At FUTURE OF FOOTBALL BUSINESS Conference 2022 presented by keyper, one of the key topics were future business models. Jan Lehmann (Ex-FSV Mainz 05), Martin Geisthardt (FC. St. Pauli), Henk-Frits Verkerk (Sports Alliance), Sam Grimley (Horizm) shared their thoughts on this topic.
Jan Lehmann, when asked whether football clubs are prepared to monetize new digital assets, stated: “How much money will people spend in metaverse in 20-30 years? Probably 50% of their time and ressources. Metaverse will create new business models and new business revenues. So this probably makes sense for some clubs to try and learn from now this moment on.”
Regarding tech and data, Henk-Frits Verkerk explained: “Data has created an entirely new dynamic for club – sponsor partnerships, and the classic sponsorship model will lose its relevance.”
On a different note about sponsorship, Sam Grimly thinks: “The reason why brands wants to come for sports is because we’re all stupidly engaged”. He also added that the simplest way to measure the success of a sponsorship campaign is to think like how normal brands would think.
Martin Geisthardt said that FC. St. Pauli wants to be more than just a football club and play a bigger part in the community, so common digital KPIs (i.e.: impression or engagement) are not their first criteria. Grimley said: “Brands have to integrate with the sport team they sponsor to maximize the success.”
Grimley also emphasized: “New brands are coming in football because football is getting new types of fans. Women’s football is a great example”. Hence, new revenue streams will follow and clubs need to understand the new target audiences of their potential sponsors.
