Sportel brings a knife to a gunfight; Addicted to the scroll; Euphemism of the Day; Hisense sees cents; First mover sales deck; Sky buys in to WSL; The Greater Fool; Cost and Confusion

Overthinking the sports business, for money

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Knives to a gunfight

Just back from Sportel in Monaco.

It’s a room that’s brought a knife to a gunfight, using 20th century tools to engage with a 21st century audience.

Any excuse for a Butch Cassidy clip:

Sport’s problem is that it’s talking to addicts.

But they’re not addicted to sport.

They’re addicted to their phone, and the scroll, the algorithmic dopamine that serves them self loathing, distraction, porn, betting and shopping.

Cigarettes and chocolate milk.

This sounds bleak. But it’s silly to ignore the realities of the world which has been created by a few, massive, and massively irresponsible companies in this millennium, who moved fast and broke us, and then took a page from the tobacco playbook of delay, denial, legal and PR obfuscation.

You remember when ‘The FAANGs are coming’ was something that people said, wanting to sound in the know.

They even went to Sportel to sample the wares.

Then they stopped.

Because they realised they didn’t need to.

They’ve done the work.

The scroll is the thing, not what’s on it.

Sport’s response will go one of two ways

If we take Two Circles at their word, the sports market is going to grow from $150billion to $220billion by 2035.

The caveat is that the money will be unevenly distributed, which is an upmarket way of saying the rich will get richer.

So, to incentives, corporate and personal.

If I’m running a sport in 2024, and I know that my audience is addicted to the scroll, how do I get on that 220billion gravy train?

Do I supply addicts their drug of choice, or do I try to change them, like a Victorian missionary selling the word of god in a Whitechapel gin palace?

Do I lace my sport ‘product’ with the naughty stuff or go for the high ground, the escape from the screen, to the fields and the fresh air.

Or do I walk the line between the two, by playing both sides of the street, selling the idea that one leads to the other, that watching goals, fights and hot women bending over on TikTok is my contribution to the good cause?

In Monaco this week, I circled the exhibition hall of Sportel.

What I saw was an awful lot of undifferentiated vendors; bit-part actors in sport’s supply chain between the athlete and the fan.

Viewed in isolation, each stand is offering a perfectly reasonable argument. But taken as a whole, and as a proxy for the sports media market generally, it’s fun to wonder what an actual sports fan, should one ever be allowed in, would make of what’s being sold.

The answer is: Cost and Confusion.

More one-to-one relationships, more subscriptions, more money. All things that, ironically, create more piracy.

But that’s if our idealised sports fan out of water even understands what it is that’s on offer.

What Sportel is selling is masked by euphemism - engagement, personalisation, data, content, community, monetisation, top of the funnel discoverability.

These are the words that hide the bigger question - what is it you’re selling, really?

See also:

Breaking Down OnlyFans’ Stunning Economics

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Hisense High Cents

(Another headline that nearly works)

First mover advantage.

I’m betting that was a phrase that came up in the FIFA Club World Cup sponsorship sales deck to Hisense, the Chinese telly maker, who were announced this week as the inaugural partner of the new tournament, scheduled for the US in 2025.

As discussed in The Bundle this week, the Club World Cup is a short on friends among the various industry constituencies of media, marketing, leagues, teams and players.

So, up pops Hisense to offer their ‘second most popular televisions in the world’ credibility to the project.

The sponsor reveal was a thrillingly counterintuitive take on the genre, in which Gianni Infantino shares a film of Gianni Infantino talking on stage, interspersed with other clips of Gianni Infantino clapping other people talking about Gianni Infantino.

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Wait, what? The Greater Fool is cutting back on expenses

Saudi money (see previous: on Monoliths) is the route out, the last chopper out of Nam.

PIF’s Yasir Al Rumayyan features in many a sports power list, as the wealth fund spends billions on sport’s squeezed middle market.

This week’s he said that PIF’s international investment will be cut from 30% to 18-20% as the fund shifts focus to domestic projects.

I remember going to golf business conferences ten years ago, when China was the helicopter out for property developers, course architects and polo shirt salesmen.

Then, one day, the money stopped.

Dictators are a bit like that. Can’t rely on ‘em.

Build: Is that ‘Greater Fool’ headline clever, lazy or racist? (Bearing in mind, three things can be right at the same time)

Foreign money, xenophobia and Gary Neville: For a recent episode of Other People’s Money, Milltown Partners did a bit of focus grouping around attitudes to American investors in the Premier League.

As per my point above, talk of money in sport often comes with a healthy dose of xenophobia attached.

American investors are a ‘clear and present danger to the pyramid’ was how Gary Neville put it.

Likewise, the general conversation suggests Arab money is irrational, predicated on reputation building over traditional return on investment models.

Is that the same as being the Greater Fool?

Maybe.

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Sky’s the limit for WSL

Rich Johnson shared this nugget from the release, via WhatsUP:

Nice. But I don’t really know what this will mean tbh.

I need Maggie Murphy and Matt Cutler to explain.

If only there was a brilliant new business of women’s football podcast featuring them…

BTW, if you haven’t caught Expected Goals yet, we’re putting it out on the Unofficial Partner main channel tomorrow.

Get in touch with M&M with questions.

Like this one:

Can it be true that some clubs don’t want to be promoted to the WSL?

Answer here. Warning, contains nuance.

With special guest Polly Bancroft, CEO of Grimsby Town FC.

Hear the full conversation here:

Expected Goals is published every Wednesday.

For information on advertising or sponsorship opportunities, get in touch with Sean@UnofficialPartner.co.uk

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