3: The digital waves offer opportunities for protable growth (Source: PwC analysis)

8 The Digital Forever

FOOTBALL IS NOT ENTIRELY

IMMUNE TO THE SWAY OF DIGITAL

WAVES

Digital has impacted the football world and

will continue to do so. Ticketing is very

much a digital process. Merchandise sales

online are a feature of the industry today

and have been for some time. Social media

intensies the connection between fan

and club and provides insights which clubs

can learn from. Digital has driven down the

cost of media creation to the point where

most football clubs now nd they are able

to produce and distribute more content, and

of a higher quality, than was possible only a

short time ago.

But digital natives will not settle for the

status quo. They expect to be able to make

as many clicks from the side

lines as they see kicks on the

pitch. The reality is that change

will keep on coming, and faster

than ever before. To succeed in

engaging the new generation

of fan, clubs will need to be

exible, agile, and not afraid to

try on new, digital, boots. Digital

presents football with a set of

powerful transformational opportunities

to engage a new generation of fans and

empower those already there.

Having said that, football clubs have one

very signicant attribute which clearly

distinguishes them from other industries.

As long as their nancial health is basically

secure, their oligopolistic control of the

beautiful game is unlikely to be disrupted

by any advances in technology. The

passion and love of the fans will not wither

away, provided performance on the pitch

is maintained. We do not see digital as a

disruption for the business of football clubs,

rather an enhancement with signicant

potential to improve both fan engagement

and the bottom line.

The key to success in

the digital age will be

innovation, exibility

and a willingness to

try, fail and move on.

DIGITAL ECOSYSTEM

A digitally integrated ecosystem is the answer to growing

expectations for personalised and hyper-targeted content.

KEY MESSAGES

• Fans’ expectations will shift from content range to contextual relevance,

delivered as and when they desire

• A digitally integrated ecosystem across business functions is required for

a holistic view of each individual fan

• Adoption of a data culture within a club’s organisation is key to maintaining

a competitive edge in the age of highly demanding digital natives

10 Digital Ecosystem

DEMAND FOR A HIGH-QUALITY FAN

EXPERIENCE IS SNOWBALLING

A fan interacts with his favourite club

on multiple occasions, through different

devices, applications and channels. He

buys tickets, watches live

matches, streams video clips,

and consumes all the news and

views surrounding his club and

its players. The sky is the limit,

with more and more content

being created, distributed and

“socialised”. As demand for immersion

in a seamless experience facilitated by a

fully integrated and experience-rich digital

ecosystem grows, football clubs will be

pushed to the limit in terms of content and

technology management.

GROWING FAN INTERACTIONS LEAVE

A HUGE UNTAPPED DATA TRAIL

The growth and ubiquity of fan interaction

and the related impact it is having on a

club’s commercial strategy are complex

and ambiguous to gauge. However, there is

one constant aspect to this which applies

regardless of the individual opportunities

being captured: fans leave a

signicant trail of data as they

pass by. Do clubs really track

and fully harness the potential

of this data?

Imagine a time when a club

knows exactly what each of its fans likes to

eat, where he wants to sit in the stadium,

what video clips he enjoys watching or

which of the club’s players’ jerseys he likes

to aunt. That, in our opinion, is the future of

football and also what “digital native” fans

will expect: when clubs are in a position

to deliver a fully personalised experience

to their fans. Pulling this off, however, will

require more than just sourcing a good CRM

system. Clubs will need to drive change

throughout their business functions,

emulating their players on the pitch and

playing as a team.

STANDALONE BUSINESS FUNCTIONS

FAIL TO PROJECT ONE TRULY

UNIQUE BRAND TO THE FANS

The digital wave has already impacted

every function within the club, with each

developing its own digital solutions to

optimise revenues and operations. Ticketing

departments have introduced their own

“white labelled” online platforms and are

trying to optimise sell out through queuing

or secondary market systems. Some clubs,

particularly in the UK, may soon be tempted

to adopt dynamic pricing mechanisms.

Merchandising is boosting operations,

rolling out an integrated digital supply

chain across physical points of sale and

online as well as boosting the ability to

personalise products. Club websites and

mobile applications are becoming ever

more sophisticated in their distribution of

text, data, video and image content. All of

this, of course, needs to be shared across

all mainstream social-media platforms

to ensure maximum reach and fan

engagement.

So far, each of these distinct functions has

generally worked apart from the others, as

each evolved to meet very specic business

requirements. As a result,

one and the same fan is

engaging with one and the

same club across multiple,

mostly disconnected

functions that are

generally not coordinated

with one another. What is the way forward?

How can a club make the transition to an

integrated approach, enabling fans to truly

experience the entire brand, rather than

specic functions within that brand?

The “digital native”

fan has much higher

expectations.

Do clubs have a

holistic view of each

individual fan?

PWC SPORTS BUSINESS ADVISORY

Digital Ecosystem 11

AN INTEGRATED APPROACH TO

DATA ANALYSIS PROVIDES A

HOLISTIC FAN VIEW WHICH WILL

PERSONALISE FAN ENGAGEMENT

Football clubs have one unique attribute

that places them in a league of their own.

They have fans, and fans are not just

consumers. The degree of loyalty implicit

in being a fan is a tremendous asset to a

club, as it increases the number, frequency

and intensity of interactions. By leveraging

this relationship, clubs have a unique

opportunity to gather information on

each and every fan. The potential depth

and detail of the information they can

gather is enormous. Top-ight clubs have

incorporated centralised data-analysis

solutions consolidating data across their

various platforms. They have already started

generating a holistic view of their fan base.

Leveraging the wealth of prole information

they gather, they are in a position to analyse

and cluster their fans in such a multifaceted

way as to offer increasingly targeted content

and increasingly relevant purchase offers

and promotions. This signicantly enhances

the user experience as it enables fans to get

what they want, when and where they want it.

Figure 4: Hyper-targeting will be the new norm, empowered by a digitally integrated ecosystem (Source: PwC analysis)

Digitalisation

Functional silos

Engagement

CRM

Monetisation

Digital ecosystem

Lifetime value

Mass

content

Personalised

content

Hyper-

targeting

Fan experience

In the years ahead, we believe that as the

new generation of digital natives takes over,

a completely personalised user experience

will gradually become a natural expectation.

“Hyper-targeting” will become the new

norm for fan engagement: fans will have

customised access to the ocial club

application with special content display on

their favourite stars, merchandise wish-lists

and an interest-based, categorised news

section. Looking beyond sports, Netix –

the online provider of movies and shows –

provides a good example: the company

adapts and tailors its Web pages to each

of its customers according to household

characteristics, demographics and interests.

For sports, too, we expect technology to

converge across all club functions to a point

where the content on clubs’ platforms will

be intelligently and seamlessly tailored for

every fan. Digital will become the “brain”

that enables clubs to cut across the

growing oceans of content and commerce

opportunities by bringing in a wave of

“context”, thus creating content that truly

resonates with fans.

PWC SPORTS BUSINESS ADVISORY

12 Digital Ecosystem

CLUBS’ OPERATING MODELS

WILL EVOLVE AS DATA ANALYTICS

ASSUMES A GREATER ROLE

What should a football club do next to

embrace this future? Technology obviously

has a central role to play,

but technology alone will

not decide the match.

Football clubs will need

to get their markers and

whiteboards out and revisit

their operating model. We

see four aspects as being

particularly important:

• First and foremost, clubs will need to

map out their future strategic priorities,

using their expected business case to

canvas support within the organisation for

the nancial resources they will need to

drive their digital transformation forward.

“Bringing different departments together

for an integrated approach is an internal

challenge”, says Stefan Mennerich,

Director of Digital Media and Media

Rights and IT at FC Bayern Munich. “We

make a point of seeking their feedback

and providing them with services they

need, while simultaneously advocating

the case for integration.” The beauty of

What benets can clubs expect? Using data

to tailor content and marketing messages

effectively will make it possible to nurture

long-term brand loyalty. However, insights

into fans’ preferences will also open doors

for immediate revenue diversication by

enabling cross-selling and

up-selling. The interest of

club sponsors, suppliers and

broadcasters in knowing a fan’s

daily habits, food preferences

and other preferences will

help clubs to derive greater

value from their contracts,

as well as enabling them to

enter into new partnerships.

Eventually, some future sponsorship-rights

structures may no longer be based solely on

a territorial view, but will be linked instead to

individual fan-prole views. With more and

more technology enabling personalisation

and digital content distribution, sponsors

may soon be able to reach the exact target

audiences they want to address, thus

increasing relevance and decreasing clutter.

Looking at top clubs, it is not surprising to

read that Arsenal’s multi-million sponsorship

deal with an airline was signicantly

inuenced by the club’s commitment to

build more detailed proles of its fans.

The creation of data

culture within a club’s

operating model is

a prerequisite for

effective change.

PWC SPORTS BUSINESS ADVISORY

Digital Ecosystem 13

technology is its scalability, which should

enable most clubs to nd a solution that

ts their goals and budget.

• Second, clubs need to understand

the scope of the fan data that is being

generated, and ensure they can actually

gain control over it, from a commercial

and legal point of view. The days when

a football club would merely focus on

“playing football” and have third-party

agencies, suppliers or media companies

buy out and exploit any rights they wanted

to sell are nearing their end. While third-

party agencies and suppliers may still be

contracted to carry out operational tasks,

clubs will want to retain ownership of

underlying data and potentially integrate

any platform relating to that data. The

particular importance of this point

becomes apparent when one considers

that, as technology develops, new sources

of fan data may come into being which no

one has yet thought of.

• Third, to analyse, interpret and develop

effectively the right “intelligence” from

the vast amounts of data

available, a club will need

to integrate the right

skills and talent into its

organisation. Data scientists

and consultants with the

technical expertise and

creative edge needed to

generate usable insights will

be of paramount importance.

• Fourth, in order to progress from

insights to execution, an appropriate

organisational structure will need to be

introduced within the club, and change will

need to be supported at the senior level

of the organisation. “Employing the right

tools and expertise is one thing. What

is important is to listen actively to your

staff members”, says Professor Simon

Chadwick of the Sports Business and

Marketing faculty at Coventry University.

Different models may be adopted – from

each traditional function having its own

analytics group, to a centralised model

that is either subordinate to a specic

function or operates independently,

in parallel to the traditional functions

creating a central home for all “fan

engagement” initiatives. Regardless

of the specic structure chosen, clear

roles, responsibilities and collaboration

processes will need to be dened in order

to dene a coherent strategy.

Clubs that can incorporate all the above

aspects within the organisation structure in

a positive manner will be in a position to use

data intelligence as a means of improving

their business functions. Analysing

correlations between weather data and

ticket demand, for example, will provide

clubs with a precise idea of when it is

worthwhile to lower or increase charges for

advertising and when it makes sense to offer

promotions for tickets.

DATA INTELLIGENCE HOLDS THE

KEY TO THE FUTURE – STEP IN OR

GET SIDE-STEPPED

Everyone agrees that digital offers meaning-

ful opportunities for the future, even though

clubs will need to invest

signicant nancial and

human resources into

developing it. So what will

happen to clubs that do not

take up this opportunity?

First, these clubs may be

missing out on additional

revenue streams, as

competing clubs and other entertainment

organisations will be capturing the extra

value provided by having fans, sponsors

and other suppliers engaging with them

on the basis of personalised and hyper-

targeted content. Second, these clubs

may leave their fans facing a cluttered and

confusing content environment, leaving

their expectations of personalised content

frustrated and diminishing the perceived

quality of the user experience. Third, and

most importantly, clubs may progressively

lose control of the way their brand values

are communicated, hampering their ability

to shape and nurture fan loyalty. Clubs may

be left with their hands tied, relying solely

on the hope that their sporting performance

and existing fan base will continue to grow.

Those who do not

adapt will fail

to realise the full

power of digital.

PWC SPORTS BUSINESS ADVISORY

KEY MESSAGES

• Crowdsourcing offers a powerful opportunity for clubs to derive more

value from their biggest asset, the passionate, energetic fan

• Listening to fans will open doors for business, nancial and performance

solutions which are effective in terms of cost and time

• Direct involvement in problem solving for clubs will reinforce fan loyalty

and take fan engagement a big step forward

CROWDSOURCING

Digital teamwork is the way to play and win in the digital age.

Crowdsourcing 15

FAN ENGAGEMENT EXTENDS

BEYOND THE 90 MINUTES OF

THE MATCH

The sheer scale of football

fans’ engagement with their

clubs has reached a new high in

recent years. Passionate fans,

armed with the developments

in digital technology, consume

football and related content way

beyond the 90 minutes of the

actual match. The newly formed demands

of the digital native, coupled with relentless

expectations of winning, have pushed

football clubs to the edge in their efforts to

innovate to survive in the digital age.

SOCIAL MEDIA IS NOW AN

ESTABLISHED HUB FOR FAN

ENGAGEMENT. WHAT COMES NEXT?

Fans no longer simply watch live matches.

They routinely use digital channels, both

mobile and social, to consume and share

content, information and analysis, and to

interact with sports leagues, clubs and

players. The use of the social space in

sports to communicate with fans directly

and enhance the relationship between them

and their club is now hardly new. These

days, every football club has embraced

social media and its power to reach out to

a large number of fans. On that score, their

generated digital content constantly gets

better, more “likeable”, “shareable” and

“tweetable”. In fact, it is some of the most

compelling, inuential and talked about

content in popular culture. Undoubtedly,

social media is a powerful tool, as it helps

clubs to control the message and bring fans

closer to the club by offering them the ability

to become actively involved and engaged

with the beautiful game.

Compelling, digital content coupled with

large communities of connected fans,

however, is a much more valuable resource

than clubs have so far

managed to make it with

their current social-media

activities. If clubs take

a step back, listen more

attentively to their social-

media audiences, and

empower the people who

truly matter, their fans, they

will further increase the value they derive

from their fan bases. By listening, clubs

will unlock their fans’ trust, respect and

appreciation. This will put them on the inside

track, where they will nd many untapped

opportunities for fostering fan engagement,

opportunities that go way beyond the

exposure they are currently getting from

Facebook, Twitter and other darlings of the

Internet.

CROWDSOURCING IS A POWERFUL

PROBLEM-SOLVING TOOL, NOW

SLOWLY GAINING MOMENTUM

One opportunity that clubs can tap

into is crowdsourcing. In simple terms,

crowdsourcing enables organisations to

broadcast a task to a crowd and ask them

to contribute ideas to solve the problem.

The topic is seldom out of the news and is

the subject of widespread discussion. With

good reason: if used wisely, crowdsourcing

can be a very powerful tool, especially for

football clubs, since they already have the

key ingredient needed to make the model

work – the devoted crowd that their fan base

represents.

Listening to fans

will unlock untapped

opportunities for

fan engagement.

PWC SPORTS BUSINESS ADVISORY

16 Crowdsourcing

SEEKING IDEAS FROM FANS AND

THEN PUTTING TRUST IN THEM

HAS SIGNIFICANT POTENTIAL

TO ENHANCE CLUB-FAN

RELATIONSHIPS

Crowdsourcing presents a strategic

opportunity for clubs to reinforce the

fan experience in a manner

which will benet the overall

organisation, and possibly

also the bottom line. It truly

engages fans and raises the fan

experience to a more intense

level than can be achieved

through simple social-media

exposure. It empowers fans

to add new value to the relationship with

their club by helping produce relevant

content and contribute insights from

various different locations. The passion,

excitement and trust demonstrated by a

club’s fans is virtually unlimited. By involving

them through crowdsourcing, clubs show

them that they value their feedback and

opinion, thus building an even more durable

relationship. At the same time, clubs will

benet from solutions that are operationally

feasible, economically viable, and, most

important of all, desired by their fans.

Examples of the remarkable benets

companies can achieve when they use

crowdsourcing are becoming increasingly

frequent. However, in order to build lasting

value from their relationship with their fans,

and use that to increase fan engagement,

football clubs rst have to recognise the

mind-set on which effective crowdsourcing

depends and accept its implications. Are

football clubs ready to trust their supporters

and embrace new tools? Even more

importantly, are they prepared to embrace

an entirely new relationship with their fans

and grant them privileged access to behind-

the-scenes activities?

THE POWER OF THREE

This section examines three primary

areas – business operations, nance and

team performance – where there is scope

for football clubs to use crowdsourcing and

other digital tools to harness the passion

and problem-solving power of their fans:

BUSINESS OPERATIONS

Channelling fans’ passion and energy

through a structured crowdsourcing

platform provides clubs with an ecient

means in terms of cost and time of involving

their fans worldwide in generating new

ideas and nding better ways of carrying

out certain operations. Effectively, the clubs

benet from their fans’ insights, skills and

opinions. Crowdsourcing will enable clubs

to strengthen trust and loyalty among

fans, by allowing them to use the club’s

proprietary digital imprint, thus fostering

their fans’ sense of ownership. The greater

the clubs are able to overcome existing

inter-generational issues and to understand

and adapt to the new dynamics and rules of

the digital age, particularly in their dealing

with digital natives, the better they will be

at responding to changing circumstances

in a timely fashion. Of course, what is

hot for digital natives in one country may

not necessarily appeal to fans in another

country. Taking a cue from the younger,

tech-savvy audience, who grew up with the

Internet and social sites where information

is freely available, is both a prerequisite for

getting an effective crowdsourcing initiative

launched and a good way of increasing the

engagement of this particular demographic.

We have seen football clubs who evaluated

what their fans really want by asking people

for modern, authentic fan-merchandising

ideas. Focusing on identied types of

demand allows clubs to concentrate their

marketing efforts on areas where they

will be most effective, thus driving sales

and meeting their supporters’ needs.

“The aim of our crowdsourcing campaign

was to analyse our brand value and

drive the repositioning of the club”, says

Thomas Röttgermann, managing director

at Bundesliga club VfL Wolfsburg.

Crowdsourcing has

the power to take

fan loyalty a big step

forward.

PWC SPORTS BUSINESS ADVISORY

Crowdsourcing 17

traditional funding models like bond issuance,

crowdfunding allowed the club to achieve its

goal at a much faster pace.

The latest commercial activities of the

German lower-tier side Rot-Weiss Essen

provide another example where the power

of the crowd has been successfully used

to raise funding. Instead of relying on the

nancial backing of one main sponsor, the

club approached its local community, asking

local businesses and individuals to join forces

and become the club’s main sponsor. “The

novelty of putting a large number of our

local businesses and fans on the shirt and

granting them the privileges of our main

sponsor has paid off for us in many ways,”

says Rot-Weiss Essen’s Managing Director

Dr. Michael Welling. “We were able to reduce

our nancial dependence on one main

sponsor, increase commercial revenues

and, most importantly, cement ties with our

fans and the local community.” While digital

channels played a limited role in this particular

case, it does illustrate how clubs which do

decide to explore these new paradigms and

harness the potential of a large group of fans

can mobilise signicant sources of funding

and create high levels of fan engagement.

TEAM PERFORMANCE

Football is a sport of passion and intuition.

It cannot be reduced to a soulless set of

calculations. That being said, football is

also becoming more intelligent. Just as

Michael Lewis’s Moneyball has inspired

millions, much thought has been devoted

to analysing how the insights gained from

baseball might apply to football. Top clubs

are working with data companies like Opta

and Prozone to analyse matches and

players’ performances. They employ data

analysts to help build a winning team. This

results in a growing number of data-driven

decisions and in some instances even an

attempt for a “datacation” of the game.

“Successful teams turn player performance

data into action and gain a competitive

advantage,” says John Coulson, head of

professional football services at sports data

company Opta. “Any professional football

club that denies the power of data is placing

itself at a disadvantage.”

Whereas top-ight football clubs can

use their resources and global scale to

exploit the latest digital developments,

crowdsourcing also provides mid-tier and

lower-tier clubs with an opportunity to keep

pace with digital trends and offer a wide

portfolio of fan-generated insights and

digital offerings.

Just as the online gaming and betting

operator Betfair has provided third-party

software developers with access to its live

data, so that they can build interfaces and

products (including Web pages, mobile

applications and widgets), clubs also have

the option of using a similar approach to

developing their digital offerings by granting

fans access to certain data and privileges.

Imagine an approach which involves fans

developing applications that are both in

tune with their interests and benecial to

the club’s business operations. This would

effectively place the onus for creativity on

the shoulders of the fans themselves.

FINANCE

Numerous successes have already been

achieved through crowdfunding. This form

of nancing is still in its infancy and it will

continue to grow. Whilst crowdfunding has

proven a very effective means of raising

initial nancing for start-up companies, an

increasing number of businesses have now

begun to use it as a means of experimenting

with new projects and business models.

While Kickstarter has become synonymous

with crowdfunding, more crowdfunding

providers are now appearing on the scene,

extending the reach of this new type of

nancing and serving different audiences,

needs and causes.

Crowdfunding has already proven its ability

to open up avenues of opportunity for

football clubs and we expect more crowd-

funding operations for football clubs to

follow. The German lower tier-football club

VfL Osnabrück, for example, has success-

fully reached out to its fans through a

crowdfunding campaign to obtain funding

for the certied cash reserves required to

meet the licensing criteria of the German

Football Association. Compared to

PWC SPORTS BUSINESS ADVISORY

18 Crowdsourcing

Whilst all the number crunching has failed to

nd relevant variables for simulating future

player performance and match outcomes,

investment in numerical analysis to nd a

new, optimised route to winning in football

continues. Football clubs undoubtedly

have many good reasons to be extremely

secretive about where they get data from

and how they use it. What can be said is that

there have been many cases where fans

themselves have helped clubs to transform

raw, scattered data into genuinely useful

insights.

Football fans have, for example, helped

to improve the scouting process clubs

use to nd new talent. The Transfermarkt

Internet platform is an excellent example

of how such improvements can be made.

Transfermarkt users all share a common

interest in football, and the platform

encourages them to interact with each

other, contribute ideas, solve problems and

create content. “Due to the many insights

it receives from its community of users, the

platform has become an undeniably useful

information source for the football family,”

says Dr. Gregor Reiter, Managing Director of

the German Football Agents’ Association.

The same principle applies to Sports

Interactive’s Football Manager database:

it is fuelled by player data contributed

by a crowd of over 1,300 dedicated fans

of the video game covering national

leagues in almost a quarter of all FIFA’s

member associations. According to Sports

Interactive, their “scouts” provide objective

and detailed insights and the range of

matches covered globally is exceptional.

The evidence suggests that professional

clubs have started to use Football Manager

to test the viability of potential new signings.

Although these examples show how

clubs leverage information gathered by

fans around the globe, the initiatives and

platforms they are using are in fact made

available by player agents rather than

the clubs themselves. A look at the latest

activities of the NBA club Sacramento Kings

does, however, suggest that football clubs

may see the benets of this approach and

expand the way they interact with fans by

engaging with them on the most hallowed

ground of all, the pitch itself. This California-

based baseball franchise has launched a

crowdsourcing programme to help make

draft pick decisions. The competition

has embarked on a new trajectory which

complements the established draft methods,

scouting and analytics used by the Kings.

In return for granting access to these

processes, the NBA club received analytical

advice at no charge.

The huge success of fantasy games

demonstrates that there are fans who are

not only passionate about sport but also

possess signicant analytical skills. To

make this work for them, football clubs need

to identify the right partners for them in the

digital ecosystem, both within and outside

the football industry. Modern technology

offers clubs interesting new ways of under-

standing risks and making informed

decisions rather than relying solely on gut

instinct.

TEAM STRENGTH EXTENDS BEYOND

THE BENCH – STAND UP AND TAKE

NOTICE

In the digital age, there is no pause button

and no unaffected customer group. Using

crowdsourcing to tap into the intangibles

of fan loyalties may enable clubs to identify

their most useful partners in their quest to

play and win in this digital age.

PWC SPORTS BUSINESS ADVISORY

KEY MESSAGES

• Clubs and players will use social media even more intensively to target

fans that their current social-media strategies are not reaching

• Direct monetisation via social media will become possible, yet social

media will still mainly focus on brand-building and audience development

for clubs, players and sponsors

• The new digitised match day will enable clubs to offer more information to

fans, and leverage content related to the match

AUDIENCE

DEVELOPMENT

Football clubs will have to diversify their content portfolio and extend their

audience engagement activities to novel channels in order to communicate

their club brand, engage existing fans and gain new audiences.

20 Audience Development

FROM FOOTBALL CLUB TO MEDIA

HUB. WHAT COMES NEXT?

In recent years, the importance and value of

brands in sports has become evident. Today,

the largest football clubs have a distinct

brand identity and – more importantly

from an operational point of view – a brand

strategy that shapes their public image and

engagement.

Clubs like Bayern Munich or Real Madrid

are great examples. Beyond delivering an

outstanding performance on the pitch, these

clubs are perfecting their ability to leverage

content to build a clear and consistent

brand identity across all touch points. Also,

clubs are distributing this content via newly

created channels, such as video footage

of matches or training sessions, that are

distributed via the clubs’ own online video

platform. The advantages of this strategy

are clear. First, they enable clubs to keep

fans in their ecosystem, thereby increasing

the clubs’ media reach, which in turn is of

interest to sponsors. Second, clubs can

monetise this content by marketing it directly

to their fans.

That being said, a football club

is more than a media enterprise

or an entertainment provider.

What distinguishes consumers

of football-related

content and

merchandise from

other consumers

is their status as

fans. Fandom, even in its mildest

forms, also entails an emotional

connection and an interaction

with other fans. Sharing the

experience becomes absolutely central.

Social media is an ideal tool for addressing

and engaging fans on an emotional level,

but it is not currently being used to its full

potential. As the use of mobile devices

becomes ever more widespread, social

media will play an increasingly important

and powerful role in gaining and maintaining

users’ attention. Social media is also an ideal

tool to stay in touch with casual fans who

may “like” a club on Facebook, but are not

keen to download the club’s mobile app or

example for this is the unrivalled social

media success generated by the FIFA World

Cup 2014. The casual fan is as valuable a

target for sponsors or supporters as the

passionate fan who visits the stadium to see

a match.

One of the distinct assets football clubs have

to offer is the match itself. While video rights

are already extensively marketed, the extent

to which the in-stadium experience is used to

engage fans remains relatively undeveloped.

Driven by technical innovation, in-stadium

fan engagement will become much more

important and innovative than it is today.

DIGITALISATION CHANGES CONTENT

AND AUDIENCE-DEVELOPMENT

STRATEGIES FOR FOOTBALL CLUBS

Clubs already use social media to connect

with their fans. As more time is spent surng

the Web on mobile devices, social becomes

the predominant entry page for users. This

trend is most pronounced among the new

generation of digital natives. The key global

platforms are Facebook, Twitter, YouTube

and Instagram. The local

ones include Tencent and

VK from China and Russia

respectively.

Today, we know that when

fans use social media to

follow their team, they

typically spend more time

engaging with their team

than they otherwise would. Social media

is popular among supporters, because it

provides real-time communication and news,

and also offers two-way communication.

Generally, the core attributes of social media

will continue to provide an ecient channel

for clubs to engage with their fans. The

specics will change, however: social-media

usage will be adapted to address a more

segmented fan base, thus enabling it to open

up new and remote markets.

In order for these goals to be accomplished

by making the best possible use of social

media and direct communication, we believe

four factors will be pivotal.

Football clubs are

more than a media

hub – because of

their fans.

As social media

asserts itself as

consumers’ rst port

of call, clubs need to

adapt their strategy.

EXOZET

Audience Development 21

AN OVERARCHING STRATEGY IS

THE DRIVER

Now more than ever social media needs

to be part of an integrated brand strategy

that creates a seamless fan experience

across a club’s various media channels. As

social becomes the Internet’s new point of

entry, news and articles from the website or

from third parties will be integrated into the

club’s social-media stream and presented

in a manner appropriate to the respective

platform. Integration of social media into

a club’s own digital environment makes

the club’s online presence more visible

and captivating. Club-owned social-media

hubs will become increasingly interesting

for a specic segment of loyal fans, as they

will be able to provide all the social-media

information related to the club and bind fans

to the club’s own digital ecosystem.

Fan communities will become more

segmented, thus making social media

platforms a valuable tool for addressing

specic fan groups (e.g., remote fans from

specic locations). Also, communication via

mainstream social media will enable a club

to boost its ability to unlock the potential of

target groups (e.g., fans over 40, casual fans)

that are only poorly addressed by clubs’

current offerings.

THE DISTINCTION BETWEEN CONTENT

AND COMMUNICATION WILL BECOME

IRRELEVANT

The value of social media lies in the dialogue

it promotes, and a loyal followership on

Facebook, Twitter and Instagram needs

to be built on authentic, relevant and

entertaining content and

communication.

User-generated content is

highly favoured among fans,

and interactive content that

asks fans to contribute and

then prominently displays

their input is especially sought

after as suggested by recent

data on the amount of time individual users

spend on different parts of a Web page or

mobile app. Content is also more successful

if it is of high quality (i.e., relevant and

visually appealing) as well as platform-

appropriate. One option for bringing both

these requirements together on social media

is to work around events in which content is

produced by fans within a particular frame

(e.g., asking fans to post videos explaining

why they love their club in one sentence),

using polls among fans, prize draws, or

specically looking for content that offers

more editorial control.

Digital and more specically social media

will become a common entry route into

fandom. This in turn means that there will be

more fans for whom communication about

the match is more important than watching

the match itself – and social-media

communication should exploit this.

TRACKING AND MONETISATION ARE

TWO SIDES OF THE SAME COIN

Gauging exactly how much revenue social-

media activity generates is about as dicult

as measuring the effect of branding

advertising campaigns. Within the next few

years, more precise tracking systems that go

beyond such classic social-media metrics

as “likes” and reach will be developed,

just as they are now being developed to

measure the effectiveness of online brand-

marketing campaigns. This data will be

leveraged to address fans more eciently

by offering them relevant content, products

and services. In a second step, social-media

metrics will also be integrated into the – yet

to be built – digital ecosystems of clubs,

ensuring a holistic marketing view for the

benet of both fan and club.

Direct monetisation in the context of social

media is already a reality, as demonstrated

by new features such as

Facebook multiproduct

ads or Google, making

it possible to market

merchandise and products

to fans in the social-media

context. Nevertheless, in

the short term we expect

large clubs to continue

treating social media as

a tool for increasing the quality of their

offering rather than for direct monetisation.

Social media will

remain an important

tool for improving

the offerings clubs

provide to their fans.

EXOZET

22 Audience Development

NEW OPPORTUNITIES FOR SPONSORS

OPEN UP

If a club or a player has built a loyal

followership on social media, this reach

offers an interesting audience for sponsors

and advertisers. Native advertising in

social media often shows conversion rates

that far exceed the success achieved by

conventional banner advertising. Shaquille

O’Neal promoting Oreo cookies on Twitter,

“wanna hang wit me? heres ur chance for us

2 chill n dunk some” is a great example of

successful social-media native advertising.

The main objective of these advertisements

is to remain entertaining and authentic,

thus allowing O’Neal to build up a Twitter

following of 8.1 million fans (October 2014).

Adding a viral component to advertising

encourages people to share content, further

compounding reach and impact.

Eighty percent of fans use social media to

communicate with their club, players and

fellow fans and many do so while watching

sports on TV. This interaction will become

more important in supporting traditional

TV campaigns, by communicating sponsor

brands on social media, while the TV ad or

the match is on. Social-media platforms use

new features to support this, such as Twitter

Amplify, an advertising format that allows

for real-time video content, including pre-roll

advertising to be distributed via Twitter.

For sponsors, social media has become an

attractive way of talking to fans directly.

One notable example is Sony’s engagement

during the FIFA World Cup 2014. With 6.5

million likes on its Facebook channel, the

interactive community page football.sony.

net, and on a related YouTube channel, Sony

undoubtedly gained signicant visibility and

engagement during the World Cup.

LEVERAGING THE MATCH DAY FOR

AUDIENCE ENGAGEMENT

The overall match day experience and

in-venue atmosphere are among the most

valuable assets football clubs have at their

disposal. The match day is a critical subject

of social-media communication, but, once

fans have reached the venue, little is then

done to connect them with each other

digitally, or indeed with fans following the

match elsewhere. Curiously, today’s in-

stadium experience is very similar to that on

offer 20 years ago: almost no video replays

of match scenes on large stadium screens,

EXOZET

Audience Development 23

no commentary is available, social-media

activity is not specically directed towards

fans in the stadium and connection to fans

outside the stadium is rarely orchestrated.

Twitter is used as a match-day reporting tool

and – rarely – integrated in the LEDs in the

bands on the pitch.

Driven by the introduction of stadium WiFi,

and in its wake, the advent of stadium apps

that only work when connected to the venue

WiFi, the in-venue experience will become

both more digital and more

social. One of today’s successful

examples is Bayer Leverkusen’s

Fan App, which uses social media

to connect and engage with

fans, and offers features such

as live video streaming, match

statistics, live information about

the match and surveys whose

results are communicated directly to those

in the stadium. In time, applications that

connect fans within or outside the club will

be increasingly available, along the example

of choreography apps Fanpictor, which is

gaining increasing traction in the market. Yet

the introduction of these apps and services

doesn’t come without challenges. Indeed,

fan groups who have been organising these

activities may feel disintermediated and

disempowered, demanding from clubs

particular attention in the way they promote

the introduction of these services.

Technological innovation will also change

the viewing experience itself. Wearable

augmented-reality devices, Google Glass

being the most prominent, provide the

possibility of using second-screen or

stadium apps embedded into the match.

Moreover, these devices may also bring

the in-stadium experience to fans located

elsewhere, or even let viewers see the match

through the point of view of a player. Albeit

technically still challenging, holographic

projection techniques may also well develop

to the point of providing a captivating

virtual in-stadium experience, lifting the

opportunities for public viewing to a whole

new level.

HOW DO CLUBS BENEFIT FROM THIS?

An enhanced stadium experience through

digital will lead to increased ticket sales,

attracting fans who would not usually attend

the match. Also, a more aligned social-media

experience will mean that more visitors will

be happy to promote and “socialise” the

match experience, broadcasting it to their

wider network of friends. The introduction

of WiFi and in-stadium apps will also offer

the possibility of marketing premium

content directly to visitors, as well as enable

monetisation through targeted advertising.

THE SYNERGY BETWEEN SOCIAL

MEDIA AND GAME EXPERIENCE IS

IMPORTANT

Fandom is all about emotions – emotions

that fans want to communicate to their

clubs, heroes, and fellow supporters. Social

media has already established itself as the

best way of fullling this desire for aliation.

With the increasing cultural importance of

social media, and the emergence of new

platforms and features, clubs will benet

from digital in new and interesting ways.

Helping fans to exchange their experiences

in the stadium – either via social media,

or with the help of digital gadgets – is one

of the most promising avenues for clubs’

marketing strategies to explore today.

Crafting a 21

century

match-day experience

is football’s most

promising challenge.

EXOZET

24 Football’s Digital Transformation

KEY MESSAGES

• Digital self-measurement and data analytics will become an integral part

of our everyday life

• Video and augmented reality wearables will signicantly change the match

experience

• Wearable technologies and data analytics will become highly sophisticated

and will offer advanced products, services and applications

• New business models and marketing strategies will be derived from

connected and integrated data analytics and wearable ecosystems

MATCH DATA AND

WEARABLES

Wearable technologies and match data will offer new business models,

create more fan engagement and expand digital marketing strategies

that football clubs and players will exploit.

THE DIGITAL MATCH DATA AND

WEARABLE ECOSYSTEM IS

DIVERSIFIED

MATCH DATA IS AN ESTABLISHED AND

MATURE BUSINESS

For many years now the practice of

gathering and analysing match-related

data during professional football matches

has been widespread. A wide range of

match data is available today and there

are numerous applications and services

which use it, such as sports data feeds,

statistics and insights for TV broadcasts,

websites, apps, newspapers, etc. This data

has an important part to play in the match

experience itself, as action on the pitch

enhances the overall match experience.

The provision and processing of match data

is now a mature and protable business

with a wide range of uses and applications.

Within this market, established match-data

service providers ensure the continuous

improvement of match analytics and

availability through a variety of distribution

channels.

DIGITAL PLAYER PERFORMANCE

MEASUREMENT TOOLS BENEFIT FROM

SOPHISTICATED SENSORS

In addition to match data, which allows

player data to be tracked and analysed in

multiple ways, nearly all professional football

clubs also use advanced biometrical,

kinetics and position measurement

technologies to track and enhance their

players’ performance. Player performance

measurements are based on sophisticated,

highly integrated sensor technologies,

usually based on a combination of different

wearable devices which make up a complete

technical ecosystem. The main purpose

of player performance measurement is to

collect data as a basis for empirically based

decisions on performance improvement,

to optimise training loads and to track

players’ activity in order to avoid fatigue

problems during the league season. Florian

Gschwandtner, the CEO of Runtastic,

draws particular attention to the fatigue

issue: “More and more football clubs

are investigating ways of tracking their

players’ daily activities, sleep cycles,

nutrition habits, etc., in order to monitor

their physical and psychological states

and optimise their overall condition.”

Sports regulatory restrictions still prohibit

the use of player performance measurement

technologies during ocial matches in

football, even though they have been widely

adopted in other sports, such as rugby.

CONSUMER WEARABLES PROVIDE DIGITAL

MEASUREMENT FOR A QUANTIFIED SELF

While the digitalisation and analysis of

match statistics and the measurement of

players’ performances is an established

business, it is only recently that self-

measurement and data analytics have

been widely available in the consumer

market. Today, an ever-growing number of

wristbands, smart watches, smart shoes

and wearable smart textiles is tempting

consumers to measure every aspect of their

everyday life. Following the announcement

of the Apple Watch, this relatively young

market is expected to gain substantial

momentum, opening up the consumer

wearables ecosystem to all kinds of new

applications and services. We expect the so-

called “quantied self” to become an integral

part of our everyday life.

Match Data and Wearables 25

EXOZET

26 Match Data and Wearables

VIDEO AND AUGMENTED REALITY

WEARABLES WILL CHANGE THE MATCH

EXPERIENCE

Besides consumer wearables for the

“quantied self”, the rapid development of

wearable cameras in glasses (e.g., Google

Glass), augmented reality (“AR”) devices

and head-up displays (e.g., Oculus Rift) has

made a wide variety of new applications

available which can be used in a whole range

of different ways. The core feature of video/

AR wearables is the point of view (“POV”)

experience that these devices offer: both

consumers and professional athletes can

record and broadcast their environment

from their point of view, thus

creating new ways of letting

others “participate” in their

sports experience. Consumers

can see the action through the

eyes of their heroes, the players,

and other protagonists, such

as coaches and referees. FC

Barcelona’s basketball team has

already conducted several trials

with Google Glass technology,

both during a Euroleague Basketball match

and during training sessions and provided the

footage to their fans.

While it is relatively easy to create POV

videos in real time and transmit it in

connected stadiums or as services to

consumers’ homes, complete augmented-

reality applications are much harder to

produce as they require sophisticated and

time-consuming planning, production and

distribution of the content. Especially for

sponsors and brands, AR technology offers

a range of new brand-communication and

fan-engagement scenarios. A collaboration

between the O2 arena in London and the

England Rugby team has developed an AR

application using Oculus Rift devices where

the user “dives” into the action, participates

in training sessions and virtually becomes

part of the team. Facebook’s two-billion-

dollar acquisition of Oculus Rift provides

timely evidence of the importance of AR

services and applications in the future of

social media.

INTEGRATED VALUE CHAINS AND

THEIR POTENTIAL FOR CLUBS,

PLAYERS AND FANS

The value chains for match data, player

performance measurement and consumer

wearables are all based on the same

principle: data acquisition is followed by

data analysis. The results of the analysis

are then visualised and then deployed to

platform-specic applications and services.

Today, match data, player performance

measurement and consumer wearables

are largely separate markets: the data is

used in different ways and

the applications serve

different needs. In the

future, the connection

and integration of these

separate value chains will

offer new possibilities for

clubs, players and fans.

We expect soon that

data from one domain

(e.g., player performance

measurement) will be used for applications

in other domains (e.g., consumer wearables

and applications). Based on the market

potential of services which engage and

involve fans, and of applications, new

business models and marketing strategies

exploiting integrated and connected match

data and wearable ecosystems will be

devised.

THE FAN WILL BE AT THE CENTRE OF

THE DATA VALUE CHAIN

Potential ways of monetising and

exploiting match data, player performance

measurement data and consumer wearables

for new business models and marketing

strategies exist in a variety of areas. Looking

at what is currently available in the market,

some very promising products, applications

and services can be identied today. These

new offerings are currently at very different

stages in their product and service cycles.

While sports-product manufacturers such

as Adidas offer a wide range of wearable

products with fairly sophisticated services

and applications (as exemplied by the

Adidas Micoach product line with smart

The integration of

match data and

wearable ecosystems

will create new

services and

applications for fans.

EXOZET

Match Data and Wearables 27

balls, shoes, performance measurement

wearables, etc.) other market players,

particularly in the video/AR domain, are

still in the early days of development, and

the products and services they currently

offer are correspondingly immature.

Nevertheless, the “immersion” experience

that video/AR technologies provide offers

a wide range of new possibilities. We think

that if video/AR services and applications

are connected with the right data (e.g.,

match analysis) and offered in the right

context (e.g., within a connected stadium)

a whole range of new and contextually

personalised POV experiences can be

created. The fan could sit in the stadium,

have instant replays of events that happened

on the pitch and follow the performance

stats of his favourite player or team in real

time based on his own vantage point within

the stadium. Immersion through video/

AR technologies is obviously not limited

to in-stadium experiences and can also be

offered for use at home. What fan would

not want to join his favourite player and

see the pitch as he sees it while preparing

and executing a penalty shot? Who would

not want to be part of his favourite club’s

coaching team and follow the

match through the eyes of the

coach, while simultaneously

viewing real-time match and

player statistics?

In our view the potential

applications for integrated and connected

value chains for match data, player

performance measurement and consumer

wearables can be categorised into the

following areas:

• Content and story-telling:

personalised data can be

generated and presented

contextually within all types of

social media or through other

distribution channels (e.g.,

personalised data streams,

content from my club, heatmaps

and statistics of my favourite

player in my Facebook stream,

POV video sequences from my

club’s last training session).

• Self-improvement and comparison:

applications that allow fans to measure

themselves and compare their lifestyles

and performance with those of their

favourite stars. Or services that allow fans

to improve their skills and learn from their

favourite stars through intelligent balls,

wristbands and analysis and tracking

tools.

• Viewing experience: applications and

services that enhance fans’ match and

viewing experiences through video/AR

offerings.

MONETISATION MODELS AND

MARKETING STRATEGIES

DIRECT MONETISATION MODELS ARE

ENABLED BY PREMIUM SERVICES

The monetisation of the potential

applications described above can be

achieved either directly by fans purchasing

premium content or services, or indirectly

by advertisers purchasing space within that

content or those services. Depending on

how the application is used, content can be

monetised via one-time

payments for premium

features (e.g., video/AR

service as a premium

feature of the stadium

ticket) or by offering

subscription models that

give access to premium content, premium

applications and premium services. In

our opinion, clubs, players and sponsors

can create great added value by providing

access to personalised content and services

and we believe fans will be willing to pay for

this.

Another possibility for direct monetisation

within the wearable video/AR ecosystem

is marketing advertising space within the

video/AR content itself. Presenting Lionel

Messi’s penalty shot against Manuel

Neuer through Messi’s eyes in real-time

by any brand then becomes a practicable

proposition.

Fans will pay for

premium services

and applications.

Content and

story-telling,

self-improvement

and new viewing

experiences are core

assets for creating

new business models.

EXOZET

28 Match Data and Wearables

PERSONALISATION OF CONTENT WILL

HELP ESTABLISH NEW MARKETING

STRATEGIES

In addition to direct monetisation via

premium content, premium services and

ad-space there are also new possibilities for

the marketing domain. Content, applications

and services based on the seamless

integration of the different value chains

will have an impact on new marketing

strategies. In our opinion, content and

story-telling is the key value proposition that

integrated and connected value chains will

offer to fans, and we believe that they will

prove particularly worthwhile for marketing

purposes. Story-telling has a direct impact

on the relationship between fans, clubs

and players. It creates and strengthens

brands and opens up new possibilities

for existing marketing and sponsorship

strategies. If produced and distributed

correctly, personalised stories and content

will arise from connected and integrated

data and will evolve into an emotional and

dynamic hub, which fans will be keen to

visit. This is where we see signicant growth

and where we are convinced that the new

ecosystem will provide new meaning for

both fans and digital technology (i.e., the

wearable ecosystem), thus augmenting fan

engagement and fan involvement.

EXOZET

Match Data and Wearables 29

THERE ARE STILL OPEN ISSUES

THAT NEED TO BE SOLVED

In spite of its undoubted economic potential,

the full exploitation of wearable data and

technology as outlined here is still subject to

a number of open issues to be solved in the

future.

• Major regulatory issues in

football that currently prohibit

the use of wearable technology

during the match need to be

addressed in order for the novel

data value chains discussed here

to be exploited appropriately.

• Further technical hurdles will have to be

overcome, specically in the AR domain.

Even if allowed by the sport’s governing

bodies, existing video/AR technologies

would not enable fans to

look through Lionel Messi’s

eyes while he is shooting

a penalty against Manuel

Neuer. Wearable devices

have to become much

smaller, feature better

capabilities and far more

open interfaces, so that

they can be integrated into

professional service and distribution

value chains.

• In addition, there are also unresolved

questions concerning proprietary data

protocols, interfaces and platforms.

Today, there are no established standards

in the market yet, even though big IT

players such as Google’s Android Wear

or the upcoming iOS for the Apple watch

are (or will shortly be) introduced to the

market. In our opinion we are still far away

from a market where there are established

platforms, interfaces and protocols

which enable data to be exchanged

and integrated into new services and

applications in an ecient and reliable

manner.

• Finally, there is an overarching issue to

be addressed around data ownership,

protection, security and privacy. This will

ultimately determine who – club, player,

league – will be in a position to exploit

what kind of data, building upon existing

services, applications and content.

FOOTBALL’S DIGITAL FUTURE

WILL BE SHAPED BY WEARABLES

AND DATA ANALYTICS

We are convinced that once these key

issues are resolved, match data, player

performance measurement and wearable

technology will unleash their full potential.

Connecting teams, players and fans with

match data and wearables will create

greater fan engagement and make a wider

range of marketing strategies possible.

Personalised storytelling

will rene connected

and integrated data, thus

lending additional meaning

to the data and technology

supporting it. We are

just steps away from the

“quantied match”, the

“quantied player”, and the

“quantied self” to pave

the way for another wave in football’s digital

future.

EXOZET

Story-telling has a

direct impact on

the relationship

between fans,

clubs and players.

Regulatory and

technological issues

have to be solved

in the future.

30 Football’s Digital Transformation

KEY MESSAGES

• Proliferation of smart devices and the increased role played by tech-savvy

executives will foster wider adoption of digital-analysis tools for player

scouting and transfers

• A shift in mind-set towards more transparency will benet all stakeholders

and improve the efciency of the football transfer market

TRANSFER MARKET

Digital will “democratise” the football transfer market with

easier access to information and communication.

Transfer Market 31

TRANSFER MARKET IS HUGE

The global transfer market is a sizeable

part of the football industry, with just the

international player transfers accounting for

3.7 billion USD spent in transfer fees in 2013.

In the past few years, digital has enabled

many clubs to push the boundaries of data

analytics in the performance management

and scouting areas. Nevertheless, the vast

majority of clubs still rely solely on personal

relationships, a scouting network and a

“good eye for talent”. As digital natives start

to occupy decision-making positions within

clubs’ sports departments, things will begin

to change.

TODAY, PERSONAL RELATIONSHIPS

DRIVE TRANSFER DECISIONS

When we look at the football transfer market,

it is quite natural to focus on the staggering

amounts of transfer fees and salaries paid

to top players, most of whom are either

moving into or within the top European

leagues. It should however be remembered

that these gures relate to a minority of

signings, so that a large proportion of the

total transfer fees paid in one season are in

fact attributable to a very small number of

transfers. The bulk of the transfer market

for professional football players mostly

comprises “employees” – just as in any

other industry – moving from

one “employer” to another as

they progress through and

develop their careers. What

makes football unique is that

the “employers” are spread

across the globe, that there

are signicantly fewer “job

openings” than candidates, that

“employees” change jobs quite frequently,

and that their careers tend to end in their

mid thirties.

Given these circumstances, agents have

played a signicant role in driving eciency

in the market, acting as the “glue” which

holds the market together by managing

condential information on potential

openings and ongoing negotiations, as

well as by leveraging their networks with

other agents and club ocials. What is the

potential for digital to raise the eciency

of the transfer market to the next level? In

the future, digital natives will occupy key

positions at football clubs and agencies,

transforming the way the bulk of football

transfer activity and scouting is managed.

THE DIGITALISATION OF THE

FOOTBALL TRANSFER MARKET HAS

STARTED …

In recent years, football has seen a growing

number of digital platforms being launched

to support clubs in the way they manage

scouting and transfers and these have had a

signicant impact on the market. The main

examples of this are:

• Data-analysis software which leverages

data for multiple uses such as

performance management, opposition

and recruitment analysis is one of

the earliest digital developments in

professional football, although its

adoption by clubs has so far been

limited. Currently only

clubs at the top end of

the football pyramid

employ data-driven

techniques to support

their transfer and player

evaluation strategies. As

John Coulson, Head of

Professional Football at

leading data provider Opta Sports, points

out: “We have come a long way since the

emergence of performance data in the late

90s but adoption in professional football

has been much slower than expected.”

PWC SPORTS BUSINESS ADVISORY

Adoption of

digital tools in

player scouting

has been slow.

32 Transfer Market

• Online video platforms have provided a

quantum leap in managing scouting costs

effectively on a global scale by enabling

access to any football match in a few

nger taps. A prime example of this is the

Wyscout system, which provides a video

scouting platform for 220,000 players.

Wyscout is used by over 400 professional

clubs and 450 players’ agencies. It has

played a signicant role in bringing about

a change driven by digital innovations.

As the company’s founder and CEO,

Matteo Campodonico, explains: “Wyscout

managed to ride on the

wave of technological

advancements like the

tablet and smartphone

by creating user-friendly

mobile software allowing

us to capture the attention

of agents, scouts and

sports directors who are

always on the move and

do not necessarily possess

advanced technological skills.”

• Scouting software has enabled online

sharing of information. This has been

driven by the adoption of tablets and

inexpensive access to the Internet. It

has made it easier to manage and share

scouting and player information, even for

smaller clubs with limited resources.

… AND WILL CONTINUE TO GAIN

SIGNIFICANT TRACTION IN THE

YEARS AHEAD

Nevertheless, we believe that much progress

still needs to be made in digitalising the

way football clubs, intermediaries and,

eventually, players themselves cope with

the opportunities and challenges presented

by scouting and football transfers. Looking

into the future, we believe three key trends

will drive development: the increased use of

analytics; the adoption of digital means for

personal networking and communication;

and the progressive digitalisation of the

marketplace.

INCREASED USED OF ANALYTICS

While there has been plenty of debate on

the use of data and analytics technology

in football, it remains doubtful whether

many club executives have changed the

way decisions are made in their transfer

business. Whilst football is not likely to

adopt a “Moneyball” paradigm any time

soon, we are convinced that there are

several reasons to expect a steady growth in

the use of analytics in the years to come.

Today, clubs are hiring performance and

recruitment analysts in

increasing numbers; in

the future there are also

expectations for a change

of guard at the decision-

making level of football

clubs. As a result, clubs

will soon have greater

number of tech-savvy

executives successfully

deploying technology to

implement data-centric strategies.

The ability of software applications to

analyse and make sense of large amounts of

data and to summarise information in simple

graphical visualisations is increasing. It will

thus not be long before leading providers

develop signicantly better systems. Indeed,

top football clubs with large performance-

management teams may eventually develop

proprietary solutions of their own. We expect

that these providers, and possibly also top

clubs, will eventually be able to crack the

code and translate a club’s tactical and

performance requirements into meaningful

data which will yield the “right” answers.

One recent example of this type of

development can be seen in the fact that

data-provider companies such as Opta

Sports and ProZone have started developing

advanced data analytics software to

crunch team and player data. This software

generates actionable insights for player

recruitment and performance analysis

based on an analysis of every facet of a

player’s performance. To achieve this, the

software enables analysts and coaches to

combine different types of objective and

subjective criteria for use in performance

PWC SPORTS BUSINESS ADVISORY

Technological

advancements will

play an important

role in changing

mind-set of key

decision-makers.

Transfer Market 33

evaluation. It is possible to customise the

weighting of each criterion (depending on

its importance for the club’s coach), thus

generating individually tailored player

analyses and indices that can be applied to

several players simultaneously.

We also expect clubs’ marketing

departments to make the case for employing

analysts to merge and analyse data from

different sources, including data relating to

the marketing value of individual players.

Making sense of all this disparate data may

well create the “ultimate” player evaluation

tool, one which takes both marketing and

sporting considerations into account.

Such an approach could be used for pre-

transfer player evaluation as well as for

adjusting players’ compensation based

on a variety of metrics relating to players’

on-pitch and off-pitch performance. Players’

insurance providers might also nd such

evaluation tools useful, as might governing

bodies, private investors, brands and other

interested parties, though the types of

analysis they would perform and the use

they would make of the results would vary

considerably.

CREATING DIGITAL NETWORKS

In contrast to other markets, the football

transfer market has traditionally remained

dependent on a discrete network of player

agents and club ocials, who drive the

business by leveraging their privileged

access to information and decision-makers.

As social media and professional networking

platforms continue their relentless advance,

we expect to see substantial change

sweeping through the transfer market.

Today, initial attempts are being made by

a number of companies to create digital

networks for football professionals. These

include Network90, which has developed

a “LinkedIn for football” approach, and

Wyscout, which is trying to leverage the

critical mass of users they have on their

scouting platform by introducing networking

features. So far, however, these initiatives

appear fragmented and are yet to have any

signicant impact on the market. In the

future, we expect that digital innovations,

such as instant and accurate speech

translation, real-time video, chat and voice

communication, coupled with the expansion

of the mobile Internet in developing

countries, will enable these football-focused

digital networks to increase their market

penetration. A critical aspect that will help

these networks to gain acceptance will be

the scope they offer their users to create

trusted circles, where they can substantiate

their credibility and reliability within a

dened community of users.

DIGITALISATION OF THE MARKETPLACE

As digital platforms bring key stakeholders

together under one roof, it will not be long

before these stakeholders start pushing the

boundaries and become more interested in

conducting at least some of their transfer

business in an online marketplace. Currently,

a number of the aforementioned networking

platforms have introduced marketplace

features, though the results have so far been

mixed. As pointed out by Mark Goddard,

General Manager at FIFA TMS: “I think that

a virtual marketplace is a great idea with

a huge potential, particularly for smaller

clubs, albeit keeping always in mind that a

player can never be traded as a commodity.”

The critical element in determining the

success of these types of platforms

is trust. Currently, the main stumbling

block is the clubs’ unwillingness to share

player data relating to player contracts

and representation, as this information

is generally considered to be privileged.

Another factor is the fear that signalling any

interest in signing or releasing a particular

player will result in a club’s negotiating

edge being weakened. Mr. Campodonico

argues that “in order to create a virtual

marketplace with global impact there would

either have to be some form of regulatory

intervention or a radical change of culture

in football”.

In this regard, we think that regulatory

pressure will indeed continue to drive

transparency in the information published in

the transfer market. The recent introduction

of the new Intermediary Regulations by

FIFA is a step in that direction. While

discontinuing the player agents’ licensing

system at a global level, the regulations do

require the member associations to collect

and publish critical information about player

PWC SPORTS BUSINESS ADVISORY

34 Transfer Market

representative rather than a deal broker,

thus allowing clubs to reduce the transfer

fees they pay as the supply of players and

the transparency of the information relating

to them increases.” However he is quick to

point out that “there is a limit to the changes

digital platforms can deliver. The core of the

business will remain the same. Football is

and will remain a people’s business.”

Players’ agents will also derive a wide range

of benets from the introduction of better

analytical tools, networking systems and

marketplace innovations. Agents will be

able to expand their reach both with regard

to the players they can represent and the

clubs with whom they can do business.

Most importantly, they will be able to build,

maintain and demonstrate their track

records, thus increasing their opportunities

for differentiation from their fellow

practitioners.

As players gain access to more and better

information, they will have greater autonomy

in making career decisions. Digital will

make it easier for them to select the right

intermediary to represent them, expand

their network of contacts with other players,

gauge their opportunities of playing for new

clubs and obtain better information on the

terms that would be offered to them.

The real winner from all this will be football

itself, as digital transformation is expected

to boost transparency, make transfer fees

more rational and improve the overall quality

of competition between clubs, by providing

equal access to information and creating

a level playing eld in terms of market

information, scouting and networking

capabilities. In conjunction with other recent

developments, such as the introduction

of UEFA’s Financial Fair Play rules and the

governing bodies’ resolve to hamper third

party ownership, digital has signicant

potential to establish “fair play” in the

transfer market once and for all.

agents and their activities. It may be that

national football associations will push

the boundaries further by collecting and

publishing more information.

As for cultural change, football will certainly

also experience a transformation, though

this will probably take place at its own

pace. Digital is driving a shift in mind-set,

with easy-to-use mobile technology now

growing at a rate which would have been

unthinkable a few years ago and platforms

now also making it possible to build greater

levels of trust. As sports directors and player

agents adopt new technologies and build

their track records and reputation in the

digital world, the boundaries for initiating

sensitive discussions and negotiations will

be lowered.

THE OVERALL FOOTBALL FAMILY

WILL GAIN AS DIGITAL CREATES

CLOSER TIES BETWEEN ITS

MEMBERS

We are convinced that the impact of digital

innovations will prove advantageous to

all participants in the transfer market,

with football clubs, agents and players

all beneting. Probably one of greatest

examples of the impact of digital comes

from FIFA itself, which introduced the FIFA

Transfer Matching System as the rst global

online platform to manage international

transfers between clubs. Mark Goddard,

General Manager at FIFA TMS recounts

from his experience: “Initial unwillingness

from clubs to adopt the TMS system is now

replaced by their enthusiasm at having to

deal with a more ecient and standardised

process. So much so that today we are

expanding our international transfer

system by offering a domestic version of

the system.”

Also, greater transparency of player and

agent information and streamlining of the

number of player agents will enable football

clubs to reduce their transfer fees and

player salaries. Dr. Gregor Reiter, Managing

Director of the German Football Agents’

Association, notes that “the role of the

agent can become more akin to that of a

PWC SPORTS BUSINESS ADVISORY

Transfer Market 35

References 37

REFERENCES

EXPERT INTERVIEWS

• John Coulson, Head of Professional Football Services, Opta

• Phillip Wessel, Project Manager and Consultant, Club TV, Deutsche Telekom

• Matteo Campodonico, Founder and CEO, Wyscout

• Mark Goddard, General Manager, FIFA Transfer Matching System GmbH

• Sanjit Atwal, CEO, Squawka

• Dr. Gregor Reiter, Managing Director, German Football Agents’ Association

• Stefan Mennerich, Director of Digital Media, Media Rights and IT, FC Bayern Munich

• Peter Mackness, Founder, Thrillpledge

• Thomas Röttgermann, Managing Director, VfL Wolfsburg

• Guy White, Managing Director, Catalyx

• Philippe Truetsch, President, UCOB Ventures AG

• Dr. Michael Welling, Managing Director, Rot-Weiss Essen

• Professor Simon Chadwick, Sport Business Strategy and Marketing Faculty, Coventry

University

• Jens Hilgers, Chairman of the Board, Turtle Entertainment

• Stephan Schuerer, Partner, Fanpictor AG

• Florian Herzberg, Founder and CEO, Phi Mobile Media Services and Klaus Schmidt,

Independent Consultant

SECONDARY RESEARCH

DIGITAL ECOSYSTEM

• Netix’s webpage personalisation for each customer.

Available from: http://thenextweb.com/insider/2013/08/01/netflix-is-rolling-out-proles-bringing-personalized-

recommendations-to-people-sharing-an-account [24 October 2014]

• CRM data key to Emirates’ sponsorship deal with Arsenal.

Available from: http://www.marketingweek.com/2012/11/23/emirates-crm-data-key-to-150m-arsenal-deal

[24 October 2014]

CROWDSOURCING

• Betfair developer programme.

Available from: http://mobile.computerworlduk.com/news/applications/3351260/betfair-launches-app-cloud-

for-software-developers [6 November 2014]

• Kickstarter crowdfunding platform.

Available from: https://www.kickstarter.com [6 November 2014]

• V Osnabrück crowdfunding campaign.

Available from: http://www.crowdrange.de/project/vfl-osnabruck [24 October 2014]

• Rot-Weiss Essen crowdfunding campaign.

Available from: Expert interview with Michael Welling, Managing Director, Rot-Weiss Essen

• Opta – player performance data provider.

Available from: Expert interview with John Coulson, Head of Professional Football Services, Opta

• Prozone – player performance data provider.

Available from: http://www.prozonesports.com [24 October 2014]

• Transfermarkt – crowdsourced Internet platform for transfer market.

Available from: http://www.transfermarkt.com [24 October 2014]

• Sports Interactive Football Manager database.

Available from: http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/aug/12/why-clubs-football-manager-scouting-

tool [24 October 2014]

• Sacramento Kings’ crowdsourcing initiative for draft pick.

Available from: http://espn.go.com/nba/story/_/id/10908483/sacramento-kings-seek-analysis-public-prior-

making-their-draft-pick [24 October 2014]

38 References

TRANSFER MARKET

• Network 90.

Available from: https://www.network90.com [7 October, 2014]

• Combined international transfer compensation value.

Available from: http://www.fa.com/aboutfa/organisation/news/newsid=2266864 [27 October 2014]

MATCH DATA AND WEARABLES

• Augmented Reality & Sport & Wearables by Isidro Navarro.

Available from: http://augmentedrealitybarcelona.com [15 October 2014]

• The Future of Wearable Tech.

Available from: http://www.psfk.com/report/future-of-wearable-tech [25 October 2014]

• Wearables: Trends for 2014.

Available from: http://www.korulab.com [16 September 2014]

AUDIENCE DEVELOPMENT

• 2014 World Cup: What a Difference 4 Years Makes.

Available from: https://www.thinkwithgoogle.com/articles/2014-world-cup.html [6 October 2014]

• Sony x Football.

Available from: Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/sonyxfootball, Sony x Football Social Hub

http://football.sony.net/de, Youtube channel https://www.youtube.com/user/sonyxfootball [6 October 2014]

• Global Sport Marketing, Michel Desbordes, André Richelieu, pp.12 Routledge, 2012,

ISBN-13: 978-0415507202

• FC Bayern Munich: The Secret of Their Success.

Available from: http://scn.sap.com/community/business-trends/blog/2013/05/27/fc-bayern-munich-the-

secret-of-their-success [6 October 2014]

• Overview of Real Madrid social media presences.

Available from: http://www.realmadrid.com/en/fan-clubs/ofcial-social-networks [6 October 2014]

• Social sharing has become the Biggest Thing in Sports Marketing.

Available from: http://www.adweek.com/news/advertising-branding/social-sharing-has-become-biggest-

thing-sports-marketing-158878 [6 October 2014]

• Laughing, tweeting and eating. The soft power of Shaquille O’Neal.

Available from: http://www.smartplanet.com/blog/the-big-story/laughing-tweeting-and-eating-the-soft-power-

of-shaquille-oneal, https://twitter.com/SHAQ [6 October 2014]

• Queens Park Rangers, successful example of twitter display in stadium band.

Available from http://digital-football.com/featured/qpr-to-promote-match-day-hashtag-on-home-dugout,

http://www.footballbusinessawards.com/2014_shortlist_summaries.html [6 October 2014]

• Interview with Stefan Mennerich.

Available from http://digtator.de/en/interview-en/stefan-mennerich-fc-bayern-munich [6 October 2014]

• Schöne neue Fußballwelt, WamS, 5.10.2014, p21.

Available from http://www.welt.de/print/wams/sport/article132921497/Schoene-neue-Fussballwelt.html

[6 October 2014]

• Das Stadion der Zukunft.

Available from http://www.technikjournal.de/cms/front_content.php?idcatart=1444idcat=59 [6 October 2014]

• The connected football stadium: Wi, Twitter, Screens & Mobile.

Available from: http://digital-football.com/featured/the-connected-football-stadium-wi-twitter-boards

[6 October 2014]

• Bayer Leverkusen Fan App.

Available from: http://www.bayer04.de/B04-DEU/de/_md_aktuell-dt.aspx?aktuell=aktuell-9874

[6 October 2014]

• Fanpictor.

Available from http://www.fanpictor.com/de [6 October 2014]

CONTACTS

To have a further conversation regarding football’s digital

transformation, please contact:

PWC

David Dellea

+41 58 792 2406

david.del[email protected]wc.com

IFA

Marcel Schmid

+41 44 283 90 10

[email protected]

EXOZET

Frank Zahn

+49 30 24 65 60-110

frank.zahn@exozet.com

PwC Switzerland helps

organisations and individuals

create the value they are

looking for – serving them

with over 2,600 employees

and partners working in 14

different oces throughout

Switzerland. We are part of a

network of rms in 157 coun

tries with more than 195,000

ople who are committed

to delivering quality in

assurance, tax and advisory

services. Tell us what matters

o you and nd out more by

visiting us at www.pwc.ch.

The PwC’s Sports Business

Advisory is led by David

Dellea, Director. The practice

ddresses strategic and

operational needs of leading

international federations,

ights holders, event organi-

sers as well as football clubs

nd infrastructure developers.

The International Football

Arena has been hosting

events, fostering debate

and inspiring exchanges

between decision-makers

in the business of football

for over a decade. It started

out in 1999, with the IFA

conference in Zurich, which

has taken place annually

ever since. Around 250

global decision-makers in

football congregate in Zurich

for cutting-edge information

exchanges, high-level

networking and bilateral

meetings. Since 2007, the

IFA has also been present in

Berlin, Beijing, Kuala Lumpur,

New Delhi, Tokyo and Rio de

Janeiro. Today, IFA enjoys

a reputation as the leading

producer of exclusive

events for football’s global

players. Visit us at www.

internationalfootball.com.

Founded in 1996 in Berlin

as a software development

provider, Exozet Berlin

GmbH (“Exozet”) is now a

full-service digital agency

with 150 employees in three

oces in Germany and

Austria. Drawing on almost

20 years of experience

with digital transformation

processes, Exozet is now the

leading independent agency

in the German media and

entertainment market and

has successfully worked with

many well-known clients

such as Deutsche Telekom,

ORF, Axel Springer and the

BBC to help them master the

digital change. Visit us at

www.exozet.com.

Authors:

David Dellea, Stefanie Vogel, Ioannis Meletiadis, Nupur Gupta (PwC)

Frank Zahn, Kemal Görgülü, Daniela Drechsel (Exozet)

each member rm of which is a separate legal entity.