Fresh Spin for Generating Revenue
By Christopher Rae, Verimatrix
In this dynamic sports business marketplace, everyone knows flexibility and ingenuity can boost business for companies nimble and savvy enough to respond to changing conditions. What they don’t know is that their security protocols and technology can enhance innovation and fan accessibility, while creating new revenue streams.
That’s the message from executives representing the traditional sports and esports worlds, as well as sports technology firms in the Spin Up Experimental Revenue Streams webinar.
The panel included Lu Bolden, chief revenue officer of Verimatrix; Adam Heintz, senior vice president of business intelligence for Monumental Sports & Entertainment; and Naveen Narayanan, director of product management at Firstlight Media.
These experts discussed successful methods they’ve employed over the past year to increase revenue while developing new products, measuring processes and using technology for safer, faster and better outcomes.
Make the right choice easier for fans
The COVID-19 pandemic has emphasized the importance of “choice” and Heintz said he’s focused on helping fans choose Monumental experiences. “We are in an unprecedented space of choice in terms of ways, places that our customers and fans can spend their dollars, can spend their time. We're asking people for significant dollars and significant time and effort – getting out of your house and driving or taking public transportation. As a live entertainment business, we need to innovate and integrate new opportunities, new choices.”
Narayanan agreed that making access easier for fans across platforms, devices or locations translates into better experiences and revenue.
“This boils down to experimentation and to do that well, you've got to keep your cost of failure low and your rate of success very high in this fast-changing, ever-evolving market. If you have to jump through hoops every time you build, measure, tweak and remeasure new features, you're not going to be able to respond to needs of the market quickly enough.”
The heights of fandom
These executives discussed how their companies have spent time during and after quarantine closely examining fan journeys to get a better view of seamless experiences and how to better engage fans.
The trick is customizing content and engaging fans without intruding, according to Verimatrix’s Bolden. “As soon as you start making your fans take extra steps to access content, there’s a chance you could lose them,” he said. “Security and authentication need to be as seamless and unintrusive as possible, while still providing the revenue security and data back to the sports league or content owner.”
Narayanan said Firstlight’s platform categorizes fans by their passion level: whether they follow a league, team or athlete and if they are committed, conditional or casual. The company also tracks what types of highlights and game analysis fans consume and whether they are watching on big screen TVs or “snacking” on social media on other devices.
Monumental Sports owns major league sports like the Washington Capitals, Mystics and Wizards, as well as esports teams, large arenas, a broadcast network and digital platforms. Heintz said their properties can’t afford to have too many pain points. He highlighted one older technology that has made a strong comeback during the pandemic: the QR code.
“It was sort of dead in the water but as people became more comfortable scanning for menus at restaurants, we incorporated QR codes into our broadcast from an enter-to-win standpoint and found lots of success,” said Heintz. “Being able to give away a Caps or Wizards jersey on broadcast and acquire a couple thousand new names to the database by doing this was a small win.”
The executives also discussed updating and upgrading security and cloud native architecture. Bolden said COVID accelerated adoption of, and transition to, digital distribution. “Our customers are embracing, not only cloud native to start, but also a hybrid environment, where they can scale up as quickly as needed,” he said.
Sports betting window opening wider
The growing market for sports wagering and the need to establish trust with fans and bettors is another area ripe for experimentation and new revenue opportunities – but it must be safe.
“Real-time, online betting requires local agency video playback,” Narayanan explained. “We call it glass to glass – from the camera to the user device – we need to make sure the video is protected, the users are securely authenticated, and all the communication between all these books is fully encrypted and the application provides no option for hackers to go in there.”
Bolden added that applications can be threats if not secured, and not just during a transaction; securing authentications is important to ensure the player is not a minor and that it is the appropriate person placing bets. Bolden noted the app “does communicate and transmit your personal information, your betting information, your banking information, and the list goes on and on.”
Heintz said Monumental Sports opened the first sportsbook in an arena in North America. “We had a city completely shut down by COVID and the only lines in Washington, DC were at the sportsbook at the arena.”
Now, the next challenge is capitalizing on the physical space to create in-person experiences that generate new revenue. “In Las Vegas, you rent the cabana or space for a couple thousand dollars, and you get food and beverage,” Heintz said. “We’re looking at all sorts of things like that. If we can come up with 25 or 50 more events a year…we’re very excited about all of those pieces.”
As for the future of sports betting and the business itself, Narayanan offered this advice, “Invest in a platform that allows for fast experimentation and measurement cycle so that you can fail fast and learn from it and go forward.”
Verimatrix’s Bolden provided the last word: “Take security seriously because when you’ve had an event, then it’s already too late. Look at implementing security early and often so that you can minimize the impacts of an event and know that you’re prepared.”
Learn more with these resources from Verimatrix:
Live sports streaming technology
Safeguarding streaming esports from OTT piracy (E-book)
About the author:
Christopher Rae is the Senior Vice President of Sales for Asia/Pacific (APAC) and Global Strategic Partnerships at Verimatrix. He provides strategic leadership for all sales, business development, and operational activities in the APAC region, and partnerships worldwide. His efforts have driven the company’s expansion of cybersecurity software solutions for media, entertainment, and telecom, into adjacent markets such as fintech, gaming / esports, education, automotive, healthcare, smart cities, and other internet of things (IoT) applications.