Sevilla FC Más: A Football Club's Digital Ecosystem

Sevilla FC Más: how a football club builds its digital ecosystem

Overview

How does a football club connect with its fans beyond the pitch? In this MERGE Madrid talk, Sevilla Fútbol Club presents Sevilla FC Más, its new digital ecosystem that goes far beyond an OTT: it integrates web, app and streaming platform, unifies its databases and opens new revenue and internationalization opportunities.

What you'll learn

• More than an OTT: why the club integrated web, app and streaming platform into a single ecosystem
• User identity: the single sign-on unifying ticketing, retail and content in one database
• First party data: the value of more than 450,000 registered, active users
• Internationalization: how to reach new markets with content and live streaming
• Monetization: subscriptions, advertising, digital assets and cost savings
• Data and machine learning: the “relational value” to identify future subscribers

Session summary

The starting point: Sevilla Fútbol Club is presented as the oldest professional club in Spain (origins in 1890) and, according to the talk, the fourth Spanish club by social-media followers, with a vocation for technological innovation as part of its DNA.

Innovation with proprietary tools: it cites the example of “transfer tracker”, a tool that helps clubs locate revenue from minor transfers that used to be lost, with which, according to the talk, the club recovered significant income and which other clubs and competitions have shown interest in using.

More than an OTT: it explains that the project was not limited to launching a “Sevilla Netflix”, but to transforming the club's entire digital ecosystem, integrating web, app, streaming platform and a Smart TV app into a single environment.

Five objectives: it describes the objectives underpinning the project: build database loyalty, internationalize, grow sustainably, generate first party data and create digital assets, all with a single sign-on that unifies ticketing, retail and content into one database.

Internationalization: it shares the case of a match by the club's international team streamed with a campaign targeting a specific market, as an example of how to reach different markets and break geographic barriers.

Sustainability, data and monetization: it stresses that the project was designed to be sustainable from the start (consolidating providers and cutting costs), with a social connector for members, real-time user profiles and machine-learning models combining monetary value and “relational value”, plus monetization channels such as subscriptions, advertising and digital assets.

Watch the full talk

Watch the full recording on MERGE's YouTube channel, with Sevilla Fútbol Club on its Sevilla FC Más digital ecosystem.

FAQs

What is Sevilla FC Más?
According to the talk, it is Sevilla Fútbol Club's new digital ecosystem that integrates web, app and streaming platform (OTT) into a single environment, beyond a simple content platform.

Why is it more than an OTT?
Because it unifies content, ticketing, retail and information under a single sign-on and database, transforming the club's entire digital ecosystem.

What is first party data and why does it matter?
It is the club's own registered, active user data; according to the talk, Sevilla exceeds 450,000 and uses it to build loyalty and generate value sustainably.

How is the project monetized?
Through subscriptions, advertising, digital assets and cost savings from consolidating providers, as set out in the talk.