The "Gen Z Football Report" explores the attitudes, behaviours, and trends of Generation Z towards football, providing actionable insights for brands that are aiming to engage with Gen Z football fans. As part of our report, we conducted a short survey. From this, we received 301 responses, of which 72% of respondents were Gen Z. While 75% of the total Gen Z audience came from diverse backgrounds. Football content consumption is changing. With Gen Z being the first generation to have 24/7 access to the internet we’ve seen a shift in how they consume content. Gen Zs expect content on demand but also look deeper into the game towards the players. Social media and digital platforms play a crucial role in how Gen Z engages with football. Social media platforms such as Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube are the primary sources of football-related content. This has only been accelerated with the rise of smartphones and the level of convenience it brings. Gen Z is more likely to engage with football-related content on mobile devices, with 73% of young sports fans wanting to access sports content at their convenience, whenever and wherever they want to. Convenience is a keyword that surrounds this demographic. Fans are starting to favour short-form content as a result of this, from our study 59% of Gen Z fans watch short-form content. Although fans favour this, there is still an appetite for long-form content, however, the key to delivering this successfully is through quality storytelling. Gen Z's attitudes toward football are shaping the future of the sport. With a greater emphasis on social media, digital platforms, and inclusivity, Gen Z is redefining how football is consumed, played, and experienced. As such, stakeholders in football, including clubs, leagues, and brands, must adapt to meet the changing needs and expectations of this generation. Thank you for reading our UP Yours blog post!! If you’d like to learn more about actionable insights on Gen Z, please follow this link https://www.divrsemedia.com/report or you can reach out to me at matthew@divrsemedia.com By Matthew Quadri, Co-Founder of Divrse Media

By Ian Thompson A few weeks ago I had lunch with an old client, friend and member of the European Sponsorship Association board. Aside from having a general conversation about life and the grim state of the UK; we got into a detailed chat about the state of sponsorship. Two key areas kept coming up: 1. That brands continue to make basic errors when it comes to sponsorship, and 2. The lack of evolution in sponsorship strategy, insight and evaluation. Pretty obviously these issues are related. If you have less of point 2, you end up with more of point 1. But why, in 2023, are we still flagging such simplistic and obvious concerns? We concluded that sponsorship practitioners continue, somewhat inevitably, to place their own interests ahead of wider sector development –just has they have for the last 30 years. The status-quo, we felt, will remain unless we have a catastrophic recession where brands significantly reduce spend and the sector is forced to react OR (and let’s hope this view prevails!) brands start to demand genuine and robust evidence that a sponsorship investment will deliver quantifiable brand and business outcomes. The problem for brands, in the meantime, is that they are often faced with a practitioner that has a vested interest and little evidence. Resulting in investment decisions based on assumption and wishful thinking which ultimately leads to disappointment and wastage. Which is truly depressing. Because evidence shows that sponsorship can be one of the most valuable marketing asset for brands. Allowing them to engage with audiences authentically and via areas of genuine interest to them. In an attempt to help brands optimise their sponsorship investments and avoid some basic (and costly) errors when it comes to sponsorship here are 5 observations and recommendations: 1. The AUDIENCE (i.e: the fans and followers of the entity being sponsored) Put simply – the audience of the entity being sponsored is what you buy access to when you become a sponsor. You have no right to their attention or engagement or love. But you have purchased the opportunity to try and tell them a story. Remember, this audience is not one big homogenous lump. It’s made up of different people and backgrounds, who all have differing motivations, involvement and levels of emotional connection with the entity you sponsor. As such they can be motivated to engage via different messages, offers and content. To reach them effectively may require multiple or differing routes e.g: social channels, databases, at venues, broadcast etc... But the one thing they all have in common, is that they care about the entity (to a greater or lesser extent) and NOT the sponsor. Recommendation: Understand and segment these audiences and figure out how to catch their attention and engage them. Do this in advance of signing the contract to ensure you purchase the right assets. 2. OBJECTIVES (they must be realistic and achievable) Sponsorship is capable of building brand equity and driving sales. However, these outcomes are not available to all brands, all of the time. There are multiple factors that impact performance. Just because you’re a sponsor don’t expect people (including fans) to notice you or your communications. It takes effort and hard work to engage with audiences and earn their appreciation. Brand equity outcomes are typically based around likability / positivity, affinity and consideration. Recommendation: Understand the factors that affect performance. Set specific objectives for each audience segment. Consider how, and to what extent, you will achieve your objectives within your proposed budget before you sign the contract. 3. AMPLIFY & LEVERAGE As an uninvited guest to the party, brands must tread carefully if they are to ingratiate themselves with the audience. Expecting to achieve desired outcomes with minimal amplification or leverage, is naive and massively misguided. Yet all too common. All sponsorships require amplification – even those where the brand is famous and has a strong and understandable connection with the sponsored entity. Brands that are less well known and/or don’t have a strong connection, will require a significant leverage budget merely to catch attention, explain why they are there and to achieve some relevance. Recommendation: Amplification and other leverage activities should be tailored towards the different audience segments. Activities must be relevant if they’re to build a connection and engage the audience. You must secure sufficient activation budget in advance of signing the contract. 4. CONTRACT If you have followed the above recommendations, you’ll have a clearer strategy and understand the assets that will add most value. This will enable you to negotiate an agreement that will work for your specific requirements. Prior to signing, consider the opportunity cost. In other words - how much would it cost to achieve the same result via a different route? Recommendation: Do not, under any circumstance, think that signing a multi-year contract without a break clause is a sign of commitment. It’s not –it’s sign of stupidity! 5. MEASUREMENT & EVALUATION (M&E) M&E is a vital component of sponsorship. Identifying, understanding and improving performance should be the goal. Adopt an open mindset and consider M&E an investment, not a cost. ‘Proving’ performance via media valuation calculations must be avoided. These do not correlate to outcomes and are misleading. Finally, please do not compare brand metrics for people aware of the sponsorship against those who are not aware. This methodology always produces a positive result which will not reflect true performance – remember Rosser Reeves (further on Rosser Reaves here in a previous UP post). Recommendation: Plan your M&E programme upfront, conduct it independently, assess all outputs, look to identify strengths & weaknesses, measure brand outcomes/affects amongst audience segments in a brand category context. Invest sufficient budget (up to 5%) AND act on the results and evidence. I hope you find the above useful. The recommendations have proven themselves time and again over the years and are still relevant today. In fact, I’ve had conversations this year with two brands that would have significantly benefited from them before signing their contracts! Ian Thompson, Independent Sponsorship Strategist

Mark Thompson is the COO of Burnley Football and a voracious reader of sports books. So we asked him to share his Top 10 favourite sports books of all time. It's a cracking list...... Friday Night Lights: A Town, A Team & A Dream – Buzz Bissinger A compelling story around the expectations placed on 17 year old boys in the pressure cooker that is high school football in Texas. The greatness of the book though is how it draws out the stories of a community – relationships, racial issues, politics, economic and social challenges. I first read this book whilst living in a post-apartheid South Africa that faced some of the same challenges so it immediately drew me in and I’ve rarely gone a couple of years without coming back to the book. Running with The Kenyans – Adharanand Finn I spent my formative years in Kenya and therefore the author’s move to Kenya and his family’s efforts to assimilate brought back a huge amount of nostalgia. The book is about discovering the secret of how a small region in Iten/Eldoret churns out world-class distance runners. The book is set out as a discovery into training, altitude, diet but became as much about community and social mobility. I have really enjoyed the author’s other books about running culture in countries like Japan. A Good Walk Spoiled – John Feinstein I’ve read and enjoyed almost all Feinstein’s deep-dives into the sports industry, particularly those on college basketball where his love for the game and its athletes shines brightest. As a pro golf fan though, if I had to pick one I’d go back to his look into the characters on the PGA Tour in an era just before Tiger Woods changed the economics of the sport. The structure of golf allows for an incredibly varied set of stories and this book pulled that out better than anything else I’ve read. Living on the Volcano - Michael Calvin In a normal year, half or more of the 92 clubs in the football league will change their managers. That lack of job security plus the endless scrutiny the individuals in the roles face must make it one of the most challenging jobs in society to handle. The author of this book manages to draw some incredibly revealing insights out of some of the highest profile managers in the game. It offers a fascinating insight into the psyche required to survive and thrive in the pressure pot. Michael Calvin’s book are all worth a read. Lebron, Inc – Brian Windhorst Lebron has over-delivered on the court against almost impossibly high expectations ever since appearing on the front cover of Sports Illustrated aged 16. His career off-the-court is however perhaps even more fascinating, impressive and still in its early stages. He has been at the forefront of so many shifts in the increasing power of the athlete, whether in squad composition, shunning endorsements for equity investments, moving across the value chain into the entertainment space and using his platforms for social change. This book reads very well from an author whose career has tracked LeBron’s. Lebron’s eventual autobiography will be some read! Why We Kneel, How We Rise – Michael Holding Almost certainly the most compelling book to capture and summarise the challenges sport has faced in being truly inclusive. It is at times uncomfortable reading as someone whose gender, skin colour and socio-economic background has afforded advantages in life others have not had. The sports industry is not alone in being behind the curve in inclusivity (gender, race), but this will challenge you to consider what you can do to help. Note the lack of gender diversity (authors, subjects) in my Top 10 books as an example. A New Innings – Manoj Badale, Simon Hughes There is no doubt the IPL has been one of sports great success stories over the past 20 years. I get approached by a lot of people wanting to break into the sports industry and this is the book I increasingly tell people to buy to further their knowledge and thinking. It’s a textbook of the sports business in action and touches on all the major on and off field drivers in a very structured manner. Moneyball – Michael Lewis (and other data-driven books) An obvious one I still included (unlike “Open” and “Shoe Dog”). Billie Beane and Michael Lewis changed our industry with this story and book. A manual in how to rationalise decision-making through data and the courage to see it through. If you want a complement to this, I recently enjoyed Rory Smith’s “Expected Goals”. If Moneyball was about the mechanics, “Expected Goals” was a great insight into the challenges of culturally embedding a new way of thinking into a sport (football) that historically has resisted it. “Hitting Against the Spin” (Nathan Leamon, Ben Jones) also was an excellent insight into how cricket is working through its Moneyball moment particularly with the increased attention on short formats. Playground of the Gods – Ian Stafford We all start out wanting to be a sports star. At some stage you realise you aren’t going to be one, but the author was able to live out that dream in a mad year testing himself out against the worlds best across many disciplines (e.g. boxing with Roy Jones, squash with Jansher Khan). Oddly, I actually saw him train with the Springboks during this at my school in Johannesburg. It was a fascinating insight into the mindset of sports stars long before social media, the Players Tribune and Netflix/Amazon made it a part of our daily schedule. Rise – Siya Kolisi In the sports industry there is often a lot of back-slapping for impact on society that probably should be greater. Due to its challenges, sports leaders in SA are forced, whether they welcome it or not, to have their eyes wide open. Kolisi’s addresses his countries’ and his own challenges beautifully in an incredibly honest account of his rise and occasional falls from Zwide township to becoming the first black captain of the Boks and a Rugby World Cup winner. It is no surprise this version of the Boks under his leadership are the most popular there has been both home and abroad. A true idol. Mark Thompson is the COO of Burnley Football Club.

1. Understand the unique audience Women’s sport offers a different audience to that of men’s sport. Obviously audiences vary by code, team and league but generally women’s sport fans are more gender-balanced with ‘family’ a key driver of engagement. Both fans and players are more socially conscious and not afraid to speak out on social issues. Recently we’ve seen strong opposition from players, fans and the community around reports that Visit Saudi will become a sponsor of the FIFA Women’s World Cup. The women’s sport community also hold a ’Collective Spirit’, offering a united front on many issues but also a genuine desire to see the game develop above everything else–often even over their own team winning. They are 'Early Adopters’ of technology and digitally-led as they have had to be to access games or content of their favourite teams and players which haven’t been broadcast on main networks in the past. Action: Develop an understanding of the unique values and behaviours of your women’s sport fans to ensure you are delivering fan-first experiences that resonate. *WeAreFearless’ propriety Human Valuestool uncovers the deeper motivations and values that drive fan behaviours and can be leveraged to understand how best to deliver experiences specifically to women’s sport fans. 2. Acknowledge and approach it as a different product Sportswomen are not little men and women’s sport is not a second-tier version of the game but rather its own unique product that requires its own approach. Not only does women’s sport present different audiences, different traits and values but it is at a different stage to men’s sport. Many refer to women’s sport as being in start-up mode with different models, investment and strategies required to grow than that of the men’s game. Brands that want to be authentic contributors in the space need to view themselves as ‘enablers’, adding value to and helping the ecosystem thrive rather than as ‘transactional sponsors’ who may only be there to extract value out of the game. Action: Explore activation territories where you can naturally add value as a brand and be a ‘story-doer’, not justas a ‘story-teller’. 3. Be bolder, be braver Women’s sport has 100 years of being under-funded and under-valued to catch up on so women’s sport and the brands associated with it cannot afford to be thinking anything less than boldly. Not only will thinking bigger and more creatively help fast-track the game but it will help brands get noticed and move the dial for all parties. The good news is that women’s fans tend to be more forgiving, there is less red-tape or ‘tradition’ holding the game back and more willingness for right’s holders to experiment so brands can think and act bigger. Action: Instil a culture of brave thinking and ask yourself if your idea or campaign can be pushed even further. 4. Don’t ignore the nuances It’s OK to not be a long-term or die hard women’s sport fan but pull in people that have been or understand the inner workings of the community. There are nuances to the women’s game that if you get wrong can make you look out of touch or disingenuous. For example, the women’s sports community is much more diverse, progressive and vocal on social issues with inside jokes, respected Influencers and historic issues that if not fully understood can land brands in hot water or at least mean a lost opportunity. Action: Pull in specialised expertise and understand what and why previous campaigns are considered best in class. At a minimum sense -check with people or fans who are embedded in the community. *WeAreFearless has a dedicated team of passionate women’s sport experts within their specialised women’s sport division. 5. Embrace the different brand values on offer Women’s sport offers different values to the men’s game and with it provide desirable opportunities for brands to align. Women’s sport is often viewed as more family friendly and cleaner which can often be associated with being ‘naff’ which is absolute nonsense. Few fans want to go to a game to have beer spilled on them or harassed so embrace and celebrate these traits. Sportswomen are often touted as being more relatable and accessible so leverage this to connect further with fans be it through fun and snackable content or player interactions. Action: Leverage the unique attributes and values of the women’s game with activations, experiences and content i.e. offer family- friendly activities or food and ditch the staunch key art poses that we often see in the men’s game. The women’s sport opportunity is ripe for those brands that want to be genuine contributors to the game, understand the unique values, different fan behaviours, nuances and can execute in ways that not only get noticed but enhance the women’s sport experience across all stakeholders. Rebecca Sowden is an ex New Zealand Football Fern and Director of Women’s Sport at WeAreFearless. Follow her on Linkedin here and get in touch bex@wearefearless.com to better understand how your brand can unleash the power of women’s sport. WeAreFearless is an integrated sports & entertainment agency that has a dedicated women’s sport division. Alongside its specialised women’s sport experts, WeAreFearless uses its propriety psychology tool HumanValues to help uncover the unconscious values and motivations that drive people’s purchase and behaviour across core fan groups around women’s sport – often very different to those fans of men’s sports.

I’ve spent my last four years at Sportradar working with a form of artificial intelligence called Computer Vision which teaches computers to see and understand visual inputs such as digital images or videos. Or, to put it simply, it mimics human vision capabilities. And while we, as individuals, are very good at understanding what is happening in front of us at sporting events, we have limited capacity in the amount of data we are able to manually record and upload. By comparison, Computer Vision is capable of capturing a 100-fold increase in the level of statistics and data it collects, in milliseconds. It’s this super-fast, super-deep and contextualised data that’s going to transform the industry and change how athletes, fans and bettors experience and engage with sport, and Computer Vision is the technology to enable this at scale. That transformation is already well underway and earlier this month Sportradar demonstrated its Computer Vision capabilities for the first time with a table tennis showcase at ICE London, the betting industry trade show. The event was the perfect opportunity for us to show the industry that we have a fully functioning Computer Vision solution. We’ve trained the technology to understand the rules of table tennis, detect all game events in a fraction of a second, and can deploy it at scale across a table tennis portfolio that includes more than 190,000 matches this year. What’s more significant is that the showcase provided a glimpse of how we’ll all experience sport in the future. For the athletes competing in events, Computer Vision provides them with the data and insights they need to improve performance. The depth of data generated by Computer Vision is going to shape coaching methods, focus training sessions and inform match tactics. Additionally, real-time performance reports that include details on every serve, stroke and rally can influence how an athlete plays a match. We’ll see it improve the integrity of sports and alert to doping amongst athletes. Every athlete has a unique, signature style of play and certain characteristics, which can be tracked over time. That signature will naturally evolve over their career, but unnatural changes can also be identified. If there’s suddenly a marked change in performance on these mechanical characteristics, it provides valuable insight into suspicious activity. For the fans, Computer Vision is going to immerse them more deeply into the sports they love. The technology turns every video frame into a digital asset, which we’ll use to transform what they see on their screens. As a result, fans can expect to see dynamic content such as player performance insights, live betting data incorporated into a live stream, and even things such as 3D replays from alternative camera angles, which I’m confident will all have a positive effect on viewing time. Using this technology to transform streaming is going to help rights holders to ‘premiumise’ their content and open new opportunities for advertisers and sponsors to engage fans. The advanced digital nature of the technology unlocks significant activation opportunities for brands with animations and dynamic, contextually relevant, even geo-tagged LED advertising boards updated in real-time amongst some of the options available to those forward-thinking brands. There’s tremendous opportunity to unlock here and I believe where we are now is just the tip of the iceberg. Consider the application of this technology within the metaverse or Virtual Reality. In the future we’ll be able to provide fans with an avatar that has real parameters. We can make fans part of a professional tennis match, for example, and immerse them in a real virtualised match or even allow them to participate in a game. Technology allows us to collect deep data, right down to player skeletons, which takes the idea of an immersive fan experience to a whole new level because we can simulate matches and their outcomes, matching players that otherwise wouldn’t be playing against each other and more. I truly believe that Computer Vision will transform the sports ecosystem and I’m excited to see the opportunities it creates for all those within it. Luka Pataky is Chief Product Officer - Computer Vision for Sportradar.

There are a few things that football fans have to get used to this season. An early start date. A mid-season World Cup. Five substitutes becoming the norm. One thing that stays the same is the influx of new kits on the market. Here, Underdog Sports Marketing founder Ged Colleypriest picks his top ten. Based not on commercial potential but simply the musings of someone who clearly thinks far too much about these things. 1. Crystal Palace Third As a Charlton fan, it speaks volumes about how cool this kit is that I’ve put it at the top of the tree. All three Eagles kits have used a brush stroke styling to inject new life into the red and blue stripes. This looks particularly striking on a black shirt with the Palace sash across it. Sponsor and manufacturer logos are in white, which make sure it doesn’t look too busy. All of which has managed to overcome every partisan bone in my body and give this shirt top spot. 2. Manchester United Away United now have to release kits without the help of full-time sports marketeer/part-time midfielder Paul Pogba. But Adidas designers have been working extra hard to counteract United’s ineptitude on the field in recent years, doing a great job of bringing a contemporary edge to retro designs. This one harks back to the 80s. Long before kits were changed on a yearly basis, United wore the same white away kit for close to a decade. How times have changed. Then again they also didn’t win a league title during that time either, a parallel Erik ten Haag will be hoping to avoid this season. 3. West Ham Home This one is inspired by the early nineties. A weird time when the Hammers were in the second tier. But instantly it takes me back to watching The London Match as a kid on a Sunday afternoon, doing everything possible (short of watching Songs of Praise) to avoid doing my homework. Umbro does nostalgia well and this is another fine effort, that gets a great grade...unlike my homework. PS. If anyone at BAC Windows is reading (if indeed they still exist) you would look perfect on this kit. 4. Fulham Home Ah Fulham, everyone’s favourite away day. Something for everyone. A gastro-burger in Putney or a Weatherspoon’s breakfast in Hammersmith. Cottagers fans get to enjoy these experiences throughout the year and they can do so in style this season with another stripped back classic from Adidas. The little wave pattern on the collar is inspired by the Thames (probably) and the white is so bright and pristine, it’ll look perfect...until you spill your pint down it. Neck Oil Session IPA or Ruddles Best depending on which pub you decided on. ​ 5. Crystal Palace Home If including one Palace kit in the top ten was unexpected, putting in a second one has made me question everything about myself. But, fair play, it’s another cracker. When I’m writing this column in 20 years time (presuming UP don’t ban me from doing it) I’m sure the Eagles will be wheeling out an anniversary kit inspired by this one. My only hope is that Charlton are there to rival it. 6. Brighton Home Year after year, Brighton and Nike seem to churn out real hipster classics. This is another one to add to the list. There’s a real deck chair vibe to this one, and that can only be a good thing. The panel around the American Express branding has created a slightly strange ‘H’ shape. But after lots of unnecessary thought on my part, I’ve concluded that it makes it all the more unique. 7. Aston Villa Away Castore’s first foray into Premier League kits ((Wolves and Newcastle last term) left me feeling a bit cold. But their efforts this year are much stronger. Pick of the bunch is this Villa change kit. Thin stripes offer a slight contrast on the sky blue shirt. All the detailing including the club crest and sponsor is in claret, which looks really clean. A slight bugbear is that the shorts are blue as well rather than claret but nonetheless a fine effort. Oh and if you haven’t seen it, the club shop also sells a Hawaiian shirt in club colours. A perfect present for the Villa-loving party animal in your family. Or the unsuspecting Birmingham City supporting stag being forced into fancy dress. 8. Brentford Home There’s lots to love about Brentford. Great new stadium (even if it doesn’t have a pub on each corner), great community ethos and a great relationship with their fans. Something that is reflected in their decision to extend their kit cycles to every two years. Plus they have priced the shirts really competitively. As for the actual jersey, it’s a safe but solid effort. Red and white stripes, black shorts are a classic combo. The aggressively large bookie logo is jarring, as is the crypto branding on the sleeve. The kids version shows how good it could look with more subtle sponsor placement. 9. Manchester City Home Much to love here. The rounded collar. The burgundy trim. The badge in the centre. The fact it’s inspired by the Colin Bell era. A time when players wore heavy cotton or wool shirts. Part of me would love to see Jack Grealish have a game in one of those jerseys, on a wet and windy Wednesday in Wolverhampton (the 2022 equivalent of Tuesday in Stoke, surely). Either way, I’m sure he’d look the part on and off the ball. 10. Spurs Home Daniel Levy will be hoping to sell a load of shirts with Richarlison on the back to offset some of the £60m spent on the Brazilian (putting aside the economics of shirt sale profit margins, for the sake of this crowbarred introduction). To be fair, when it looks this good, there’s every chance that it’ll be a hit in the clubshop. No messing about from Nike, brilliant white with nice detailing on the collar and sleeve trim. As sparkling as Levy would like to see the balance sheet. Ged Colleypriest is the founder of Underdog Sports Marketing

The sports biz has something of an obsession with “Gen Z” - constantly analysing, debating and attempting to second-guess what these mythical creatures want, think and do when it comes to sport. This is perfectly understandable. Children are the future, after all. But what exactly is a “Gen Z” and can we get beyond some of the stereotypes and assumptions that we all make about their engagement with sport? What is Gen Z? The main problem with using generations as a demographic is that you are looking at, well...an entire generation of people. This makes any insights into their behaviour by definition, pretty broad brush, but done at scale it can give a sense of the direction things are heading in. The other issue is that there is rarely a consensus on exactly what age group we are talking about. Depending on where you look, Gen Z is people born from 1995-2010. Or 1993-2011. Or 1997-2012. For the sake of this, I’m going to simplify things and look at 16-24s in the UK (born 1998-2006). Not strictly Gen Z, but it’s the kind of audience that many people in sport are interested in. (All of the data below is from Global Web Index from Q1–Q4 2021, a sample size of over 7,000 16-24s in the UK). ​ So, what are they into? Music is the top entertainment interest for our 16-24s, with other fairly predictable things like film, TV and gaming also very popular. Playing sport (38%) also shows up fairly strongly and interestingly fitness is even higher (41%), but watching sport is only an interest for 30% of them. Despite everything we hear about esports, it’s still down at less than 20%, even for this young audience. Which sports do they follow? Football absolutely dominates for 16-24s (as it does for any age group). 66% follow the beautiful game, with tennis, boxing, basketball and cycling the only others to register over 20%. Watching sport 16-24s are the least likely age group to watch sport every day, but they actually slightly over- index for watching 2-3 or 4-5 times weekly. How do they consume sport? 38% of 16-24s watch sport on TV (slightly less than older age groups) and 23% watch clips or highlights online or on mobile (slightly more than older age groups). Breaking down which platforms they use to consume sport, YouTube and Instagram are out in front. Will they pay for sports content? An assumption often made is that this generation has grown up used to content being free, so how willing are they to pay for sports content? Fairly willing, it turns out. 40% of 16-24s are willing or very willing to pay for content - a higher proportion than any age group other than 25-34s. Do 16-24s actually turn up to watch sport in person? There definitely appears to be an issue here, with 16-24s lagging behind older age groups in the big three sports. Cricket has the biggest disparity between young and older fan (they really should try to do something about that...) What about participation? Swimming comes out just ahead of football (but much of that will be for general leisure and fitness purposes rather than ‘sport’ per se). What we might think of as some of the ‘big’ sports of cricket, rugby, netball are all down at less than 8%, while 23% of 16-24s take part in no sport at all. So how can brands in sport reach this age group? Unsurprisingly, their media consumption is overwhelmingly digital: 70% spend 2 or more hours per day on their phones, 67% on a laptop or tablet, 53% on social media, 44% music streaming, 36% TV streaming and 30% on a games console. These figures are all higher than for any other age group. Despite the popular assumption that TV is dead for this age group, live TV still holds up fairly well, with 34% of 16-24s spending 2+ hours on it per day. This 34% figure is well behind other age groups however, and we can see that on-demand/streaming TV is now more popular than live. TV does still reach significantly more 16-24s than platforms such as Twitch. Just 18% of this audience have watched a live gaming stream in the last month, for example.​ Social media Clearly a big part of life for 16-24s, with 40% spending 3+ hours daily on social media (more than twice as likely to do this as the national average). Instagram, Snapchat and TikTok are where you’re most likely to find them, and YouTube is also used daily by 36%. Facebook isn’t quite dead for this age group, but it is the only major social platform where they under-index for daily use. Not that surprisingly, only 2% are daily users of Linkedin (they have all of that joy to look forward to, I guess). Impact of sports sponsorship For 16-24s, the primary benefits of sponsorship seem to be driving a more positive perception, consideration and engagement. This age group over-indexes on all of these, but sponsorship is less likely to drive a purchasing decision than it is for older age groups (perhaps because 16-24s don’t have a lot of money to play with, but this will be category-specific). ​ What about their values? Gen Z is all about purpose, right? Sort of. 50% of 16-24s want brands to be eco-friendly, and that does over-index slightly vs. other age groups, but not by much. 49% want brands to be socially responsible, but again that’s no different to the general population. In fact, if we look at where 16-24s really over-index on these statements, it’s in areas that are much more focused on a benefit to the individual rather than society, such as “helping to improve your image/reputation” (Index 171) and “offer customised/personalised products” (141). ​ So what? What does this all mean for sport? There is still a strong interest in sport among 16-24s, but it’s well behind things like music, film and gaming. From most angles, their engagement with sport isn’t all that different to older age groups. There is a definite trend away from live TV and towards on-demand/streaming, but sport is still one of the few things that can still pull a live audience together (it’s interesting that more 16-24s watch sport on TV than claim to be interested in watching sport). The main challenge is around attendance at live sport, which definitely appears to be falling away. This could be down to any number of factors - price, time, habit, lack of innovation - but rights holders need to think carefully about how to reverse this trend. 16-24s aren’t as purpose-driven as we might think. In fact, they are mostly looking for brands to help improve their own lives, and sponsorship for this age group is most likely to have an impact on brand perception, consideration and engagement, rather than purchase. This is just scratching the surface - if anyone wants to dig deeper into how their audience engages with sport, please contact eddie@overdog-marketing.co.uk www.overdog-marketing.co.uk

Like many others who stepped foot into the UK for the first time, one of the things I asked was where I could find good basketball - both from the perspective of a fan and as an avid player on Tuesday nights. Watching one of the NBA's most successful franchises the Chicago Bulls growing up, I was aware of players like British national Luol Deng whose legacy was, surely, a testament to the seeds sown by UK basketball in the early days of his career. Unfortunately, the truth is that the sport has been struggling for survival. The British Basketball League ("BBL") is the major professional platform for basketball in the UK, where it has been reported that the average salary of a player is slightly upwards of £20,000. There have also been repeated calls by GB national players to increase the level of funding allocated by UK Sport, which had been cut dramatically following the team's performance in the London 2012 Olympics. Despite this, there needs to be recognition that UK basketball funding goes beyond immediate (albeit necessary!) questions of profitability or medal success. Notably, basketball is the second most played team sport in the UK, with 70% of its participants belonging to BAME groups. As a predominantly urban sport with relatively low barriers to entry, its social impact of motivating youths and inculcating important values should therefore be graciously supported. Nonetheless, the reality is that for UK basketball to thrive, it needs to be a viable commercial vehicle for a range of stakeholders including sponsors, investors, teams and players. Luckily, we have a believer in Miami-based private equity house 777 Partners who recently acquired prominent BBL club the London Lions and invested £7 million in exchange for a 45% stake in the BBL in December 2021. As such, plans are underway for the next season that include the establishment of a new management structure, more support for local communities through the "BBL Inspires" programme and in particular, a focus on digital transformation to enhance its reach and mass appeal for the growing audience. This also includes initiatives to improve infrastructure for existing clubs to build them up in order to attract further investments. While this should be lauded, governance and league policy should nevertheless approach with greater sensitivity the opportunities afforded to indigenous players vis-à-vis foreign (mainly American) counterparts, which has been the source of historical discontent. As we have seen from the NBA's expert handling of the pandemic's effect on player welfare and fan engagement, players should always come first. To end, the involvement of 777 Partners is a stamp of commercial confidence for other financiers in the alternative assets investment space. Nonetheless, the overall strategy framework for the success of UK basketball is more holistic; for instance, ways of creating local appetite for basketball and exploring incentives-generating mechanisms through structures such as university tournaments or development leagues. These complex considerations deserve their own mention, but for now, it is an exciting time for UK basketball. By Isaac Low

Organisation Name: Kent County Football Association – Kent FA Give us a very basic description of what you do? Kent FA is the not-for-profit governing body of football in Kent with over 51,000 players, 40 sanctioned leagues and over 15,000 volunteers. As a not-for-profit organisation, we develop and invest in football development projects across all areas of grassroots football within Kent. Our goals at the Kent FA are to grow participation, promote diversity and regulate the game for everyone to enjoy. When was the organisation founded? 1881 Who leads your organisation (s)? Darryl Haden, CEO and an Executive Board of ten Directors who are responsible for the day- to-day management of the Kent FA business. Where are you based? Ditton, Kent How many teams / members do you have? 3788 teams across men, women’s, youth, mini, girls, walking and disability football. Describe your culture in 3 words? Inspiring. Passionate. Supportive. What makes you unique? We are the Governing Body for Football in Kent with passionate staff who embrace innovation in driving the service we provide Kent affiliated clubs and leagues. What's the ambition? To provide a football environment that inspires participants to have a lifelong involvement in the game.

Name: Laragh MacDermott Course: BSc (Hons) Sports Management University: Bournemouth University Dissertation Title: Life after COVID-19: Runners’ perspective on the ‘New Normal’ of running events and how they can be improved – An ethnographic approach’ Number of words:10,000 ​ Research: This study aims to gain an understanding of runners’ experiences at COVID-19 secure events by identifying what they enjoy and dislike in both, live and virtual running events and what they would like to stay or be improved in future mass participation events. Using an ethnographic approach with in-depth interviews with runners and participant observation, I identified these runners were not significantly concerned regarding COVID-19 when racing but rather, the community/social element and the sense of achievement participating in these events were crucial to runners. Key Findings: During the data collection process, a few themes were raised repeatedly; motivation to race, sense of achievement, not concerned about COVID-19 at running events, event atmosphere and new ways of racing/ staggered starts. Figure 1 displays what topics where mentioned. Figure 2 is a model which displays the important factors for participants’ experience at live and virtual running events. This is a useful framework for organisations to refer to when they plan their event as it is important to look at events from a participant’s point of view too. Conclusion: It is clear that runners would like staggered starts to stay in some form. The participants involved in this study are careful but do not worry about COVID-19 during the event. Motivating themselves to keep training; challenging themselves; achieving their official PB times and enjoying a social day out together are just some of the reasons people participate in mass running events. Runners enjoy the accessibility benefits virtual events offer and this study shows there is a market for these in the future. The community aspect of virtual events, especially during the lockdowns, was another factor contributing to their uptake and success. The insights from the runners involved provided positive hope regarding the return of live mass sporting events. Us runners cannot wait to get back to racing together! Laragh MacDermott is an Unofficial Partner Intern

What makes a great piece of digital content and how can sports organisations maximise the commercial opportunities that they can provide? Rob Gevertz from First Five Yards shares his top 10 digital executions and shines a light on where there may be opportunities to help your own offering from an engagement and a commercial point of view. 1) Arsenal Bench Cam What is is: 5-10 minute YouTube video focussing solely on manager Mikel Arteta within his technical area during a match. The main feed is supplemented with a picture in picture view of the match to give context to his reactions. Smaller edits of the video were also used as traffic drivers from Instagram and Twitter. Why I love it: This piece showcases one of the main advantages of team owned content; giving access to their fans that they can’t get anywhere else. This video highlights the manager’s pre-game superstitions, his excited hug of the set piece coach when the rehearsed corner kick routine brings a goal and the passionate physicality of his coaching style throughout the entire 90 minutes. 2) Liverpool Showreel What is it: Individual YouTube edit of match highlights focussing on the play of one specific player (in this case Harvey Elliot). Also of note that this piece is sponsored by club partner Quorn. Why I love it: This is a great way to sweat the asset of match highlights by creating additional content that can help drive both engagement and additional commercial value across social and cub owned channels. Clubs have an ability to use their match footage in a variety of ways that isn’t just one singular piece of content. 3) Miami Dolphins Camp Cam What is is: A single camera is setup with a whiteboard detailing a question of the day (normally asking players to comment on the traits of certain teammates). The results provide a fun and candid snapshot of the locker room and some of its standout characters. Why I love it: More than anything, its simplicity is what makes this format work. It requires no real production prep and the players are only required to provide 5 seconds of their time as they’re walking to or from the practice field. Fans continue to want more and more access to their favourite teams and this type of format gives them a feel for the type of banter that fills the locker room every day. 4) Inside City What is is: Weekly roundup of behind the scenes content, featuring exclusive access covering training, matchday and candid backstage behaviour. Why I love it: Firstly this is a great way to maximise the value of your content by bundling together a variety of smaller formats/pieces into one hero strand. However, the main reason I love this is the commitment to the bit. This weekly content piece has been running for 406 straight weeks, which helps build an audience, drive engagement and ultimately deliver value for a partner (this example is sponsored by Nissan). 5) Arsenal Opinion – On the Whistle What is is: YouTube live stream of Arsenal creators that goes live just after the final whistle. The content features some new added tech that enhances the viewing experience and interactivity by integrating social chatter that helps drive the conversation. The video is later re-purposed as a podcast and clipped for other social content. Why I love it: This type of content is symptomatic of the opportunity modern technology provides. For the older generations, if you went to a sporting event at its conclusion you would have to sprint back to your car, turn on Sports Report on the radio and hope you hadn’t missed the 90 seconds of analysis of the event you’d just witnessed. Nowadays, the ability to engage with likeminded people on demand in an increasingly high quality audio visual experience is a real opportunity for sports organisations and brands alike. Whether it be Youtube, Facebook Live, Instagram Live or Twitch from a video stand point or even the emerging live audio propositions of Twitter Spaces or Spotify Live, there are more ways than ever for people to share their experiences of matchday in real time. 6) The Ringer Hottest Take – Short Form Podcast What is is: The Ringer (sports and pop culture business founder by ex ESPN writer/podcaster Bill Simmons) have just launched the second season of short form podcasts that can exclusively ​be found on their parent company platform Spotify. The aim of the podcasts is to have a quick roundtable discussion on one singular theme/topic for 7-10 minutes. Why I love it: New type of audio format that fits into both the daily commute as well as being snackable as part of a social media doomscroll. Poses the questions of why more sports organisations aren’t playing around with short form audio? How about a weekend wrap-up that includes the best bits from your press conferences, match commentary and post game interviews? It’s all content that already exists that can be monetised in a variety of ways.... 7) Moment of Truth – BBC Sounds Podcast Series What is is: Behind the scenes audio documentary that follows two football managers battling for promotion from EFL League 1. The unprecedented access (which incorporated the managers wearing microphones constantly for 3 months) gives a deeper level of insight into the role of the football manager and the anxiety driving decisions they need to make on a daily basis. Why I love it: This format really brings to life the value of audio from a production point of view. The requirements on the participants were a lot lower than those from a camera crew so it enabled a much deeper level of access and insight. Additionally, it would stand to reason that it would be considerably cheaper to produce the audio content than the equivalent video docuseries. 8) Pat McAfee Fan Duel Game What is is: Former NFL punter Pat McAfee is one of the rising stars of US sports media, combining his commentary role at WWE with his daily YouTube/podcast show. The growth of his content business led to him signing a reported 3yr $30m p/a deal with FanDuel due to the value of his audience and their growing affinity with gambling. As part of that agreement the two parties have collaborated to create the Pat McAfee Filed Goal Face Off, a skill based game where players can compete to win money and prizes withint the FanDuel platform. Why I love it: It really demonstrates how you can maximise the commercial opportunities from a digital platform. McAfee has a loyal audience of young sports fans, the exact audience FanDuel is trying to reach in an authentic way. Gambling and data has formed a major part of the show’s content from its inception and they have regularly had contributions from FanDuel employees that feel much more like they provide editorial value rather than being paid for advertorials. As a result of their collaboration on developing the game, McAfee organically integrated the product into his live show, his podcast and specific social media content. All ​of this content is aimed at driving existing and potential new customer back into the FanDuel ecosystem. 9) Peter Crouch Podcast x Brewdog – Laout brand integration https://www.brewdog.com/uk/laout-that-peter-crouch-podcast What is is: Following the success of his stint at the BBC, the newly relaunched Peter Crouch podcast secured a brand partnership with Brewdog upon its move to Acast. One running theme during the podcast had been Crouch’s love for his favourite drink, a mix of lager and stout. Step in sponsor Brewdog, who created their perfect version of the drink and took it to market., Why I love it: This again is a great example of taking a brand integration from the digital content out into the real world for fans to engage with it. The engagement went a stage further, with listeners/viewers being asked to contribute to the name of the drink and the design of the can, all of which created organic talking points during the show and in turn driving support for the product once it went on sale. 10) Dallas Cowboys – Huddle Up with the Pros What it is: AR photo booth, allowing fans in stadium to create a picture with their favourite players to celebrate their matchday experience. Why I love it: Even though this execution is 2 years old, this is still the best use I’ve seen of AR or VR technology in a fan experience so far. It has a simple user experience but yet provides a high quality result. It also provides an easy ability to collect first party data and share the experience across social channels. Alongside this, it is a great way to bring the commercial partner’s brand to life, showcasing the advanced technology and ease of use that AT&T can provide its customers. Formerly of Sky Sports, Talksport and City Football Group (Manchester City FC), Rob Gevertz is the founder of First Five Yards, a consultancy helping rights holders to maximise revenue opportunities from their digital platforms.

What is the founder(s) background? Donald began his career in 2006 at the (of its time) iconic consumer PR shop Shine Communications, before moving into sport sponsorship at Synergy in 2011. Will’s subsequent arrival saw us working together for several years. After leaving Synergy in 2016, Donald worked as an in-house comms consultant for several challenger brands, whilst Will freelanced with several governing bodies and rights-holders. In 2018, we started collaborating together in partnership, and in early 2019, MatchFit was born! What drove you to start MatchFit? We felt there was a vacuum in the PR and sponsorship industry for genuine specialism within football. As the global sport, football has the power to move people like no other. Our past experience meant we had seen the best aspects of some excellent agencies, but also some of the limitations. So, we had a desire to take those learnings and forge our own independent path, underpinned by a remote-first model which pre-dated the pandemic. We now sit here with a brilliant blend of clients within football, each with different audiences to reach. They include forward-thinking rights-holders such as The FA and The EFL, innovators such as LiveScore and Footy.com, world-leading venues in Wembley Stadium and St George’s Park, and major football clubs. What key milestones have you achieved so far? Submitting our very first (and very small!) invoice for paid project work was a huge moment, as was sealing our first long-term retained client in June 2020. Offering the role for our first full-time member of staff was a poignant moment, whilst winning our debut award recently as Breakthrough Agency of the Year at the UK Sponsorship Awards 2022 was one to celebrate! We are also currently shortlisted as Young Agency of the Year for at this week's Sport Industry Awards, which is one of our key target milestones. What has been the biggest challenge? Perhaps the biggest challenge was taking the leap of faith that we were ready to develop from a two-person consultancy to a growing agency with our own team. It was very much a ‘deep breath’ moment. Everything about the last year has been about carefully bringing together a talented team from a background of sports sponsorship, consumer PR, in-house Premier League football clubs and journalism, all united by a love of football and its power to move hearts and minds for our clients and their audiences. This blend is vital as it ensures we benefit from a range of experience and perspective, no matter the client brief. Today we stand as a team of eight, and as Co-Founders nothing makes us prouder than working with this brilliant group of people, and humbled that they have chosen MatchFit as the latest steward of their careers. What have lessons have you learnt so far? Where to begin! It’s a cliché but almost every day has brought a new lesson and different challenges at each step of the journey. A key lesson has been to stay calm, and take some of the emotion out of challenging situations – it is incredibly easy to take things personally when you are so invested in the business. As Co-Founders, we’ve learnt that we genuinely make each other better, and have complete trust in each other’s opinions and values. We also learned that looking at the financials one year ahead is the fastest route to insanity! Lowest moment? The nature of being business founders is that everything is heightened. The highs are more euphoric, the lows all-encompassing. It has been a rollercoaster emotional ride but from a low point it is hard to look beyond the impact of the first COVID lockdown, and the three-month closure of professional football. All of our work was project based at the time, and we lost every piece of it. Mentally accepting the fact we were back to square one with zero confirmed revenue was brutal. It was the second time in our first 18 months that we were days away from finding a second job, just to keep things alive. Fortunately, work returned in June 2020 and we haven’t looked back since. Biggest highlight? We began MatchFit completely from scratch, with no inherited or founding clients. So ‘that call’ when a client rings to confirm they want to work with us has always been a truly humbling and exciting moment to be treasured. ​ Last year, we received a phone call to tell us we had won a major pitch for retained business with one of the biggest and most exciting football clubs in the world. It so happened that we were both with our respective families at that moment, and we got to share the experience with them. We knew it was a game-changing moment for the agency, and it was fitting we were with the people who had supported us most. Ambition We aren’t about being the biggest, instead our vision is for MatchFit to be the best football PR and sponsorship agency in the world. We want to be at the forefront of a new and exciting generation for the game, and one which can have a big impact in the world. As an example, this will be the decade that truly elevates women’s football alongside the men’s game, and we want to help everyone from the grassroots to the commercial world make the most of that. Find out more at www.matchfit.biz By co-founders Donald Parish & Will Mitchell Follow Donald, Will and MatchFit on the Twitter @MatchFitDonald, @MatchFitWill &@MatchFit_Agency