Half-time may never be the same again as clubs seek ways to engage fans on new levels
A major club will be the first to trial Piing in the Premier League
Finding ways to engage new generations of fans and create new revenue streams beyond the traditional has been a focus of football clubs for some time now.
While broadcast rights, at least internationally, are likely to be bullish for the next rights cycle after the domestic rights showed signs of some stagnation, clubs need to find gains in different areas to gain greater control over the revenue trend.
How to monetise the live event to a greater extent has come into focus for clubs.
In major North American sports leagues, from the NFL to the NBA, from the MLB to the NHL, creating an entertainment experience around the sporting event itself has long been part of the deal.
There is seldom a second of quiet downtime in games, particularly in a fast-paced game such as basketball. Whether on-court dancers, t-shirt cannons, fan participation games, or the famous ‘Kiss Cam’, there is always something to bombard the senses.
Football has never been truly open to the possibility of the live game being tampered with. While some clubs have flirted with the idea of offering some level of half-time entertainment during the 15-minute interval there have been few attempts to monetise the break.
But that might be about to start changing.
Football needs to keep appealing to new audiences and generations, and it has to offer something compelling for people to remain engaged as opposed to a trip to the toilet and a pie and Bovril. For many, those traditions are part and parcel of the experience. But that isn’t the case for all and in the battle to know more about their fans and the data that comes with that, clubs are starting to think about ways they can engage to a greater extent with those inside the stadium.
Founded at the beginning of 2020, just prior to the pandemic bringing the live event to a shuddering halt, British firm Piing was one of the companies to spot a gap in the market to reach fans during the break.
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