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Some of the football industry's finest will return to the WFS stage once more.
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Football industry’s finest return at WFS Live for post-coronavirus panel
Football industry’s finest return at WFS Live for post-coronavirus panel 2416 1667 WFS Live

The second edition of WFS Live will see the return of one of our most popular panels as we get the band back together once more to bring some of the football industry’s finest to the stage: Ricardo Fort (Coca-Cola), Peter Hutton (Facebook), Ralf Reichert (ESL) and Luis Vicente (Eleven Sports).

The quartet will look at sport post-covid in a panel titled: Venturing into 2021 with confidence in what is sure to be a good humoured, insightful and unpredictable part of our WFS Live programme, although one thing is for certain; Fort will produce a bottle of Coca-Cola.

This will be the third time that these industry experts have come together in a virtual WFS space, with their debut appearance coming at our Talking Sport series in partnership with Eleven Sports back in May when the football industry was first coming to terms with coronavirus.

There, Vicente’s words proved prophetic when you see the English Premier League’s introduction of a pay-per-view broadcasting model.

He said: “I think the gaming industry models will be a massive influence for the traditional sports industry, because I really believe that micro-subscriptions will be key. Digital micro-transactions in pay-per-view will be essential and advertising will become more robust.”

Reichert also spoke on how gaming and eSports were big winners during that period as traditional sports leveraged the space with no live sport of their own to engage with.

“To grow 20% in this time in games is really shitty,” commented Reichert. “Most of these companies have grown 100-300%. Amateur tournaments have grown 5x compared to one year ago, while the viewership for eSports tournaments has grown 3x. Gaming is the big beneficiary of this.”

Both were back when WFS Live launched in July, as was Hutton whose insight into the world’s biggest social media platform was fascinating as he told us how Facebook is looking to make content more discoverable.

Hutton said: “I think it’s important that we make it easier and easier for people to find relevant content and you’ll see a huge area of curation coming into Facebook now, as well as a clear focus on how you get to the content you care about.”

Completing the lineup is Fort, who this year was named as one of our WFS Icon Speakers thanks to his mixture of good humour, ambush marketing and vast knowledge of sponsorship that he brings to the WFS stage. As evidenced by Fort’s assessment of the changing relationship between sponsors and content as a result of this global pandemic.

“The experience of watching football with empty venues is not the best but that content can be very helpful for brands to tell stories elsewhere” said Fort. “We have to use it in different, more creative ways, through digital platforms,.”

This group are must-watch, compulsive viewing so make sure you don’t miss out on their trilogy panel when we bring the band back together at day two of #WFSLive on Tuesday, 24 November.

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Day 2 Highlights: Asian football, investments, gaming, data and more!
Day 2 Highlights: Asian football, investments, gaming, data and more! 1239 567 WFS Live

Day 2 of WFS Live powered by R9 saw international leading experts engage in fruitful discussions around a wide variety of topics spanning from Asia’s journey te become a global football powerhouse to how Covid-19 will impact investment flows and reshape sponsoring strategies, the need for all sports to have a gaming strategy or the increasingly crucial role of data in all areas of the industry. Here are some of the main highlights:

Assia Grazioli-Venier (Muse Capital and Juventus), on clubs realising they truly are lifestyle brands:
“I think teams need to realise that they truly are a lifestyle brand. Ten years ago, or longer than that, if you said that teams were selling merchandise and selling mugs and pins then you would have said that was crazy. Now, it’s full speed ahead. It’s a strong source of revenue. So, there are still a lot of new opportunities that we can explore.”

George Pyne (Bruin Capital) on why sports will continue to be a great investment:
“Over the long run, sports is going to be a great investment. Long term, there’s nothing like sports. Sports represent who you are and what you stand for and your values. So, there’s nothing like it. Sports brings people together during difficult times for positive outcomes. So, that’s an incredible outcome in a world that is going to be more fragmented from a media standpoint. Sports is one of the few things that you can invest behind that gets you big and passionate audiences.”

The

Eelco van der Noll (AB InBev), on sponsors demanding more access to content:
“The whole media rights is going to be reset, not only because of new players coming on the scene, like streaming platforms or social media platforms, but also because sponsors like us are demaning more access to content that historically has been reserved or protected by broadcasters. When we work with the likes of LaLiga or the Premier League, as sponsors we expect more access to content. I think that was already in process, but it is being accelerated by this pandemic.”

Ralf Reichert (ESL Gaming), on why every sport needs a gaming strategy:
“All sports need a gaming strategy. It needs to be very varied from the center of what they’re doing. It could be archery, it could be golf, it could be football, but every sport needs a game. Everyone who went to this (the Covid-19 lockdown) prepared had a good outcome. Most of the racing stuff went to online competitions pretty fast… Gaming was the big winner of this and eSports is kind of the logical follower.”

Ashraf Adam (Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium) on the inefficient nature of stadiums:
“Stadiums in nature are inefficient because they cost a lot of money to build maintain and operate. We need to offer activities around them and we’re looking at renewables. What was seen as radical before is now possible.”

Esteban Granero (Olocip), on the crucial role of data in football:
“I think data is part of the daily life of football clubs. I also think that we still have a long path ahead, specially in terms of education. I think that, from a conceptual perspective, it’s important that clubs have professionals capable of understanding the potential of data. Not only to know what sort of data is available, but also how to process it in order for the team to benefit the most.”

Monica Esperidião (Women Experience Sports) on the need to think of women’s football as a business:
“We have to think about women’s football as a business. And we need more people with an interest in women’s football in organizations, clubs, everywhere.”

Mauro Silva (Paulista Football Federation) on the need to promote clubs in foreign markets: 
“As we do not sell our international TV rights, it is difficult to promote our clubs in the entire world. We are stuck, without visibility. This process took place in Spain, it transformed all Spanish football and can also transform Brazilian football.”
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WFS Live speaker Luis Vicente explains how Covid-19 will impact right packages
WFS Live speaker Luis Vicente explains how Covid-19 will impact right packages 2048 1365 WFS Live

WFS Live powered by Octagon, will be running from July 6th to July 10th, talking place over a month after the Bundesliga’s return to action and just under a month since LaLiga was also able to resume. It’s time now to reflect on how football was able to make a comeback in various countries around the world after the unprecedented crisis provoked by Covid-19.

As CEO of Eleven Sports and having formerly worked in digital transformation at FIFA, Luis Vicente is perfectly placed to discuss the lessons learned during this time by both linear and OTT broadcasters and by the industry in general. He’ll be doing so on the second day of WFS Live, on July 7th, in a panel titled ‘One Month Into The New Normal: Sport’s Comeback From Covid-19’.

Vicente has already demonstrated his expertise on this subject in one of the ‘Talking Sport’ webinars that have been held in recent weeks as part of a collaboration between Eleven Sports and World Football Summit. Vicente spoke on a similar topic, titled ‘Sport’s Great Comeback: Fighting Back From Covid-19’ and he is very interested in the impact the crisis will have on the future of rights packages.

As Vicente said on that panel: “I think there are, of course, many ways that Covid-19 is definitely going to impact the packages. The traditional inventory packages of sports rights holders will need to change. They needed to change anyway. There was a certain culture that didn’t probably resist the test of time, with the exception of a few organizations.”

In his view, the current crisis and the return of football behind closed doors should further convince industry players of the opportunities to be found online during an event. As Vicente explained: “When you look at the essence of a football match and you look at 47,000 or 50,000 people in a stadium, people tend to forget sometimes that there are millions of people connecting online and trying to engage with that game on social media networks. It’s an amazing ecosystem and we have actually been doing a very poor job in trying to get that all aligned. People sometimes complain about the lack of new forms of monetization. Well, that’s a solution right there that comes from a need.”

Following that line of thinking, Vicente expressed his belief that micro-transactions and micro-subscriptions will become increasingly common and popular and also praised the innovation being seen in eSports.

All of these topics will be discussed in much greater depth during WFS Live, WFS’ first virtual summit. Other speakers already announced include FIFA President Gianni Infantino, LaLiga President Javier Tebas, Real Valladolid President Ronaldo Nazário, S4 Capital executive chairman Sir Martin Sorrell and world champions Iker Casillas, Juan Mata, David Villa, Vicente del Bosque and Fernando Hierro.

Attendees, meanwhile, will come from various leagues, federations, clubs, broadcasters, retailers, sponsors and more and it’s already possible to book a ticket to this unique virtual networking opportunity right here.

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Warm up for WFS Live by “Talking Sport” with football’s leading figures
Warm up for WFS Live by “Talking Sport” with football’s leading figures 1342 1065 WFS Live

World Football Summit has partnered with Eleven Sports to launch “Talking Sport”, a new webinar series dedicated to looking at how the sports industry tackles the global pandemic and builds for the future.

The weekly webinar will bring together leading figures from across the world of sport, to share their insights and opinions with the wider industry.

Hosted by Sky Sports presenter David Garrido, Talking Sport will feature a panel of three respected speakers each week from across the sport’s ecosystem. Federations, clubs, media publishers, e-sports platforms, investment experts and commercial partners will all be represented.

The debut episodes will be streamed LIVE and for FREE on Thursday 21 May at 5.30pm (CET time). The session, which is titled Sport’s great comeback – Fighting back from COVID-19, will feature:

  • Luis Vicente – Eleven Sports, CEO.
  • Peter Hutton – Facebook, Director of Sports Partnerships.
  • Ricardo Fort – Coca-Cola, VP, Global Sports & Entertainment Partnerships.
  • Ralf Reichert – ESL, Co-Founder and Co-CEO.
  • Dominic Quantrill – Founder of The Quantrill Partnership – Moderator.

Guests can register to watch the event now HERE.

Eleven Sports Group CEO Luis Vicente said of the series: “Now more than ever, the sports industry needs to walk together and work together to fight for a better future. For many years I have dedicated my professional life to transforming sports for the better and at Eleven Sports, I am proud to lead an organisation with that same missionary zeal.

“Through our new Talking Sport series, we will bring together leading figures from across the world of sport, to share expertise and insights with the wider industry. Our sessions will help to equip us all with the information we need to come through this period stronger than ever. I’m very excited to launch the series on Thursday.”

World Football Summit Director Jan Alessie said of the series: “At World Football Summit our mission is to bring the industry leaders together to network, share knowledge and best practices, and ultimately generate growth opportunities. This has never been as important as it is today due to the impact of the COVID-19 crisis. We are grateful to Eleven Sports and to our long-lasting partner and friend Luis Vicente for sharing their platform and we’re confident that this series will start paving the path to a bright future for the sport and the industry.”

Eleven Sports and World Football Summit will partner for a total of six webinar episodes over the next two months.

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