Highlight Reel: Are Sports Events and Dating a Perfect Match? 💕
Plus, there's split feelings over Ligue 1's TV deal with DAZN and beIN Sports and Taco Bell open an early retirement community...
Welcome to Sports Pundit, the sports business newsletter delivering insights from across the industry.
In today’s email;
Sydney Swans’ Match-day Activation 🦢
Ligue 1 TV Deal Comes at a Cost 📺
Taco Bell’s Early Retirement Community 🌮
Happy Friday!
Andy 😊 🙏
P.S. Congrats to Jo, our latest ‘Contributor of the Week,’ an award given out to reward positive contributions to the SP WhatsApp Group.
Other honourable mentions go to Jon, Rich, and Jordan, and Floss.
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A NEW LOVE
Are Sports Events and Dating a Perfect Match? 💕
After a viral social media post showcased the abundance of eligible bachelors at football games at the SCG (racking up 500k+ views), the Sydney Swans partnered with women’s media company Mamamia to launch a ‘Match Day Mingle’ event earlier this month.
Aptly sponsored by Listerine, attendees enjoyed access to an exclusive room, welcome drinks, a DJ, goodie bags, and food during pre-game and halftime. And if luck was on their side, they might have found a new romantic match too.
Described as ‘run club meets garden party,’ Matt Hughes, author of Notice, noted the high demand for this unique matchmaking event, as evidenced by the rapid online engagement and quick sell-out of the tickets:
What he said:
“It has become well-known that there’s a rapid rise in run clubs and they’ve become the new place to meet your match... The Sydney Swans are now joining the party.
Capitalising on their tribe of young males who sit among their massive 1.3m supporter base, they’re creating a situation that delivers a win for all (fans, sponsors, themselves).
This partnership with Mamamia is a priceless tool for game development.
It organically exposes the Sydney Swans (and game of AFL) to hundreds of thousands of Mamamia followers in a relevant way and without the requirement of any investment from the league.
This off-field event concept follows a similar theme to some of Australia's largest successful major sports events that have built experiences around their core.
The Australian Open, F1 Grand Prix and Victorian Spring Racing Carnival have successfully created large-scale entertainment-experiences outside of the main event via live-sites, fan zones, concerts and entertainment. These initiatives draw new audiences and enhance the overall fan experience.”
📚 Further Reading: Tinder has collaborated with Runna, a personalised running coaching app, to launch a summer run club series for singles in London.
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HIGHLIGHTS
Roger Goodell has signalled that the NFL are finally considering allowing private equity team ownership of up to 10% 🏈
The International Olympic Committee has announced that the first Olympic Esports Games will be held in Saudi Arabia in 2025 🎮
Tottenham Hotspur seal Kraken sleeve sponsorship deal with crypto platform replacing Cinch after online car retailer cut short their partnership 🐙
Pickleball may not be an Olympic sport, but it has become popular enough to inspire a video game: PPA Pickleball Tour 2025 🎾
In celebration of their new home shirt release, Manchester United linked-up with Footballer Fits and Manchester-born rapper Nemzzz to produce assets blending football, fashion, and music culture 👜
Marc Lasry’s Avenue Sports Fund has acquired a significant minority stake in the parent company to Trackhouse Racing, which fields teams in the NASCAR Cup Series and in the FIM MotoGP World Championship 🏁
ONE TO WATCH
Split Feelings Over Ligue 1 TV Deal with DAZN and beIN Sports 📺
The good news for Ligue 1 is that they’ve finally found a buyer for their domestic media rights with DAZN and beIN Sports clinching a deal to share the rights for a cost of €500 million per year.
The not so good news: that figure is down from the last cycle.
The previous combo of Canal+, beIN, and Free bagged €624 million annually from 2021 to 2024. And let's not forget the even higher sums from earlier deals – Canal+, Mediapro, and Free hit €650 million in 2021, while Canal+ and beIN raked in €726.5 million from 2016 to 2020.
As is typical for many rightsholders aiming to squeeze the highest price when negotiating, Ligue 1’s rights are again to be split among multiple broadcasters. This means fans will need subscriptions to both DAZN and beIN to catch all the action this upcoming season.
However, given the current cost-of-living crunch, this is a tough pill to swallow for many, including for Joseph Oughourlian. The Racing Club de Lens Chairman didn't hold back, taking to LinkedIn to voice his concerns (translated):
What he said:
“While the interminable TV rights issue has delivered a verdict and the time has come for satisfaction, I share with you my deep concerns expressed many times in recent days. Not out of fatalism but out of tenacity.
I am a president who is worried about his supporters looking to see the matches of their beloved club. To have access to the entire championship, you will now have to combine a DAZN subscription (8 matches out of 9) whose price will be around 35 euros and a beIN subscription (for the weekend match) at 15 euros per month. 50 euros per month, between 500 and 600 annually, this is the (expensive) price to pay to follow Ligue 1.This element, which seems to be secondary at a time when my colleagues are only interested in the sale price of the rights, is nevertheless central.
It brings us back to a fundamental principle that is flouted: the price positioning of a product.
After the Amazon tandem (whose Ligue 1 Pass cost 14.99 euros in addition to Prime) and Canal+ (around 20 euros per month), how can we think that an inflation of the subscription cost with access to less generalist catalogs will be able to support a growth in French football viewers? How can we think for a moment that going against the attractive pricing of the market's most popular offers (less than 15 euros per month for Netflix for example) can be a sustainable path for the most popular sport there is?”
📚 Further Reading: Both ‘Listen to the Sound of Silence’ and ‘Media’s pyrrhic victory with the NBA’ from Roger Mitchell’s Sunday Column speak to this realisation.
FURTHER READING
Dopamine Culture - Where the Highlight Isn't Just Part of The Sport; It Is The Sport By Michael Cohen, Disruptive Play 👾
Leveraging Generative AI to Create Sponsorship Proposals That Convert By Shripal Shah, JohnWallStreet 🤖
The Money Behind The Open By Jared Doerfler, Perfect Putt ⛳️
Taco Bell is opening an ‘early retirement community’ for people of all ages By Joseph Lamour, Today 🌮
Athletes Don’t Want Nike or Adidas Anymore. They Want Independence By Daniel Yaw Miller, The Business of Fashion 👟
BYJU’S faces insolvency proceedings by Cricket India for unpaid sponsorship fees By Sean Connell, The Sponsor 🧮
PODCAST
Kicking off in late November with a conversation alongside Chelsea Women’s Commercial Director, Zarah Al Kudcy, the Sports Pundit Podcast has continued to have some other incredible conversations with some other incredible people.
Conversations like;
Why having a women’s team isn’t a female fan strategy 💁♀️
Creating the data foundation on which the NFL is building 🏈
Bringing German football to the world ⚽️
How the ICC plans to grow the game in the Americas 🏏
How Harry Kane-backed Reflo aims to become the ‘Patagonia of activewear’
SOCIAL CLUB
The Sports Pundit Social Club is a monthly series of industry Happy Hours happening in New York and London.
These free gatherings are designed to connect individuals who might not meet at conventional industry events. Our community includes senior and junior executives from rightsholders, founders of venture-backed startups, private equity investors, and even (a few) professional footballers, all bringing unique value to the table - and very rarely mixing in other settings.
With capacity set at 100 per venue, make sure to RSVP now 👇
New York 🗽 (Wednesday 24th July @ Maxwell Social)
London 🎡 (Thursday 25th July @ Eight Club London, Bank)
JOB BOARD
Head of Business Development, Europe & Middle East - NBA (London, UK)
PMO Manager - Chelsea FC (London, UK)
Business Development Executive – The Premier League (London, UK)
Events and Experiential Manager – The Six Nations (London, UK)
Partnerships Manager – Norwich City FC (Norwich, UK)
Senior Manager, Brand Strategy – BSE Global (New York, US)
To see these jobs, and more jobs like these, visit the Sports Pundit Job Board, hosted by Peak 72.
P.S. Peak 72 are also delighted to be working with a state-of-the-art partnerships platform to find their new Business Development Rep! If you've got 12+ months sales experience and want to join a fast growing, exciting, culture led environment then this make sure to get in touch with Dan.
Do you have a job you’d like to promote to the amazing readers of this newsletter? Email me 📩
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