An excerpt from the interview of Sean Callanan, someone who was so convinced of the power of social media in sports that he quit his day job as a software developer to set up SportsGeek, a digital consultancy for sports clubs.
Q) Let’s talk about the last decade of Sports Geek and how you’ve seen the digital side of sport evolve.
A) I started Sports Geek in 2009. As a sports fan, I was underwhelmed by what was being delivered in the digital space, whether it be websites, apps, coding or developing. The first couple of years were helping build out the competency and the capacity of the digital teams. Then we started to work across how digital could help other parts of the sports business. The last piece that has been our focus for the last couple of years is the commercialization of these digital assets. As the digital ecosystem is evolved, we've evolved with it and have become more sophisticated. We've been able to do more things and that's pretty much where we've played in the last 10 years and it continues to grow.
Q) Tell us about some of the integrations that you guys have done
A) The process that we now follow is what we call digital to dollars.
1) Know your audience
2) Know your content
3) Know your distribution
4) Know your value
5) Know your pitch
Q) India as a market is currently growing. We have 64 professional teams that are part of multiple professional leagues. How should these teams and leagues be approaching this digital space?
A) There are a few different models, there is the do as much as you can in-house and I think that helps. It's really hard to outsource your stories, so having your editorial and content team and for them to work on what they're doing internally, I think that makes sense in-house. The teams globally that had the most success have built organically internally because if you're going to someone who has got a lot of things to sell or a lot of content to produce, your content is not at the top of their list as it matches as your internal team.
Q) Tell us a little bit about eSports, how you got into it and how do we work to drive the sports business globally using eSports.
A) eSports came on my radar three-four years ago. It has a super active, engaged audience that is watching their favorite teams and players on Twitch and YouTube, etc. They're watching for long periods and consuming a lot of content.
"In a recent grand final, they activated a giveaway at a certain part of the game, they had 1000 signups in 90 seconds. A TV or radio executive would kill for that kind of engagement."
Q) It’s been 10 years with Sports Geek and now you own a team in eSports as well. How long is the road ahead?
A) There's still plenty of upside in the sports digital scene. eSports is now just a part of it. Ten years ago, it was really hard for me to watch an NBA game in Australia and now I click a button and I watch it. The global market will be more accessible for more sports. So if you're a cricket fan, it shouldn't be hard for you to open an app and watch an IPL game in any market. A lot of upside in the next 10 years and plenty of work for all of us.
To watch the complete interview, please click here