Sports Management Blog

This post contains my live notes on one of the topics covered during the 2010 Lausanne International Sports Management Conference. Apologies for any typo and/or misinterpretations which might have snuck in the text.
Feel free to comment below!

5 presentations around “IT in sports”, followed by a panel discussion.

1. IT trends for sports events (Mr. Carsten Florstedt, CEO DC GmbH)

A number of products and platforms are increasing their penetration in the general public – are they relevant for sports events’ organisers?

iPad: Showcases an excellent SKY iPad App developed for the FIFA 2010 World Cup. Concludes that the iPad is definitely a product to be taken into account when managing sports events (and its marketing).

Media Tablets: Essentially competitors to iPads, and replacements for notebooks. Concludes that these are also (naturally) products to contend with when managing sports events (and its marketing).

Smartphones: Several platforms competing with each-other. Are they relevant for sports-events’ organisers? Definitely. Need to also include in events’ budget the cost of developing dedicated app.s for those different platforms.

“Social Web”: Several social networks could be relevant for sports events’ organisers – although country-specific (Facebook not necessarily predominant in every country). Some social utilities get a mention as well (e.g. Amiando). Clever use of social platforms can benefit ticket sales. Some social networks (e.g. LinkedIn) now also link directly into one of the most widespread email tool (Outlook), through social connectors. Relevant for sports events’ organisers – but cautions on potential security threats (need to manage carefully).

Cloud computing: Several advantages to leverage cloud computing as sports events’ organisers – but there are disadvantages (mostly around data safety).

2. How the Dutch Olympic Committee uses IT trends (Mr. Jean-Pierre Martens, Dutch Olympic Committee )

The goal for the Dutch NOC when creating & managing a “community” is to share knowledge between Dutch National Federations – thoughts have been given to whether or not the community was something that Dutch NFs wanted.

2 main components to the Dutch NOC community:

• WieSport.nl – a wiki-type platform (centralisation & “communitisation” of data on Dutch sports), which provides support to NFs in the field of knowledge- sharing between members of all Dutch NFs
• Olympisch.nl – a purely fan-oriented website, active during the last Winter Olympic Games; no more competition with other media outlets & sources, full use of social media (YouTube, Flickr and Twitter info’ streams), with extensive showcase of user-generated content with extremely little intervention from the NOC (low-cost solution)

The Dutch NOC realises that, although it’s already done a lot, it still needs to leverage social media even more to prepare for London 2012: e.g. more use of mobile & geolocation (Foursquare).

Key learnings:

• No need to build a new “networking platform” from scratch – they already exist: make sure you participate in them wholeheartedly
• Look outside of your on narrow field of specialisation
• Be open to future trends (e.g. mobile) and be ready to leverage them

3. FIBA Digital: Developing basketball through technology (Mr. Wolfram Klug, FIBA Head of Technology)

Exponential growth in capabilities offered by technology – applies to the sports world.

FIBA started implementing a platform for its constituents a few years ago. FIBA’s technology platform now has 3 main components.

a. Software

Caters for all of the regional federations’ core operational/business needs; was initially developed for FIBA, was then cascaded down to the FIBA Zones, and subsequently to those of the NFs which demonstrated a need for it (and even to clubs) – for free!

b. Online services

Live results & statistics to all of the basketball games which need it (even on mobile platforms). Also lending a hand (for free!) to any club which wants to create a website for their website.

c. Courtside services

Further developments: get closer to the fans’ needs, by allowing fans to customise their FIBA website experience (becomes an individual portal). However, contends that the usage of some social-media platforms is bound to decline – so Federations should not bet their house on it.

4. Defining data standards (Mr. Christian Michels, FIFA )

Definition and management of data is key in sports. In order to manage data properly, you need standards, and an interface (which, as far as sports-specific data is concerned, is software). That software needs to be understandable/interpretable for ay user of that data: there need to be globally-understood and -agreed data standards.

Without data, you simply cannot work. FIFA’ s approach is to leverage what already exists, and decide how it fits into the standards which have been defined at FIFA level.

5. Asociation Management meets Web 2.0 (Mr. Ingo Thomann, DFB-Medien )

DFB-Medien is the IT & software house of the German football association. It creates administration software for a sports – but unlike the institutions represented by other speakers on the panel, it has a significant commercialisation objective in its developments.

The company strives to build a common system to administer German football data, by bringing together all of the existing knowledge & resources, and establishing common standards.

This Saturday (Feb 20, 2010), the 15th edition of the Nissan Verbier Xtreme by Swatch (full name), the final stage of the Freeride World Tour, will take place in the eponymous internationally-renowned Swiss Alps resort. I plan to attend, as it is just an hour’s drive away from my place -- and is usually very spectacular. If you wonder what the fuss is all about, check out the video below.

As I was checking the event’s website (link above) and listening to radio ads promoting it, I asked myself how well the event organisers, sponsors and venue were leveraging social media.

So here’s my totally subjective “Social Media Scorecard” for the 2010 Verbier Xtreme.

• Event’s website interactivity: auto-play videos + video gallery; decent image gallery; small “news” and “community” sections; no real visibility of/interactivity with sponsors >> 7/10
• Facebook fan page: only for the Freeride World Tour (FWT); few fans, little activity; also Facebook group, only for the FWT; many more group members; frequent/interesting group posts; no customisation of design; little interactivity (discussions) >> 7/10
• Facebook event: none (all event-promotion activity on FWT Group) >> 2/10
• Dedicated YouTube channel: only for the FWT (FreerideWorldTourTV); customised channel design, comprehensive video footage, sizeable subscribers Nr>> 9/10
• Dedicated Twitter account: only for the FWT; no custom design of Twitter profile; account only tweets out info.s, no interactivity>> 6/10
• Title sponsor-specific promotions/buzz: production of a few sponsor-themed TV shows; otherwise just banner ads on website’s homepage + at the end of videos >> 5/10
• Overall score: 6/10

What do you think? Which other criteria would you take into account? Shae your suggestions and impressions in the comments !

Jason Peck (if you haven’t done so yet, subscribe to his excellent blog, www.jasonfpeck.com) has put together an inspiring compendium on “Sports and Social Media Projections, 2010″, in which a dozen US-based contributors provide a brief summary of their perspective on how the sports sector will leverage social media in 2010.

Here’s a short (highly subjective) list of my favorite quotes from the compendium:

• “The keywords for 2010 will be adoption, convergence and usage. ” (Dan Beeman, Sponsorship Insights)
• “If 2009 taught us anything, it’s that social media is not a fad, rather, it is an essential part of a marketing and communications strategy.” (Trevor Turnbull, Sport-Fan Connect)
• “Sports and social media are a perfect match.” (Darren Heitner, Dynasyt Athlete Representation)
• “Share… Stop self-promoting and start listening.” (Espree Devora, ZexSports)
• “If those in sports are not continuing or starting to invest in social media by next year, they are missing out on opportunities to grow.” (Lewis Howes, Sports Networker)
• “2010 could very well be the year in which we see some teams moving social media from the periphery to the centre of their marketing strategies.” (Pat Coyle, Sports Marketing 2.0)
• “Controlling the message means active participation and some level of transparency to allow deeper, more sustainable audience engagement.” (Rob Katz, iAudience)
• “Mobile is the future of social media and sports media consumption.” (Steve Cobb, Activ8Social)

Regardless of the accuracy of the predictions, Jason and his fellow contributors have made it very clear that sports cannot ignore social media – in Europe as much as in the US.

Have you read Jason’s compendium ? What do you think ? Share your comments with the readers of the Sports Management Blog !