Speaking at the recent SBC Summit in Barcelona, Daniel Shichman, the chief executive officer and co-founder of sports-highlights provider WSC Sports, made the case for why direct-to-consumer (DTC) was now a much more viable solution for more sports.
“Any organization that has a relationship with fans, then you can monetize them,” Shichman told the audience. “You need them to be engaged and have them come back to you. Video is the most converting type of media.”
Of course, one of the prime routes for DTC contact with fans is via online sports betting. And the potential for matching up a sportsbook operation with video is perhaps one of those areas that excite futurologists in the gaming space as much as any other.
Bookmakers have added video streams to their websites in certain jurisdictions, inviting consumers to stick around and watch a game after they make their bets — and perhaps make a few more wagers while they’re there. It is an example of DTC video becoming more accessible to operators and more available to consumers, which is also piquing the interest of investors.
The subject of DTC video is dear to the heart of Mark Silver, managing director of sports performance at Sportradar AG and head of Sportradar’s Synergy Sports, the video technology provider that Sportradar bought in March 2021.
Silver notes that Synergy Sports is among a wave of companies working in the area of video technology in sports including Hudl, Genius Sports’ Second Spectrum, Trackman, GameChanger, and an Israeli startup called Pixellot, which recently raised $161 million in a new round of funding.
“The reason investors are bullish on this area is because they are involved in sports, and there is a lot of interest there obviously,” Silver said.
“More than that, though, it is because of the advances being made in technology, from an infrastructure capability automation point of view,” he added. “The market has become democratized, in a way, and data and video streaming is a process that can be managed much further down the sporting pyramid than was ever the case before.”
DTC becoming easy as 123?
Again, the phrase worth thinking about here is DTC, or direct-to-consumer.
On the same SBC panel as Shichman was Shay Segev, current CEO at DAZN and formerly the boss at Entain PLC, which owns Ladbrokes and other gaming brands, in addition to a 50% stake in BetMGM.
However, in his current role, Segev pointed out that DTC sports coverage was now “decoupled” from consumers’ pay-TV bundles. And, in a keynote at SBC, Segev was keen to talk about DAZN’s venture into betting.
DAZN Bet is not designed to be a competitor with the likes of bet365, Segev claimed. But it is there to provide a link for a consumer who watches sports on DAZN and then might wish to place a bet while on the site.
? Super Boost ?
— DAZN Bet (@DAZNBet) October 11, 2022
7??/2?? Man City, Chelsea & Real Madrid All To Win
(Was 5/2)
Max stakes varies, price was correct at 08:30 UK, 07/10/2022, 18+, eligibility restrictions and further T&Cs apply
It is an instance of the sports, gambling, and media convergence that has been spoken about many times previously. Yet Silver argued that it is a prospect that is now coming into focus due to technological advances, with genuinely high-quality streams available for sports, albeit with some latency issues attached.
“This will continue to become more democratized, more affordable, and more automated,” Silver said. “If you look at the technology ramp, each game is quicker than the last one. The combination of hardware and software advances, not needing a huge tech footprint in the field, it really is going to push towards greater automation to build new products.”
These advances are about another subject that was hit upon during the panel session at SBC: fan engagement. Segev said that DAZN has realized that it “can’t be satisfied” with just being a broadcaster that exists via subscription and advertising revenue.
“You want to be the seller of the merch, the ticketing,” he added. “You don’t want to just take advertising from StubHub, you want to be StubHub.”
“We want to develop a business which is to maximize our relationship with the customer,” he said. “If you are a broader business, then a customer that stays 12 months as a subscriber and doesn't bet is still a good customer.”
If you build it…
A similar instinct exists at the level of the sports themselves. As Silver pointed out, many sports and leagues are just on the cusp of working out where they sit in the ecosystem.
“They have a lot of new content and data being produced,” he said. “I think there is a lot of room and areas where we can improve and create new experiences that the fans might not even know about yet. You obviously have the rise of Web 3.0 and the metaverse and capturing NFT experiences.”
In this context, the video is already being produced but “there is a whole host of stuff” that can now be layered on top.
“You have the technologies such as tokens and NFTs and the metaverse and they need content to make this engaging,” Silver argued. “There is a lot of opportunity to innovate in the sports world. I think we fully expect the second-screen experience to develop further. I don’t know anyone who doesn't have some other gadget — their phone, their iPad — in their hand when they are watching a game.”
At the core of this will be the video content.
“I think this is where the viewing experience is heading and it is another example for how the leagues can engage,” Silver said. “The content is coming. There are opportunities to build products but you need that and the technology to flow together.”
As Segev concluded during a subsequent panel session at SBC, all content providers — whether that is the sports or their broadcast partners — are now aiming at the same consumer target.
“We want to develop a business which is to maximize our relationship with the customer,” he told the audience.
One aspect of this will, of course, be betting. But more than that, Segev and Silver are both talking about a manifesto for sport as much as their partners. There truly is all to play for.
