In the Data Talks Sports CDP Crash Course Podcast episode, guest host Karen Ramirez, founder of SportingSheroes, explores strategic data use in winter sports. Despite the shift to spring and summer, Karen stresses the importance of reflection and strategic planning during the off-season.

Karen outlines a three-stage process: review, innovation and model, refinement, and implementation. She highlights data scrutiny, refined communication strategies, and insights to drive innovation.

Listeners are encouraged to leverage data for efficiencies and explore new marketing and sponsorship ideas. Karen emphasizes holistic planning to align initiatives with goals.

As teams refine strategies based on past data, Karen advises onboarding new practices and fostering a forward-looking approach, underscoring sponsorship's value in fueling sports passion and competitiveness.

When it comes to leveraging fan data for commercial success in sports, there are several common questions that organizations often ask. These include: What kind of fan data should we collect? How do we collect fan data effectively? How can we ensure the privacy and security of fan data? What strategies can we implement to increase fan engagement and attendance? How can we leverage fan data to optimize revenue streams? What technologies and platforms are available to help manage and analyze fan data in sports?  As you can hear, there are a lot of questions sports organisations ask and I am sure you have your questions too. 

We often try to answer these questions on this podcast but before I tackle some of them, there are two other resources available to you that I would like to highlight. Firstly, it is our newly launched course, “The 4 Fundamentals of selling tickets and merchandise” which is available for enrollment on Udemy. From the course you will learn about the cost of doing nothing, that is, not taking any decision or action towards addressing the changing economy of a sports organisation and its audience. You will also learn about the role the 4 fundamentals play in helping you increase your sports organisation’ average revenue, ticket, and sales and negotiate sponsorship agreements of higher value, amongst other things. During the course, you will gain insights from sports organisations that have already leveraged the 4 fundamentals to see how they apply to you. This is not a course to be missed because it addresses all the questions in this podcast and so much more. 

The other resource is our CEO and Founder Stefan Lavén’s tech show at Sports Pro Live 2024 on this very topic, Turning Fan Data into commercial success but this time with the League of Ireland, one of the sports organisations we work closely with. This will be another moment for you to take inspiration from a club that is already addressing these questions but this time straight from the horse’s mouth. We will make the session available to listen to on the podcast in the next coming week so if you are not already following the podcast, make sure to do so so you never miss inspiring, practical content ever again. Go on do it now.

Now back to the common questions that get asked when talking about turning fan data into commercial success. Starting with, What kind of fan data should we collect? At the very least, sports orgnisations should be collecting their supporter data with contact information, website data, form data, ticketing and merchandise data and partnership and sponsorship data. Beyond that, it depends on the data sources the organisation has. Do you have OTT, an app, a loyalty program, a newsletter, membership etc. Then this should all be collected. But then what do you do with this data.This data must be merged, cleaned and deduplicated so it can give you more insights into your fans behaviour and their lifetime value to the organisation. The questions, How do we collect fan data effectively and How can we ensure the privacy and security of fan data? Have the same answer. And that answer is by using technology, more specifically a sports cdp - a tool that collects and merges all your data in one place and then gives you actionable insights that you can then use to have dynamic real time segmentation that will ensure your organisation is response to its fans’ needs. Other technologies fall short in these categories so that is why I can unequivocally say every sports organisation needs a sports cdp like the one Data Talks offers. That also answers the question, What technologies and platforms are available to help manage and analyze fan data in sports? A sports CDP is the simple answer. Data Talks’ sports CDP utilises primarily zero party data and first party data making it GDPR compliant. If you want to learn more about this, our course is available for enrollment on Udemy. 

I have answered all your questions but one, What strategies can we implement to increase fan engagement and attendance? This question will be answered by Stefan Lavén Data Talks’ CEO and Founder and League of Ireland Director Mark Scanlon, during their tech show session at Sports Pro Live 2024. If you are going to be at the event, make sure to join them at 2 pm BST in the Alcock Suite at the Kia Oval in London.

Thank you for tuning in.

In this episode of our podcast, we welcome Ashlea Block, Head of Customer and Community at PlayHQ, an Australian company offering all-in-one sports management software tailored for sports organizations and their stakeholders. Ashlea, a member of the 2022/2023 Sports Pro New Era cohort, joins host Lorraine Moalosi to discuss the vital role of community in sports. Tune in as we delve into Ashlea Block’s journey and insights in the world of sports management and community engagement.

Did you know that 71% of sports industry leaders say that increasing ticket and merchandise sales and negotiating sponsorship agreements of higher value is their very top priority? All these three key elements can be lucrative revenue sources for sports organisations when done right. As part of Data Talks’ vision of creating a sports industry that thrives on exceeding fan expectations to create sustainable revenue streams, we are proud to announce the launch of the Data Talks course, “The 4 fundamentals of selling tickets and merchandise”. In today’s episode, we will focus on the course, everything you need to know about the course, and how to enroll.

“The 4 fundamentals of selling tickets and merchandise” course is designed for C-level executives in sports to help them create sustainable revenue streams using their supporter data. Every club faces financial challenges, and in this course, we get to the core of the issue. We dissect clubs' struggles today, pointing directly to the missed opportunities in leveraging supporter data effectively. We don't just talk theory – we dissect real-life case studies from global sports powerhouses in Germany, Australia, Greece, and Sweden. You will get to see firsthand how men's and women's clubs have harnessed the 4 fundamentals, propelling them to unparalleled success. 

Exactly a year ago now, we published our very first book on the subject of the 4 fundamentals. The book, “more supporters. Superior sales. Real revenue: the 4 fundamentals of selling tickets and merchandise was an introduction of our 4 fundamentals method to the world. With this course, we wanted to take everything a step further by supporting C-level executives’ change management in beginning to adopt more robust ways of meeting financial and commercial goals more effectively. The book is available on Amazon and all proceeds go to the Level Up foundation - an organisation that uses sports for the development of children in Uganda. 

This course is a strategic power play. Tailored for C-level executives in sports organizations – clubs, leagues, and federations – it's designed to elevate their revenue game. Whether leading a small squad or commanding a major league, these principles are universal. This isn’t a standard course but rather a winning formula adaptable to any region, season, or organization size.

By the end of the course, learners will:

1. Recognize the staggering "cost of doing nothing" in sports organizations and why it is a problem.
2. Understand the Data Talks 4 fundamentals and their pivotal role in selling tickets, merchandise, and negotiating sponsorship agreements of higher value.
3. Implement the 4 Fundamentals Method to create sustainable revenue streams for your sports organization.
4. Gain insights from global success stories, learning how the 4 fundamentals fuel increased supporters, superior sales, and substantial revenue growth.

The course is now available for enrollment on Udemy. You can preview 3 videos from the course on Udemy to get a taster of what is to come. And if you want access to exclusive deals such as a 50% discount on the course, subscribe to our newsletter today.

This week, our host, Lorraine Moalosi, sits down with Helen Ward, the all-time top goalscorer for Wales in football history, now serving as the general manager of Watford Women FC. From her debut as a striker at Watford to managing the club, Helen shares insights into her remarkable career spanning Chelsea, Arsenal, and Reading. Reflecting on her motto “find time, not excuses,” Helen discusses the evolving landscape of women’s football, emphasizing the importance of balancing passion with practicality. Delving into challenges and advancements in women’s sports, Helen sheds light on the necessity of strategic investment and normalization. Tune in for an inspiring conversation with a true icon of the game.

Out of the 10,500 athletes participating in the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, 5,250 will be men and 5,250 women. These Games will be the first to reach full gender parity in number of athletes. As a reminder that empowering and uplifting women is not just reserved for International Women’s Day, today we will be highlighting key milestones that are coming out of women’s sports and sports in general while also shedding light on some of the challenges that need to be addressed immediately, for women to be able to thrive in sports.

While it is a great milestone having the first gender-equal Olympics, a recent study by the BBC showed that more than three-quarters said they earn less than £30,000 a year from sport - with more than four in 10 earning less than £10,000 and six in 10 earning less than £20,000. This means that ¾ of elite female athletes earn less than the average £34,963 salary in the United Kingdom. The wage of elite sportswomen is a challenge that shows the importance of professionalizing women’s sports and the need to invest in them so that more commercial value can come out of them.

In the 2022/23 season, Reading and West Ham's cheapest match tickets were the most expensive in the FA Women's Super League, costing 12 British pounds. Meanwhile, the cheapest tickets could be found for six British pounds at Liverpool and Manchester United. This fact continues to beg the question, are clubs and leagues undervaluing women’s sports? If so, what should be done about it in a way that does not alienate those who have found the accessibility of women’s sports a reason to engage.

In happier news across the pond, the National Women’s Soccer League has been ranked No. 5 on the list of Fast Company’s the World’s 50 Most Innovative Companies of 2024. The League’s commissioner, Jessica Berman was quoted as saying, “Women’s sports is a historically under-invested asset class” However, last year attendance for regular season games grew by 26% to 1.2 million people, while viewership of CBS broadcasts leapt 41%. These remarkable numbers helped the league negotiate a landmark media-rights deal that will see 118 NWSL games broadcast across CBS Sports, ESPN, Prime Video, and Scripps Sports each season for the next four years. This deal is worth $240 million, 40 times more valuable than the NWSL’s previous agreement.

The NWSL partnered with Liga MX Femenil to launch a new Summer Cup. All 14 teams in the NWSL and six teams from LIGA MX Femenil will compete from July 19-August 2. This new Summer Cup will take place during the Olympic break of the NWSL regular season. Not to make this episode about just the NWSL, but the Kansas City Current, a club co-owned by NFL star Patrick Mahomes, made history as the first team to build a stadium specifically for professional women’s sports. The team hosted Portland Thorns in the first game at CPKC stadium – in front of a sold-out, 11,500 crowd. 

Mercury 13, a women's football multi-club ownership group, unveiled their first portfolio team recently after acquiring a controlling stake in Como Women from Italy's Serie A. In case you are tempted into thinking that the only movement is in football, at the end of last year, Metro Bank & ECB Pledged to Treble the Number of Girls’ Cricket Teams by 2026, that’s only 2 years from now. The two organisations will work together to transform access to grassroots cricket by recruiting 6,000 volunteers to grow girls’ cricket so there are 2,000 clubs with girls' sections and 6,000 girls' teams by 2026.

It is exciting to see all the positive changes that are coming out of women’s sports and I am personally excited to see more changes like these in women’s sports.

In this episode, Karen Ramirez, founder of Sporting Sheroes, discusses leadership in sports organizations. She emphasizes the importance of fostering a positive culture, listening to all stakeholders, and leading with authenticity and integrity.

Karen offers practical advice for leaders at all levels, encouraging them to empower others, communicate clearly, and create opportunities for growth. Whether you’re a seasoned leader or considering stepping up, this episode provides valuable insights to inspire and guide you on your leadership journey in sports.

Tune in to learn how to lead effectively and positively impact your organization!

There are many factors that Sports organizations should bear in mind and consider when approaching potential sponsors. Acquiring sponsors is not just about negotiating sponsorship agreements of higher value but also about activation and promotion, understanding your audience and reach, and being able to measure and evaluate the success of the partnership, amongst many other factors. In today’s episode, we will discuss how the four fundamentals can help sports organizations achieve all of these key factors when it comes to their sponsorship agreements. Moreover, we will have a look at three success cases of organisations that successfully used the four fundamentals to achieve success in their sponsorship agreements. 

Before we go into how the four fundamentals work, let’s quickly refresh our memory on what the four fundamentals are. The four fundamentals are a groundbreaking process innovation and transformative approach that empowers sports organizations of all sizes, across seasons and regions, to harness the power of their data. By seamlessly integrating all supporter data into one place, the result is not just increased sustained revenue streams, but a genuine commitment to placing fans and supporters at the heart and centre of every initiative. These four fundamentals are: 

Grow your contact database, continuously

Collect supporter data with contact information and merge it with your other data

Find out which supporter segments you should target with your campaigns

Send relevant offers to those segments in a way that your supporters will appreciate

The 4 fundamentals help sports organisations:

1. Understand their audience’s behavior
2. Know which supporters are most likely to engage with their sponsors’ activations based on their previous purchase, viewership, consumption, and overall engagement behaviour
3. Target the right supporters with the right activations that are relevant to them and match their spending levels. E.g. Sending a champagne activation from your official drinks sponsors to your high-spenders/VIP and family car activations to your supporters who usually buy family tickets. 
4. Evaluate the performance of sponsorship activations and respond appropriately such as triggered actions depending on the actions that the supporters take.

Let’s look at some of these use cases using real-life examples of sports organisations that used the 4 fundamentals to take their sponsorship agreements to the next level.

One club wanted to Introduce an Advent Calendar to engage with supporters and connect them with sponsor offers during the Christmas holidays. They created Advent calendar with one main sponsor impersonating Santa. They had 24 sponsors for the calendar (one for each day). Their total reach was over 500k people on digital platforms while achieving great sponsorship revenue and better relationships with sponsors. This activation also resulted in Continuous database growth and engagement from supporters on a daily basis and the club continued Presenting relevant audiences to the daily sponsors afterward (connecting B2B and B2C).

Another club wanted to connect supporters to their sponsor so they created segments to target their most loyal and active supporters. They Sent emails with a message that connects supporters to the club sponsor. This resulted in an Open rate of 55.94%, click-to-open rate of 20.18% (and CTR of 11.29%) with More than 2300 supporters getting in touch with sponsors.

Another club managed to successfully build a loyal community using triggered actions while also increasing engagement with sponsors.  used Triggered Actions, a feature in the Data Talks´ sports platform, allows sports organisations to send automated emails and SMS messages to their supporters based on the supporters’ actions and behaviour. The club started a membership sales campaign. Whenever someone became a member, they received a series of emails in the following days and weeks. First, they would receive a welcome message that thanked them for joining and provided them with basic material and information for members. Thereafter, the members would receive something special—an exclusive discount code to purchase the team’s jersey at a reduced price. In the third communication, the supporters received a message that involved the sponsors, highlighting the perks and discounts that the members could get from the club’s partners and affiliates, such as vouchers and coupons. This personalised approach strengthened the club´s connection and communication with the fans but also increased commercial returns through merchandise sales and enhanced sponsorship engagement. 

Thank you so much for tuning into today’s episode. Remember to follow us on your podcast platform of choice to never miss an episode. Share this with your colleagues too. Join me next time for another wonderful episode. 

Join host Lorraine Moalosi in a new episode of Sports Crash CDP, featuring Vanessa Åsell-Tsuruga, Founder of Collective Visibility. As an Advisory Committee Member at the Indian Sport Management Association and a Digital Commission Advisor at the World Squash Federation, Vanessa’s impact on global sports is profound. A six-time marathon finisher and avid volleyball player, she brings a unique perspective. Discover Vanessa’s journey, her advocacy for diversity in sports leadership, and the transformative power of Collective Visibility in this inspiring episode. Whether you love sports or champion diversity, this conversation is a must-listen!

More on Vanesa Åsell-Tsuruga

GLOBAL CITIZEN

Vanessa is a globally experienced professional who has resided in Stockholm, Barcelona, London, Tokyo, Kobe, and Olympia. She speaks English, Swedish, Spanish, and Japanese. Beyond her career, she’s an avid volleyball player who has completed six marathons and is known to frequent places with excellent espresso.

DIVERSITY & INCLUSION

Vanessa’s professional journey reflects her strong belief in the power of diversity and inclusion. She is the visionary founder of COLLECTIVE VISIBILITY, a global initiative spotlighting 1300+ women in 100+ countries speaking about sports. Vanessa’s mission is to ensure women’s voices are integral to sports thought leadership and included at sports summits, events, academic conferences, and media outlets. A significant achievement under Vanessa’s leadership is reaching the goal of 1000 speakers from 100 countries in less than 1 year through self and peer nominations.

GLOBAL SPORTS MANAGEMENT

Vanessa’s diverse career encompasses sponsorship activation, content, and sports marketing across various sports and properties, including FC Barcelona, NBA, Golden State Warriors, Stephen Curry, Davis Cup, French Open, World Athletics, World Para Athletics, Rakuten Eagles, Rakuten Monkeys, Stockholm Marathon, and the Swedish Floorball Federation. She is also a member of the World Squash Federation Digital Commission.

Vanessa holds a senior management role in the Marketing Division of Japanese internet services giant Rakuten, where she manages a diverse team of digital and creative talents from 11 countries.

ADVOCATE

In 2023, Vanessa was recognized as a LinkedIn Top Sport Management Voice, LinkedIn Top Brand Management Voice, and LinkedIn Relationship Building Voice.

Media trained and with a background in journalism, she’s a brand voice in digital sports experiences, fan engagement, and sponsorship activation. Vanessa moderates discussions with industry leaders and serves as a brand ambassador for a women’s career website, sharing insights at global events and podcasts.

ACADEMICS

With a Master’s in Olympic Studies, she is a dedicated Ph.D. student at Waseda University, Tokyo, researching the inclusion of women in sports thought leadership within the Sport & Entertainment Management Lab.

Indian Sport Management Association advisor: Objective is to become the driving force in the development of sport management scholarship in India.

Welcome to our new episode, where we sit down with Deji Akande, the visionary CEO and Founder of Gateway Sports & Entertainment.

As a next-generation sports marketing and entertainment agency, Gateway is at the forefront of representing world-class talent, collaborating with global brands, and supporting ambitious rights holders to craft authentic stories and forge meaningful partnerships. Join your host Lorraine Moalosi, as we delve into Deji’s world and uncover the incredible impact he is making through Gateway Sports & Entertainment.

Embark an interesting conversation with an ambitious and determined entrepreneur who is passionate about creating real impact through action.