Happy Friday!

One of my favorite sports-tech startups from Israel – Pico – recently published a very cool report with interesting insights around fan engagement, preferences, and tendencies.

It’s a fun, quick read to learn more about sports fans in general (you can download the full report for free here).

One of my favorite takeaways was the best day to engage with fans:

It makes sense because I know how much you love getting Sports-Tech Biz on Fridays! 😉

Seriously though – today, data plays a critical role in the decision-making algorithm of marketers and managers.

But why is that?

They want to understand the consumption habits of sports fans to deliver to them the best experience possible.

Let’s take a step back and discuss where the value of data comes from.

The Value of Data

The acceleration of new and emerging technologies during the past twenty years has fundamentally changed how we live and consume sports.

It’s crazy how only a few technological trends have dramatically shifted our lives in such a short period, and I don’t think we talk about this enough.

Streaming is quite a fresh concept. Smartphones are 15 years old. Broad adoption of social networks started after 2010, fast network connections (i.e., 5G) are only getting started, etc.

Fans also have been changing their consumption habits at speeds never before seen – in the 90s, the ‘fan experience’ was mostly bidimensional– fans either watched their team on TV or went to the stadium to cheer.

Today’s fans can almost choose to engage with their teams on more than a dozen mediums, 24 hours, every day, non-stop.

We became multi-dimensional.

For instance, a fan today will:

• Watch the first half on TV while eating pepperoni pizza

• Open TikTok for highlights during halftime

• Tune into a Clubhouse discussion about players’ performance with fans from all over the world

• Follow and comment on the second half from Twitter

• Buy an NFT from the best play of the game the next day

All while managing a fantasy team, ordering merch from Amazon, and buying tickets for the next home match at the same time.

Now suppose you’re the marketer for the team he follows – how would you target this fan? How could you know what he/she likes? What digital experiences they enjoy?

These shifts in consumption habits are non-trivial mainly because the decision-making process of fans became highly complex. New inputs produced new outputs.

As opposed to how simple fans were in the past – the million inputs that feed the motives for sports consumption today cannot be understood by humans alone. We needed computers to track, evaluate, and understand us.

That is the reason why data is so important.

Properly collected and analyzed – teams will be able to use data to identify, segment, and deliver the best content, strategies, and experiences possible to the fans.

🔗 Learn more about data:

1. Understanding and Growing your Digital Audience – in this podcast episode with Adam Mussa, we explored social media and the fundamentals of understanding an audience using data.

2. Taking Better Decisions Using Data – this fantastic chat with the CEO of Pico will provide more context around decision making through data (or check out the transcript here)

3. The Evolution of Sports Analytics – check out this past edition of the newsletter to learn the unbelievable opportunities for performance through data.

🎙 Halftime Snacks Podcast

Fantastec uses new technologies to enable globally distanced fans to engage more deeply with the sports, teams, and athletes they love.

Steve and I dived deep into some lessons from the Flow blockchain, token utility, community & engagement, and social trends.

We also discussed controversial takes around NFTs – scams vs. valuable projects, investments vs. gambles, and who to follow.

Finally, we talk about what Steve expects from the future of NFTs, market adoption, and their role in the sports industry.

Listen on Apple | Spotify | Google

Follow the Halftime Snacks on Twitter | Instagram | LinkedIn

Apply to be a guest on the Halftime Snacks Podcast here.