May 1, 2023
Sports Pro Live at the Kia Oval in London was the perfect opportunity for Xavier (CTO), Andy (Growth) and Raf (Marketing) to meet friends and professionals in the industry. Additionally, we had the chance to pitch ScorePlay’s solution as part of Sports Pro’s Ignition competition, and hear from FC Barcelona, Spotify, Wrexham, WSL, APEX (ScorePlay investors), Brighton, Premier League and Manchester United among many others. Here are our key takeaways from our time in London.
Sergi Ricart (Chief Marketing & Revenue Officer - FC Barcelona) and Mark Hazan (VP, Business Development and Partnerships - Spotify) broke down one of the most innovative partnerships in sports over the past two decades. In March 2022 Spotify and FC Barcelona announced a first-of-its-kind partnership to bring their organisations together and help both parties capture new audiences through innovative activations.
Chief among them was their Rosalía x El Clásico tie-up where they put the Catalan artist’s logo on Barcelona’s shirt before the men and women’s matchup with Real Madrid to promote her new album, with the collaborative post on Instagram getting over 5.3M likes. Additionally, they also did the same with Drake which became one of champagnepapi’s most liked posts ever, with him sporting the kit with his label’s logo. Partnerships like these show the value in finding the perfect partners to achieve your brand and revenue goals and that match your ambitions.
In February 2021, Hollywood actors Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney completed the takeover of Welsh National League football club Wrexham AFC. It was amazing to hear the story from from Humphrey Ker (Executive Director) Shaun Harvey (Advisor) on how the club has become the benchmark for running a club, and building narratives through visual storytelling. Large sports organisations have become de facto media companies, so to hear about how a small club can do the same with their Disney+ docuseries shows the endless possibilities in sports. The streaming landscape in National League has been changed for the better by Wrexham, but what now that they are in the EFL? Stay tuned and grab your Disney+ subscription and popcorn.
Back in January, we decided to participate in Sports Pro’s Ignition competition, which aimed to find the most exciting sports tech startups in the space. While we were in London, our CTO Xavier, was able to pitch in front of a crowd alongside collectID, GRAYMETA, Griiip, mobii, piing, Proto and Quanteec. The first thing we realised, is that apparently we should have branded ourselves as ScorePlaiii to fit in - lesson learned.
It was incredible to hear so many pitches from up and coming companies such as ourselves, and how they are using technology to address issues and problems within the sports industry. Huge shoutout to mobii, Griiip and Quanteec who have designed incredibly innovative technology that will no doubt add further value to both rights holders and fans. However, the judges decided that ScorePlay merited the title, and out of hundreds of companies that applied, and the seven others who pitched, we won the 2023 Sports Pro Ignition Prize along with $100K in growth media value. The future is bright, and we can’t wait to collaborate alongside these companies in the future as we revolutionise the space.
While we were in London, Andy and Raf made the short trip up the M40 to visit the Wolves Stadium and training ground and speak to the team at Molineux on how they’ve been using ScorePlay and what they needed going forward to improve their workflows even more. Part of our ‘For Sports, By Sports’ motto is that we maintain the close relationship we have with our clients even after sale - as we want to build the best possible media tool in the industry and we’ve become geeks about it. Product comes first, and it’s so valuable to hear consistently from the end user about what could be better, what could be added and more.
Thanks for your time Max and Jack!
Try for free.
Personalized onboarding.
Dedicated customer service representative.
Access to all features.
%20(1).png)
