Tik Tok: A Matter of Time Before Other Rights Holders Embrace Social Live Streams 📱
Burnley FC Women and World Jai Alai League's relative success when streaming to TikTok provides encouragement for rights-owners seeking to reach new audiences regardless of the size of their following
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For the first time in the club’s 140-year history, Burnley FC’s women took to the pitch at Turf Moor this past weekend.
While it was the first time the team drew a significant audience in-person, they are no stranger to capturing an audience online – having racked up over one million views on their TikTok live streams.
In the process, the team has created a blueprint for how emerging sports properties looking to build a fan base can leverage non-traditional broadcast channels to achieve that goal.
Burnley FC chose to lean into TikTok in 2021, inking a deal that made the social platform the women's sleeve sponsor and a rights distribution partner.
TikTok has been streaming the women's games since and the club's chief operating officer Mark Thompson said the additional exposure has led to commercial growth and greater financial investment from the club.
“As a result of the increased awareness and engagement [through the platform], we've definitely seen increased traction from brands–who demand a holistic approach to investment from their preferred partners."
TikTok has provided creator training for Burnley's female players to help its 'first creator football team' get the most out of the platform and showcase their personalities.
“The team has taken a truly innovative approach to engaging with the TikTok community, which shows how our platform can help sports organizations reach fans outside of the traditional broadcast model,” Arthur Guisasola (global sports partner manager, TikTok) said.
Much of Burnley's success on the social platform comes from the way the TikTok algorithm functions.
“The problem with social media when you're starting [out as a new sports property] is that you have zero people to put your content in front of, [so] it's very hard to grow,” Kane Kallaway (founder, Espresso) said.
However, platforms like TikTok, YouTube Shorts and Instagram Reels are algorithmically driven "meaning they will surface content to people that [you] don't follow,” Kallaway added.
The algorithm has helped emerging musicians with few existing followers go viral (see: Lil Nas X, Lizzo, Megan Thee Stallion, and Doja Cat).
Emerging sports properties, like World Jai-Alai League (WJAL), have also been able to leverage it to build a fan base (or at least find one faster than it would have otherwise).
WJAL has tallied almost 300,000 TikTok followers since starting to live stream matches less than a year ago.
“The first day we did it, we had 50,000 unique viewers. We now average about 100,000 unique viewers for every game day,” Scott Savin (chief operating officer, WJAL) said.
And by live streaming to the social platform, WJAL is able to reach an entirely different audience than the one it previously attracted.
“The audience we're going after [by streaming to TikTok] is probably a 21-39 year-old primary audience that's never seen the sport and we're exposing it to them [for the first time]," Savin said. "We have what's left of the old audience, but that's not who we're going after. We're really trying to get an entirely new audience from what used to come and watch Jai Alai.”
To do that, WJAL has had to provide viewers on the platform with a differentiated experience; one that helps them to understand the game as it is being played.
“While our broadcast that's going out to ESPN or FTF Sports has a [traditional] commentator, the TikTok broadcast has our person doing her play by play [commentary], but, primarily, she’s just answering questions as they come in [from intrigued viewers],” Savin said.
The league also posts educational videos between matches to answer frequently asked questions and stoke further interest in the sport.
The successes achieved by the Burnley FC women’s team and WJAL should provide food-for-thought for upstart rights-owners seeking to reach new audiences.
But there could also be an opportunity for more established rights holders, like the Phoenix Suns, who recently announced plans to distribute games on a non-exclusive basis, to stream live on TikTok.
JOB BOARD
Partnership Sales Manager - Brentford FC (London, UK)
Partnership Design Assistant - Liverpool FC (London, UK)
Director, International Content EMEA - PGA TOUR (London, UK)
Senior Project Manager - Manchester United (Manchester, UK)
Director, Strategic & Digital Communications - MLS (New York, US)
Vice President, Partnerships - 160over90 (New York, US)
Director, Strategic Planning, Colorado Rapids - Kroenke Sports & Entertainment (Colorado, US)
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