Sports' Invisible Fan Phenomenon Costing Teams Millions

Sports' Invisible Fan Phenomenon Costing Teams Millions

Despite meaningful investments in ticketing systems, mobile apps, e-commerce platforms, and point-of-sale technology, most sports organizations are still only capturing 40-50% of fan interactions. 

Team supporters largely remain invisible to clubs outside of a few traditional touchpoints (think: ticket sales, mobile check-ins, concession scans). The majority of sports properties are not tracking or monitoring their fans’ social media posts, jersey purchases, or YouTube viewing activity–despite that information being readily available to them.

Of course, rights owners have not historically done a great job of capitalizing on the data points they are collecting, either. Fan management and analytics platforms, like Kore, Fortress, and CrowdPlay, are most effective when enriched with AI-powered insights that many teams still do not include.

But sports’ invisible fan phenomenon is not simply an IT challenge. Teams’ failure to truly understand who their fans are —and to implement effective loyalty programs that drive continuous engagement, personalized rewards, and measurable retention— is costing them hundreds of millions, if not upwards of one billion dollars, in revenue.

Think about it this way. If Marriott Bonvoy can generate 3-4x on annual customer spend engaging clients with hyper-personalized service (think: knowing room preferences or amenities before a customer books), imagine how much upside exists for sports organizations whose supporters are eager to spend significant emotional and financial capital in support of the club.

And consider the downside protection a loyalty program can provide. A small 1-2% decline in season-ticket membership can have a six or seven-figure impact on team revenues.

“Leagues and properties have only begun to unlock the power of data, leaving actionable insights on fandom untapped,” Vincent Sarafa said. “In today’s highly competitive market, unifying systems across platforms and leveraging AI to generate real-time insights can transform the fan experience —both at home and in-venue— and unlock new revenue opportunities for ticketing, merchandising, and sponsorship teams.”

Sarafa would know. He has launched loyalty, fintech, and data platforms across every major sport during tenures at Bruin Capital, CrowdPlay, and Augeo.

Sports’ next major competition isn't going to occur on a field or court, it's going to unfold in the cloud. Existing disconnects in data, and databases, are preventing rights owners from being able to deploy customer loyalty programs on par with best-in-class retailers and airlines—and it’s costing them millions. 

Marriott Bonvoy is able to analyze complete travel patterns, including non-hotel experiences, to create personalized rewards and offers for its most valued travelers. Similarly, Delta SkyMiles combines customer flight history with lounge access and partner activity to create a robust end-to-end premium offering for its highest-end clients, and Amazon Prime combines historic purchase behavior with buyer content preferences to dwell its customers time in-app and in-store.

But teams and leagues have been unable to similarly unlock value with their loyalty programs because they remain stuck on the first step–data collection. 

For context:

• 40% of in-stadium purchase data is never collected because fans are buying products from third-party vendors

• Only 15% of teams are linking social media engagement to ticket-buying behavior

• Less than 25% of organizations maintain real-time visibility into their fans’ cross-channel activity

Not knowing enough about their fans prevents rights owners from creating enough earn and redeem opportunities to truly make the program successful.

Most aren’t even doing a good job of capturing data associated with their most valuable customers–the premium seat holders. Those individuals will interact with five or six different touchpoints during a single trip to the stadium (think: VIP clubs, lounges, concessions, retail, parking, digital activations), and yet the organization’s systems may only capture a portion of them; each in isolation.

While some of that information may seem trivial, having blind spots in a data warehouse can have real consequences.

Sports properties will miss out on opportunities for targeted promotions resulting in lost merchandise sales. They’ll also waste marketing dollars on untargeted generic marketing campaigns, as opposed to having personalized messaging for each fan cohort. And forcing sponsors to rely on broad fan demographics, instead of precise segmentation and measurable ROI, will often reduce partnership values.

Organizations that invest in capturing data on every fan touchpoint and in creating a central profile for each of its fans will, by contrast, be able to see how to effectively reward each of their future activities–assuming they’re able to integrate the required real-time capabilities with their legacy systems.

Privacy compliance (think: balancing personalization with GDPR/CCPA), identity resolution (i.e. unifying profiles across platforms), data processing (i.e. the synchronization of information across channels) and infrastructure/implementation have also complicated sports properties’ efforts to implement a world-class loyalty program.

But smart organizations are beginning to leverage AI-powered tools to close data gaps and unify their data in a new tech environment. And they are uncovering actionable fan insights that will lead to increased spend and loyalty.

Below are a few of the solutions being used:

• Customer Data Platforms (CDPs), like Salesforce and Treasure Data, automatically merge ticketing, retail, and sponsorship data—and eliminate data silos in the process. By doing so, a rights owner can develop a more complete profile of its customer's behaviors and preferences and better personalize messaging at a 1:1 level to drive more sales from marketing campaigns. 

• Predictive analytics platforms, like DataRobot, SAS Viya, and H2O.ai, can identify ticket renewal risks and spot high-value fans, and recommend dynamic offers for both that will boost retention.

• Real-time personalization tools, like Persado and OfferFit, can create automated campaigns based on individual fan preferences and behaviors that lead to increases in sales per customer.

• AI-driven sponsorship ROI modeling solutions, like SponsorUnited’s newly announced SPND platform, deliver dynamic pricing insights and track sponsor exposure across multiple channels to demonstrate ROI more effectively.

A modern fan database should include all core revenue and experience touchpoints. That list includes, but is not limited to, season ticket and premium seating purchases, food and beverage spending, gameday merchandising and retail activity, in-venue movement patterns, and sponsor interactions (think: QR codes, AR activations).

And rights owners should be sure to automate identity resolution and be capable of powering real-time updates and implementing predictive analytics.

However, to create a complete 360° fan profile –a ‘Golden Record’ of each fan – teams must integrate third-party insights with their first-party intel.

Nielsen offers information on broadcast viewing patterns and content consumption preferences. Nielsen Scarborough sells intelligence on demographic trends and lifestyle indicators (think: household income, entertainment spending habits). 

Digital and social platforms can also provide valuable information (see: engagement metrics and data on mobile app interactions). As can transaction and point-of-sale providers (think: broader look into purchase behavior patterns).

Having an AI-powered Golden Record for each fan will enable an organization to drive increased engagement through hyper-targeted premium seating offers, an enhanced in-stadium experience (via real-time personalization), and curated content and digital subscription offerings.

It’ll also enable them to attract and retain sponsors and create more valuable partnership opportunities. CMOs and CFOs of Fortune 500 brands are constantly defining and tracking to a definition of ROI on ad spend. Connecting that definition to who the fan is in a meaningful way helps ensure successful sponsorships, which in many cases can be implemented efficiently into a loyalty platform. 

The global sports technology market is projected to reach $41.8 billion by 2027. Teams that commit to building AI-driven, data-centric, real-time engagement strategies –including world-class loyalty programs– can unlock millions in revenue and deepen brand devotion. 

The technology exists. The data is available. What's been missing is sports organizations’ willingness to fully commit to unifying the data points, activating insights with the power of AI, and creating that true ‘Golden Record’ of each fan.

Sports organizations that solve the invisible fan dilemma and launch loyalty programs on par with Marriot or Delta will reduce acquisition costs, drive a higher share of customer wallets, and improve retention. And they’ll grow revenues at higher margins than those relying on paid and even earned media.

The remainder are going to get left behind.

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