What are the key drivers behind the shift towards more digital and technology-driven sports betting sponsorships?

The shift towards digital and technology-driven sponsorships is reflective not only of the evolution of the sports, betting and marketing industries, but also the changing nature of how fans interact with content.

The modern fan consumes more digital content than ever before across a multitude of channels and is being served thousands of adverts each day, which makes capturing their attention increasingly difficult. What’s more, with Google already removing third-party cookies, the way marketers have historically targeted and delivered content to fans needs to change, so new methods must be explored.

However, data and AI-driven marketing technologies are enabling brands and rights holders to keep pace with changing fan behaviour and consumer habits, allowing them to engage on a more relevant basis through the delivery of personalised and targeted content.

This is achieved by tailoring sponsorship content to what the individual fan wants to see, and when, how, and where they want it delivered.

At Sportradar, our marketing technology processes the content users are engaging with on a rights holder’s digital channels to generate more relevant and engaging ad units from the sponsor, upgrading the sponsorship experience, and consequently, its performance.

What role does technology play in sports sponsorships?

Technology facilitates better results across the whole spectrum of any sponsorship, but where it really comes into play is right at the start of any commercial relationship. By providing real insight into fan preferences and behaviours, successful sponsorship campaigns and activation can be designed and planned in a way that will really resonate with them. If brands can understand who they are targeting, this provides a solid basis for an effective relationship with any sports fan and represents the sports property being sponsored in a meaningful way.

At Sportradar, we help our clients understand fans. We know their tendencies, what channels they use and how to reach and connect with them, regardless of where they are during the day. For example, we can map out user journeys from a week or month out from a key sporting event, right up to matchday, and identify all relevant touchpoints in-between.

A day in the life of a fan might start with checking direct messages such as emails or on social media, then engaging with websites to view team news and updates, right through to researching which airport or train station they should travel through to visit a sports venue or stadium, which is where our digital-out-of-home advertising becomes hyper relevant.

Technology clearly benefits the sponsors and the rights holders, but what does it deliver for the fan?

For sponsors and rights holders, the fan should be the focus of everything they do and the application of our technology creates a more immersive and exciting experience. 

For example, Sportradar’s Engagement Tools use automation, relevance, and contextual algorithms to serve data-recommended, real-time adverts from the sponsor to a rights holder’s fanbase.

This technology is trained to understand both individual customer interests and the wider context of the sporting calendar to provide the most suitable ads for any particular moment. This includes messages matched to the sport or team a user is reading about on the rights holder’s site, or the day’s sporting fixtures or team news.

This also makes digital channels themselves more engaging by converting static adverts into dynamic content that ‘pops’ with real-time live odds and live data. Through one piece of code, operators are able to transform the content they serve to fans, ensuring that all adverts are updated, contextually relevant and of more interest to fans.

Engagement Tools are one of the solutions we provide to the National Hockey League (NHL) for use with its domestic as well as international betting partners. If the Philadelphia Flyers are playing the New York Rangers, we ensure the advertising content within a match preview relates to that game.

Content is more likely to capture fans’ attention if it includes insight into last time the two teams played, or the odds of that result happening again. The opportunities for such customisation are endless and can be tailored to the preferences of the rights holder and operator.

This mutually beneficial arrangement allows rights holders like the NHL to derive more value to its partners from its digital assets. And better performing partnerships are more likely to become long-term deals. 

Is the future for rights holders in highly personalised content?

Across all industries, consumers are demanding more personalised end-user experiences and sport is no different. Tech giants in ecommerce, music, and entertainment, have set the bar high with AI-driven, curated personalisation through ‘customer obsession’ and changing marketing from ‘one to many’ to communicating to ‘only you’, which should equally be the objective in sport. 

The potential value for rights holders and operators who successfully create personalised experiences is apparent, too. Studies have shown direct correlations between personalisation and revenue, and 91 per cent of customers are more likely to shop with brands providing relevant ad recommendations.  

Since the start of the 2022/23 season, the NHL has doubled its website click-through-rates to its regional sportsbook partner, Unibetsimply by using our Engagement Tools AdTech.

This comes back to the initial point of knowing your fans, where they are and their behaviours, for example on matchday or at a major sporting event. Fundamentally, technology provides context which becomes super relevant in engaging fans.

What do you see the as the big trends in sponsorship going forward?

This year, we’ll see some exciting developments in how sponsors connect with sports fans using new technologies. As mentioned, the use of third-party cookies is set to end, so exploring alternative solutions to better understand customers is essential.

This development provides a valuable moment in time for us to innovate and improve sponsorship activations as it will accelerate the role of first or even zero-party data in digital marketing. This data is submitted directly by fans via purchases and web interactions, and because it is collected consensually and provides specific details, it delivers far more accurate and reliable consumer insights than third-party data, so offers a huge opportunity to upgrade sponsorship performance.

The most feasible means of connecting these datasets is through centralised digital depositories knows as data clean rooms. We have developed Sportradar FanID: an end-to-end first-party marketing solution featuring the first data clean room built specifically for the sports industry to connect brands and rightsholders with sports fans.

By allowing multiple brands and rights holders to connect and collaborate on their first-party data in a secure and privacy safe way, more personalised content and greater targeting can be delivered in their sponsorship deals, boosting performance.

For rights holders and brands to truly maximise their sponsorship deals in this new ‘cookie-less’ era, effectively leveraging their first-party data and collaborating with mutually interested parties will be key.