SPORTNXT – DAY 2 LIVE BLOG
13 Mar 2025
Day 2 Welcome Address & Day 1 Recap
TOM STEINFORT – Master of Ceremonies, Channel Nine
Steinfort began Day 2 with a recap of Day 1, sharing his key takeaways before outlining the agenda and key highlights for the day.
“Over twenty countries are represented here.”
“We’ve got the heavy hitters from right across the industry here in this room to give you some insights on what lies ahead and how they’ve got ahead in this industry.”
“Our first insight on day two from our friends at Dentsu Sports Analytics highlights the momentum the MLB has generated through recent rule changes.”
“Innovations mean that 50% of fans feel the direction of the MLB is on the rise,”
“Amongst the younger viewership, the ones that you really want to be targeting to get the next generation coming through, that number rises furhter again, upto 58%.”
VIRTUAL LEADERSHIP KEYNOTE
ROB MANFRED – Commissioner, MLB
EDDIE McGUIRE – Co-Founder, SportNXT
McGuire opens, “Major League Baseball (MLB) have looked within and realised we need to make some changes to become focused in the front of mind with this new generation of people who have grown up with social media.”
Manfred shares the process of these changes and surveying fans, “developing fundamental research from our fans about how they saw the game, what they liked about, what they thought needed to be changed.”
Manfred adds, “we worked on a set of potneital rule changes that we though would accomplish the things fans wanted, a game with better pace, game with more action, less dead time,” “a game that emphasised athleticism.”
On the rule changes, “our average game time went from over 3 hours to 2 hours and 35 minutes, which is a significant change.”
McGuire highlights the three key changes through the introduction of a Pitch Clock, Bigger Bases and changes in coaching style whereby, “coaches can put batters in as they see fit in a particular moment in time.”
“You’ve been able to find the balance between the coaches trying to win games and you trying to put on a game that is exciting to watch with all that winning potential.”
On developing the game outside of the US, Manfred states, “its really important that we take the product there live. We opened in Korea last year. Obviously we’re opening in Japan this year. We had an opender in Australia several years ago. Seeing that product grow is kind of the first step in terms of trying to grow the game.”
He adds, “when it comes to the development of players, its important to have relationships with sport organisations in other countries that are productive for both organisations.”
McGuire probes whether Australia will be back on the MLB internation map. Manfred shares, “we are involved with the professional league in Austalia,” and “Australia is one of those countries that’s on our list of targets.”
On bringing digital technology into the game, Manfred highlights, “we’re huge believers in investing in youth participation in the sport, because its the single best way to create fans.” Regarding the changes to the game, “we’ve made the game more appealing to younger fans.” “We continue to use technology not only to make the game better on field, but in order to promote fan engagement.”
Manfred states the sports success is “in part related to the desire of young people to have the type of social experience that goes along with a live baseball game.”
On the collaboration with Apple TV, “Apple is a tremendous innovator, not only in terms of giving us access to fans who may no longer be in the cable bundle, but also in terms of the presentation of the game, the enhancements, the announcers, the way the game is presented digitally”
“I think the relationship with Apple has been a really positive one.”
On sports betting, Manfred conveys, “our game is sort of perfectly designed for sports betting as it exists today,” and “it fits nicely into game.” He adds, “we have tried to strike a balance where we serve the fan thats interested in sport betting, but we don’t make sports betting so obtrusive that it affects the quality of what we see as a family product.”
On preserving the history of the game, Manfred says, “our ownership group will continue to have conversation that take place between two issues, preserving the tradition and history of the game on the one hand, on the other hand, making sure that the product that we put on the field is what our fans want to see.”
Manfred shares that the key challenge the MLB is facing is “becoming a more national product.”
McGuire closes with the statement, “in sports, you’ve got to try new things all the time.” “Don’t be afraid.”
THE SHOW MUST GO ON
MODERATOR: GLENN LOVETT – CEO & Global MD, Dentsu Sports Analytics
JAMES RUSHTON – Co-Founder, DAZN
HAMISH TURNER – Direction of 9Now & Programming, Nine
KYLIE WATSON-WHEELER – SVP & Managing Director, The Walt Disney Company (ANZ)
Lovett opens the panel, “The hottest topic discussed yesterday and the sort of a theme across every panel: The changing broadcast media landscape, changing viewer habits, particularly of the younger generation.”
On piracy, Rushton shares, “the data we’re seeing is pretty horrific and its a real sort of warning sign in the industry.” “Ten years ago, piracy was taking 15-20% of the value off of the table. In terms of media rights, 15-20% is not great, but we can still create a business with 80% of value on the table.” “The Enders report indicated that in mainland Europe, we’re looking at 50% of the value in those media rights are now being taken off the table by piracy.”
Watson-Wheeler on the biggest change in sports rights in recent times and streaming services, “what’s really changed as a reuslt of streaming is we all know what’s beneficial for any code is as many eyeballs as possible, you know, broadcast reach of their sport around the world. So streaming really does enable some sports to really have a global footprint.”
“That’s definetely changed the dynamic in some ways.”
On free to air, Rushton states, “I think if you are a traditional linear, free to air broadcaster and that’s all you are, then I think your days are numbered.”
Turner adds, “if you’re not approaching each of your individual sports with a real nuanced approach, then you’re in all sorts of trouble.”
He further adds, “one of the things we’ve talked about is attention deficiency.”
“We’ve gone from a world where Gen X is watching hours of live sport every week, to, you know, kind of social engagement, where they might subscribe to an influencer who was attached to a sport and thats their engagement there.”
“Experimenting with platforms like Minecraft and Roblox as the net frontier for sports rights or sports engagement”
On the collaboration between Disney+ and ESPN, Watson-Wheeler states it, “Opens up a big opportunity for us here, particularly through that lens of the new gen of sports fan.”
”One of the things that we have noticed is that intersection for that audience between sport and entertainment, and we do think that, within our platform, the opportunity to really bring those two things together is a great opportunity of inspiring that audience.”
She adds, “I think also one of the things that’s really relevant to that audience is their desire to connect into not just the game, but the culture around the sport as well.”
Regarding the use of influencers and personalities to drive engagement, Rushton highlights, “if you look at Bryson DeChambeau is doing and his Youtube channel and the engagement he’s creating, it’s pretty phenomenal.”
“It’s almost enabled the Liv Golf brand to sort of have a new lease of life because of what he’s doing.”
He continues, “I think influencers are very important from a design perscpetive,“ and “I think to be able to engage with Gen Z and Gen Alpha audiences is how do you create a narrative that’s interesting to them?”
On the role of commercial premises like bars and pubs in growing fandom and commercial value, Rushton states “its a big part of the business,” and, “a big part of the value chain.” Watson-Wheeler agrees, “a key element of our love of sport in this country is the social aspect of it, and so anything that we can do to enhance that engagement and opportunity with our sports audiences is great.”
The panel concluded with the statement that “tapping into those big cultural [sporting] moments and making sure that sport maintains its place in Australian culture” is essential.
KEYNOTE: CATHY ENGLEBERT
MODERATOR: TRACEY HOLMES – Host & Executive Producer, The Sport Ambassador
CATHY ENGELBERT – Commissioner, WNBA
A video opens this discussion with key messages from Engelbert stating, “this is about valuing women’s sports and making sure that you see the value, that the corporate partners want to show up, that they want to activate, and they want to access our fan base.”
Holmes starts,”Last year, [the WNBA] was the fastest growing brand, not sports brand, the fastest growing brand,” and, “the WNBA appears to be heading into the stratosphere when it comes to women’s sport.”
On whether broadcasting is still the major drive of growth, Engelbert states its “still a huge driver of growth and revenue and sustainable revenue to get a long term media deal.” She adds, “we have a hugely transformational national broadcast deal that we signed last yer that will start in 2026.”
However, she comments that, “the whole media landscape is being disrupted.” “You have to have games of consequences,” and “you have to have exciting rivalries and incredible talent, and a great game day experience to bring people into the arena.”
Engelbert states, “when I came into the league, we only had 80 of our 200 plus games. Now we have over 200 of our 240 games on national platforms.”
She highlights, “we’re the longest tenured women’s professional sports league in the United States.”
“Many leagues have come and gone and folded, that’s why we need to have an economic model to fund and to pay the players.”
On understanding fandom changes, she elaborates, “you have understand your data and who your fan is today and what fan segments you are not reaching.” “WNBA fans are 62% more likely to be Gen Z.”
Regarding story telling in sport and the example of Caitlin Clark, Holmes highlights that the, “WNBA set a record for single game viewership eight different times in 2024 and Caitlin played in every single one of those games.”
Engelbert adds, “when I came into the league, we had 8% of our players born outside of the United Sttes, last year it was 23%, so we’re globablising our ranks too, and building them into global stars. ”
“Our players sit at the intersection of sports, pop culture and fashion.”
“It’s amazing to see what Caitlin has brought to the game, but also how that’s elevated all of our players and the household names that you need for people to want to watch.”
On developing “rivalries” in sport, Engelbert states, “you have to have a competitive competition,” but “you want to have a balanced marketing approach from that perspective.”
“The bad that comes with rivalries in women’s sports…is the vitriol and hatred just because of who these womens are. They’re women. They’re women of colour. Some at LGBTQ+, so that in and of itself, and this is not something new to WNBA players, but you know that we want to make sure we’re working on.”
“We’re working on a multi-dimensional solution this year, a technology solution provider on the social media side, certainly mental health resources monitoring, physical security, all that stuff is complicated, that goes into the negative part of the rise of women’s sports.”
“I think all of women’s sports have this unique challenge that men’s sport doesn’t get at the scale we get it at, and we’ve got to work together on it.”
Engelbert sheds light on the role of a CEO or Commissioner is three things: Culture, Strategy and Capital Allocation. “There’s a million other things that you get pulled to do, but if you do those three things right, you’re going to be successful and grow the business.”
On expansion, she says, “sport is just a big business. Big business is about relationships and people.”
“When you’re running a league only in 12 cities in just the United States, that’s pretty small scale considering a lot of corporates are in every city and every major country over the world and global.”
“We’ve announced our first non US team in our neighbour to the north, Canada.”
“So I’m proud that we were able to expand right now at 15 teams, but more to come.”
On the concept of globalisation, she highlights, “one of the great things about sports, I think it’s one of the great unifiers of people from all cultures and background and race and religion.”
“I think globalising our game is one of the things that we’re going to allocate some capital going forward.”
Engelbert closes, “one thing that we know is good for the economy, is supporting women and diverse women.”
THE NEXT WAVE
MODERATOR: SARAH STYLES – Dirctor, Officer for Women in Sport and Recreation
LARRY KESTELMAN – Executive Group Chairman, LK Group
KATIE PAGE – CEO, Harvey Norman
THAYER LAVIELLE – Managing Director, The Collective
Styles opens, “the biggest thing that needs to change is how people view women’s sport.”
Lavielle on what Australia can be taking away from what’s happening in the US, “The US has been on just an absolute rocketship in the past couple of years for womens sports.”
The panel discusses the significance of visibility in women’s sport. Page shares, “the idea of this ongoing visibility gap is still very much a current concern.” She adds, “we’ve got to do it together, otherwise you’re wasting your time.”
Kestelman highlights that the “time is now”, “I truly believe women’s sport and sport in general is an amazing opportunity all around the world.”
He adds, “I think women’s sport should have been done and invested in earlier, but the opportunity came because all of a sudden the business of sport has become a place everyone wants to invest.”
On bringing lessons from the NBL to the WNBL, he comments “our aspirations are massive. We want to be the best women’s basketball league in the world in our timezone.”
“But if people don’t see you, then that’s pretty pointless.”
“So that’s number one priority and not to just see the product the way we want it to be seen, but make sure that you tailor it to the people how they want to consume it.”
He adds, “I think the unfair advantage we have, probably even over the NBL now are the stories of our players.”
“We’ve seen the growth of valuations of NBL clubs. We’ve seen the success story there. So that gives people confidence to say, well if we invest in women’s sport there’s also a commercial outcome.”
Lavielle adds, “women’s sports, while not only women fans, has really leaned into that and created storytelling.” “So there’s just a lot of innovation about how do we just put more out there to give these womens more places to play.”
On brands supporting women’s sport, she explains that, “we’ve had a lot of brands that have said, we just don’t want to seem like we’re tagging along and so they stay on the sidelines. That’s really the impetus behind The Collective saying, hold on a second, there’s got to be a better way for us to help you open those doors in a way that feels authentic, that you’re not coming to the party late, that you feel like you’re actually adding value in some way.”
Kestelman states, “I’m hoping theres a day where we stop talking about it as something that is different. I think it will be able to stand up on its own two feet.”
He discusses that “I think its a wonderful product, and if it’s not, it shouldn’t be because its women or men. It might just be something that needs to be looked on as a product.”
Lavielle says “I think brand involvement is part of the fun of working in this industry. Being able to say, how do you showcase this incredible complexity and depth that makes up these women athletes.”
Styles comments, “Australia has always had incredible women athletes, and yet women’s sport is still only getting roughly 10% of sponsorship dollars.” “Not a single female athlete worldwide in the top 100 paid athletes last year.”
Lavielle highlights on this, “it’s also interesting that in looking at the discrepancy in the top 100 and then Coco Gauff coming in just shy of that, you know, 77% of male athletes on average revenue comes from his team deal. For a woman, its 18. So she has to spend a lot of time to get that 82% of her income doing something else that’s there.”
“She’s king of going really deep into her fan base in a different way than a man has to, because he can sit back and play Playstation while these women are off having to go fiugre out how to make a living, and get there.”
She adds, “it’s differen to men’s and if you compare it to men’s, women will never win because there’s a 50 year, in many cases, 100 year runway on these leagues and teams comparatively.”
She also states that “you should be forcing maternity clauses into your contracts.”
On the question of if you could simply click your fingers, what changes do you want to see right now, Kestelman states, “it goes back to the exposure.” “One is media…and the other one we talk about is corporate sponsorship and dollars.” “For me, I would love the corporate sector to get behind the exposure of the product and the athetes themselves.”
The panel ends, with the speakers encouraging delegates to go out and support women’s sport – attend games, buy merchandise. Do this “like it is your job.”
LESSONS FROM PARIS: THE FUTURE OF MAJOR EVENTS
MODERATOR: TRACEY HOLMES – Host & Executive Producer, The Sports Ambassador
FRANCOIS-XAVIER BONNAILLIE – CCO, Brisbane 2032 Organising Committee
JAMES JOHNSON – CEO, Football Australia
CRAIG TILEY – CEO, Tennis Australia; Tournament Director, Australian Open
THE HON. ANIKA WELLS – Minister for Sport, Federal Government
Holmes begins, “people flooded here in the tens of thousands to mine gold. Fast forward to today, and our reputation for golden opportunities has really morphed. It’s diverse now. We’ve gone from metals mined to medals won.”
She adds, “Australians are going all around the globe doing so well in that sphere, but its also the athletes from all around the world that get to benefit from our major events.”
On the outcome of Paris and football, Johson states, “we didn’t have a great performance on the pitch, but we closed out a very successful cycle on the pitch. We’re setting ourselves and the team up for an outstanding cycle when we’ve got the a Womens Asian Cup in 2026 which we’ll host.“
“We also learn a lot about how we build our audiences and how we continue to grow, albeit in a difficult time zone.“
“Our audience is young. We’re focused on the 5-24 year old and its hard for them to get up at 3a.m. in the morning.”
Tiley adds on the outcome of Paris stating, “what I think Paris took to another level and one thing that we’re proud of…is the complete integration of the event into the city. And it was seamless.”
“The whole time you were in the city, and the city was part of the event.”
“I think for future events, that complete integration has to happen.”
“I think we’ll definitely see that at Brisbane in some form.”
Minister Wells touches on Brisbane 2032, “we need to raise the social capital for Brisbane 2032, and make sure that everyone is as excited about it as possible.”
“In Brisbane, we should be aiming for 60 gold medals, 150 medals all up, 100 different medallist of Paralympians.”
Bonnaillie adds, “it will be different, I think it will be the warm and welcoming nature of the people of Australia. It will be the value of sports.”
“I’ve been here for three months. You guys are crazy on sports. It’s crazy. It’s everywhere. So I can imagine the passion in the Games.”
“We have the First Nations culture which is very strong.”
He also discusses the challenges that will be faced in Brisbane, “the challenge is even bigger in Brisbane because Brisbane is a small city and so we will be role modelling the new model of the Games, showing the world that we can organise the Games in a city like Brisbane, and for that we will need partners that will help us to think about things differently.”
Regarding the shift in commercialisation and broadcast, Tiley shares, “you’ve got to understand the segment very carefully.”
“If you start commercialising without that complete engagement with those segments in your product, you’re going to have all sorts of problems.”
“That’s why in our event, when you come to the Australian Open, it’s definetely more than the tennis.”
Minister Wells touches on the government’s role in commercialisation. “We use a speical matrix to assess and analyse the impact of all the event bids.”
“My sense was that assessments and decision around sport investment was more vibe based than data or evidence based, and I wanted to bring a bit of rigour to that.”
“How does the nation outside of Brisbane benefit from those billions of tax dollars being spend on Brisbane? Through the Brisbane Arena, which is $2.5 billion worth of federal money which is the federal contribution.” “So its $2.5 billion for the Brisbane Arena and 900 million for the minor venues, which we’re sharing with the Queensland state government.”
On innovation and whether the “sports-fan” is dying, Tiley says, “I think if we looked at the old way, the way many sports do engage with the fan, it’s very traditional and the fan wants more than that. There is a very core group that just want pure sports, and that’s just what they want to experience. But that’s the group that doesn’t increase as much as the group that is outside that you want to bring in.”
On youth engagement, he adds, “our biggest competition in sport is not other sport.” “Our competition are the devices and shifting the youth into engaging with sport is always the biggest challenge.”
“It has to appeal to their wallet.”
On foreign affairs, trade and innovation, Minister Wells states, ““I would say, you know, obviously Australian manufacturing and revitalising Australian manufacturing is a big focus of the Albanese government, sports science and where that’s going and what we can do in sport science. And, you know, with some of the best in the world at sport, we should be leading sport science.”
“We love the games, the possibilities are endless. And as long as we work together and as strategic and considered about it, it really will be the making of us.”
Tiley on getting the balance right with projecting into the future, “if you’re in a leadership role, you’ve got to constantly push the changing of the product and you’ve got to constantly make some assumptions about what’s going to happen in the future.” He adds, “The balance that you’ve got to have between the risk and the opportunity is constant.”
Johnson discusses the bid for the Women’s Asian Cup, “part of our delivery strategy and our story arc of the Women’s Asian Cup will be how do we bring our friends, our Asian communities in Asutralia together?”
“That’s really at the centre of what we’re trying to do.”
Minister Wells on National Sporting Organisation missing out on opportunities to host world championships due to the federal funding matrix, “federally, we haven’t traditionally funded major events traditionally, and that’s a good thing.”
“We have been in a cost of living crisis for the past few years. It’s harder and harder to argue for sport money. Nonetheless, 2024 was the biggest ever year for sport investment in Australia federation.”
She adds, “the $250 million to revitalise the AIS, which has never been revitalised since…it was formed.”
“If we can get the National Sporting Centre of Excellence right, that helps every kid, no matter where they’re born, to be able to participate on the pathway to Brisbane 2032.”
“When it comes to federal money, it has to be about any Australian kid.”
“If you have a gift, we have to give you the pathway to find it through participation programs and to put you on a pathway to high performance if thats where you want to go. Only the federal government does that. And if we don’t, no one does it. And those kids miss out.”
She states, “I make no apologies for demanding value for money when it comes to event bids.”
Tiley on the concept of alternative broadcast presentations such as cartoon streams, “the generative AI and all the platform opportunities” available are significant.
“You have to be at the forefront of creating those opportuntiies because its also how your new audiences engages with the product.”
KEYNOTE: DONNA BIRKETT BAIDA, FORMULA 1
DONNA BIRKETT BAIDA – Marketing Director, Formula 1
On 2025: A year of big stories, Baida opens with “this is our 75th year.”
“We’ve had a incredible series of start line surges, of incredible overtakes, and of course, memorable finishes over the course of these past 75 years.”
“And as we look ahead to 2025, I think it’s fair to say that we’ve got a really exciting season ahead of us.”
“We have 24 races across 21 markets in a calendar year.”
“We have a reasonable footprint across many different countries”
On growth and fan base, she shares, “we have over 800 million fans already, and is continuing to grow.”
“Importantly, we’ve seen a lot of growth over the past probably 4-5 years.”
“We’re seeing a lot more females in the fan base and a lot of greater diversity in general.”
She adds, “younger fans coming and enjoying the sport increasingly so, and those fans are really wanting to get involed.”
“First and foremost we’re seeing tremendous growth in the US,” and, “we’ve got about 44 million fans in the US today and about half of those have joining us in the past 4-5 years.”
“In China we have over 150 million fans”
“In the Middle East, we’ve actually delivered 200% growth in broadcast over the year alone.”
On whats driving the interest, she identifies four key themes, “the first is people see that we genuinely connect to culture. They appreciate the fact that we have an association with different passion points whether its fashion, music, entertainment, sport or tech.”
The second key theme, “is that we really are seen as a spectacle and that’s not a bad thing, in fact our fanss recognise that unlike many other sports, you can’t really participate in Formula 1.”
“And so as a result, the fact that we are creating more than just a race, we are creating a full spectacle of entertainment over and above the reacing itself.”
“It’s the fact that Formula One has so many ways in which to integrate or become interested in the sport, so many different angles in which to enjoy. It could be our drivers, the teams, the weather, the strategy.”
The third and fourth key themes are resonating with fans and fluidity respectively. “From a fluidity standpoint, F1 is actually incredibly welcoming, It’s less tribal than a lot of other spots, because many of our fans don’t have favourite drivers.”
“It feels less intimidating as a new fan to be participant in the sport.”
On brand she states, “we absolutely want to ensure that we are brand led.”
“We want to ensure that with so many new fans coming inot the sport, that we are both educating as well as enteraining these fans.”
“Secondarily, we want to make sure that fans are first”
“We believe our brand is unmissable.”
On interacting with fans from a digital standpoint, Baida shares, “we aim to reach our fans each and every day across a plethora of different platforms.”
“We have a really broad reach across social as well as digital, and we create content that we believe is going to interest our fans.”
“Last year, we created 20,000 pieces of content that we uploaded across our different platforms and that resulted in over 2 billion shares, likes and comments acrosst the board.”
From a marketing perspective, she states, “it’s important we collaborate.” On Drive To Survive, “there could be no better wat to introduce our fans to the brand because Drive to Survive has done a wonderfu job of introducing the teams, drivers, the team principals, behind the senses and of course, the racing to so many people.”
She adds, “the F1 Movie which is coming out later this year – its a really interesting collaboration because its driving so much innovation from a cinematography standpoint andincorporating that into the sport itself.”
On staying relevant and connecting with fans, “last October we partnered with Cota, which is our Austin based race promoter, the University of Texas, and ESPN, and we brough the Americans most favourite college sport, which is footballm to Formula 1.”
“Collaboration with Peanuts and created a Snoopy line through our Las Vegas race, which was tremendously successful.”
“The F1 arcade, which brings gaming and the F1 experience to a bar like setting across four different venues.”
“We have the F1 exhibition which really reflects on the 75 years of F1 and gives people a real look into the heritage, the history and the dynamism of our sport.”
“Later this month, we’re going to be launching the Grand Prix Plaza, where there will be a fully immersive F1 experience for everyone to try.”
Baida shares the success of the 2025 Season Launch, “our season launch last month in London, where we brought 20 drivers, ten teams and an incredible evening of entertainment together to launch the season…was a real opportunity for us to engage our loyal fans, but also reach an entirely new fan base as well.”
“We sold ticket in under 35 minutes”
Baida closes with, “we also want to make sure, though, that we celebrate our fans today because they are the ones that have brought us to where we are right now and continue to focus on the future, because having that eye on the future and ensuring that we are continuing to delivee innovation is incredibly important”
“And part of that innovation, we hope to see a female driver in F1 in the next short while.”
WHERE TO STARE?
MODERATOR: VALERIO VEO – Co-Founder, Three Tomorrows
LEANNE BATS – Head of Digital Innovation, Sport Walkato
NICK FORWARD – GM Digital, AFL
CAMERON HOY – Chief Operating Officer & Global Head of Ticketing, TEG/Ticketek
Veo opens “over the last three decades, sports organisations have been on a digital journey from full ownership of their data to a social media era of third party platform dominance, and now towards a new frontier of data driven, decentralised engagements.”
“But with so many competing platforms, owned, partner, social and third party, the question is no longer where the fans are looking but where the sport organisations should focus their attention.”
“Loyal customers are more than just buyers—trust drives consistency, with 45% staying loyal even after a bad experience. A 5% increase in loyalty correlates with a 25% increase in profit.”
On fan relationship changes, Hoy states, “here’s been a huge shift and I’ve seen a lot of great innovation.” Regarding fan engagement, “fan engagement needs definition because its such a broad phrase. Unless its underpinned with commercial strategic outcomes, its not just content engagement – its got to have a tangible and measurable outcome.”
Forward states, “we kind of mystify young audiences as being this other that behave differently than they ever had before.”
He adds, “I just think that the young audience has always behaved differently to 40 year old audiences, to 60 year old audiences.”
“It’s just the difference being that now we’ve got different ways to get them and they’ve got different platforms and they’ve got so much choice.”
“Our job is to go to fans where they are.”
“The long term strategy for that is to grow those audiences, but bring them back into the ecosystem and do that as elegantly as we can.”
On utilising new platforms, Forward shares, “new sports leagues prioritising platforms like Twitch and Discord over traditional broadcast models impact how we engage fans. Our job is to go where they are—but ultimately, bring them back into our ecosystem as elegantly as possible.”
Bats adds that “the most powerful influencing factors [for the younger audience] are their community and their peers, its not what we send to them.” She continues, “fan engagement is not about just collecting data and getting to a point where they’ll give it to us and then thanks, bye. It’s always been about belonging, about that community piece.”
On the AFL, Forward share, “at the AFL, part of my job is to generate revenue from our fans. But actually, it’s to bring them into an ecosystem where the flywheel for us is participation.”
“10% of our revenue is invested straight into how we drive growth towards a million participants.”
“Historically, we’ve addressed challenges individually—building separate digital ecosystems for each issue. But that doesn’t create great fan experiences.”
“The goal is to make the experience cohesive so fans feel like we’re holding their hand throughout.”
Bats discusses the future of fan engagement, “when New Zealand Rugby was looking at this model, it became clear that consumers like loyalty programs, but they don’t solve fan engagement alone.”
“I see a future where fans have a digital wallet, like a third iteration of the internet—where instead of logging into different sites, you just connect your wallet.”
“It will take a catalyst like that to change things, but once it does, it will happen very fast.”
Hoy talks on data sharing and collaboration, “we’ve always taken the view that every piece of data that we see, we should share with our partners in real time.”
“I think the days of when data was hoarded and protected and used as a sort of crude instrument of trying to advance your own business interests are gone.”
“It’s all about collaboration.”
On loyalty, membership, and fan engagement Hoy states, “AFL clubs run club memberships and have done for 50 years, and we’ve got 1 in 21 Australians, I think, already as a club member.”
“Loyalty programs within sport are just the extension into the digital universe of the same basic principle of tribalism that has driven the growth of sport in Australia.”
Bats adds, “loyalty is a product of fandom. It’s not fan engagement itself.”
Hoy shares insights on the concept of fan ownership of data, “if you’re in a sports organisation and you want to try and own the data, you’ve probably got a bad relationship with your fans.”
“Ownership will eventually lie with the consumer.”
On changing fan engagement and younger audiences, Bats shares. “what fandom used to be inherited or prescribed to you, but now it’s more discovered and vibed.”
“Gen Z and younger audiences will actually have 5 or 6 different teams. They’ll also follow the player over the team and come and go as they please.”
She continues, “maybe there’s a loyalty program that might be league-led.”
Regarding expansion beyond core markets Hoy explains, “We’re very comfortable in Victoria, but when we look at newer markets, we need to go to where the fans are and bring them in.”
“AFL assumes a level of inherent knowledge, and we need to take new fans on that journey comfortably.”
Forward on content strategy and platform-specific approaches, “if you’re not going to lean into each platform properly, there’s no point being there. You need to be authentic to the audience.”
“What works on each platform is different, so we take a ‘horses for courses’ approach—make content for that audience, and if it works, make more of it.”
Bats discusses digital disruption, “we’re seeing these enormous rises of old leagues. One very good example is Sidemen—they sold out Wembley in a matter of half an hour.”
“And the thing to remember here is they’re not even good at football. People are not tuning in because these guys are really fantastic at what they do. They’re not athletes, they are entertainers.”
Regarding the shift from mass broadcast to personal engagement, Forward shares, “moving of broadcast into personal… The revolution was a journey.”
“Sports have historically relied on our broadcast partners to attract the mass audience. That’s a real flip to kind of go—it’s actually through 1-to-1 engagement that we’re going to be talking to you how you want to be spoken to.”
On changing fan behaviour, “I have a bit of a mantra that sport is the core and not the whole. And it wasn’t always that, right? Used to just be 100% sport—did they win, did they lose? That was all that mattered.”
“Now, much like your example from tennis, sport will always be the core, but it’s really not the whole at all. That speaks to where people will enter and become interested.”
To close, the panel discusses the rise of digital and gaming platforms with Bats stating, “sport will become quite weird in some ways, right? It’s quite porous, all of culture is morphing together.”
“If you want to go for the trends of the future, look at what’s happening on Roblox.”
LEADING EDGE LIVE!
MODERATOR: ADAM KARG – Director Sports Innovation & Technology Lab, Deakin University
ANTONIA BEGGS – Head of Australian Open, Golf Australia
JAMES BULLEY – CEO, Trivandi
DAVID STEVENSON – CEO, NBL Group
Stevenson states that the NBL “want to create this incredible environment where people want to belong.”
“I think we’ve had 53 sellout games already this year, so we want to draw people there because our view is it makes for a better broadcast product once you’ve got full stands.”
“One of the things we’re spending a little bit of time on is how do you start to segment the audiences in the venue for different experiences?”
“A big part of the NBL is, you know, the clappers and the kids and the loud music. But we also know that not everybody wants that.”
“How can we start to segment the venue to say, well, is there some areas that might be a little quieter?”
Beggs discusses golf’s advantages, “golf’s quite lucky because it is sprawling, so there’s a lot of room to see the players as opposed to being in a stadium.”
“You’ve literally just got a rope line between you and your hero, whoever that may be.”
She adds, “people get the opportunity to potentially play on the course that they’re watching them at any other time of year, or they can do that on a simulator at home.”
“Through a commercial partnership, they get to play in the pro-am, they get to play with the athletes on the course during the competition.”
“That sort of relatability of fan to the athlete is really strong in golf.”
“We’ve seen the success of that and how they’ve sort of brought the stadium to the golf course in a brilliant way.”
She adds, “at the other end of the scale, you’ve got the Masters, you’re not allowed your phone, no technology at all.”
“In a way, it’s a bit of a luxury of choice of what you can do in golf.”
Bulley shares his experience in Melbourne, “what I learned from coming and watching how the events were organised, planned, delivered and run in Melbourne was the welcome and the amazing Australian hospitality.”
He continues, “if you don’t, when you arrive at these events, have a brilliant welcome that’s seamless all the way from your transport to your arrival point, what we call the last mile, it changes your perspective on the event.”
On key touchpoints he states, “there are three major touchpoints you have to get right: the arrival, the moment in the venue where you experience the atmosphere, and then the exit.”
“If the exit is chaos or not very well planned, then that is the last memory you’re going to have of the event.”
Beggs on golf participation and engagement trends, “there are 3.8 million people playing golf, but maybe only 14% are actually golf club members.”
She adds, “if you look at something like the Masters, the amount of investment they put into the technology for the screen—not just for people watching at the site—is incredible.”
“You can choose your own adventure. There’s been a lot of discussion around this hyper-personalisation of the customer or the fan, and golf is doing that very well.”
“You don’t have to watch five hours of golf—you can pick your player, watch them play a specific hole, and tailor your experience.”
She furthers on sport as a human connection tool, “we can all be really clever about what we do, but ultimately, in my head, sport is about that basic human need for connection and belonging.”
“If you can do anything that brings that, then you’re onto a winner.”
On the things that haven’t work, Stevenson sheds light on AFLX, “There were certainly some things in there that didn’t go as well. But it’s kind of what I call a positive error.”
“It’s one of those things that we’ll always be criticised for, but I’d rather push the boundaries and do that, take some learnings. And then that’s helped contribute to some fantastic growth.”
Bulley also highlights the impact of COVID, “I’m still scarred from events during COVID if we’re talking about things that didn’t work.”
Antonia recounts the Oculus collaboration and the “be a golf ball experience”, “everyone started throwing up.” “It was disastrous, and we were like, that has not worked. Let’s accept that.”
However she states, “there is always something good that comes out of it, and i think being in an organsiation that has the safe space that you genuienly go, that was an absolute distaster.”
“Remember who you are and stop trying to be clever.”
TAKING CARE OF THE CORE
MODERATOR: BART CAMPBELL – Co-Founder, SportNXT
TODD GREENBERG – CEO, Cricket Australia
NICKI NICOL – CEO & Secretary General, NZ Olympic Committee
DR. BRETT ROBINSON – Chair, World Rugby
On the role of the New Zealand Olympic Committee Nicol shares, “our role is to support the athletes to do their very best eveyr four years at the pinnacle events that we lead.”
“Culture and social inclusion are at the heart of what we do as an organisation.”
She adds, “we try create a culture we call manaaki, which is Maori word which talks about respect.”
“That cultural piecce is a really important part of the wellbeing of our athletes when we’re at the Games.”
Regarding the challenges to player welfare and the change in cricket, Greenberg states, “cricket has got some real challenges in this space, we’ve got male and female places who will spend less than 30 nights in a calendar year with their head on their own pillow, and that creates an enormous amount of wellbeing challenges, family dynamics, and we expect them.”
He expressed that Cricket Australia has “genuine and authentic care for the athlete.”
Dr. Robinson on player welfare in rugby, “player welfare is our number one issue.”
“We came together in london with our sort of significant rugby administrators, players and coaches to talk about the state and shape of our game.”
“Investment into concussion – to spend over $100 million AUD on concussion and safety research.”
Nicol elaborated on the challenges that the Olympic Committee faces, “we work super hard to make sure that we are positioning ourselves to make sure we want to know what side of the line we want to be on.”
“We recruit the best doctors, the best psychs, the best that we have in our market to be able to make sure that they are there for the athletes, to help them in that pinnacle at those pinnacle events”
“The other thing thats really moved in over the last couple of years is the huge focus on safe sport.”
Greenberg states, “I think player associations have an enormous part to play in that they shouldnt be seen or portrayed as recalcitrants.”
He furthers, “those who are still in that push and pull mentally and trying to talk down to them and not give them a voice and not show that level of respect, are going to fail spectacularly.”
Greenberg also speaks on the development of Cricket Australia’s wellbeing stategy, “the best male and female cricketers play for their country, but they come through a very developed, detailed system which has worked for a long period of time.”
“We spend a lot of time managing money, energy, effort and resources to make sure that pathway is pure and secure.”
“Our wellbeing strategy is very focused on the players, but not just about performance and its not just about mental health. Its actually much broader than that. It has to be broader than that.”
Dr. Robinson on the benefits of players sitting at the table when decision are made, “tts just sort of the mautration of our sport around its governance.”
“I see the huge value in having all perspective being brought to the table.”
He adds, “the other great element of the reset at our governance level is we have 50% gender equity based board at the moment as well, which is a wonderful outcome.”
Nicol agrees and states, “the olympic world has had athlete commission integrated into the organisation for some time. And so for us, its making sure that we’ve always got the succession planning going inot that Athletes commission.”
“We work really closely with that.”
“We’ve been successful in having athelte represenatives at the IOC.”
Regarding player welfare and high performance outcomes, Greenberg highlights, “Australian cricket has had an unbelievable period. The trophy cabinet at Jolimont is very full.”
“But you don’t take that success for granted.”
“I think, you know, 10 or 15 years ago, we were all about high performance and the investment in high performance was all about performance.”
“Now I get a sense we’re starting to broaden our minds and high performance is much broader.”
Dr. Robinson elaborates on how rugby is becoming safer, “the biggest threat that our contact sports face is to have mother and fathers feeling safe about taking their daughter or their son to play rugby.”
“We’re more serious about it”
“The journey rugby’s been on in investigating properly, you know, the elements of our game that put players at risk and what we’ve done about changing law and sanctioning what we’re doing about mouthguards that are telling real time, how many g-forces are going through someone’s brain.”
“We’ve recently had 50,000 tackles that we’ve studied globally across 133 member unions, to demonstrate that a reduction in tackle height has seen a reduction in concussion.”
Regarding gender equity in Cricket, Greenberg shares, “cricket has been a leader in gender equity as it relates to professional contracts for a longtime”
“Gender equity in cricket has been a long journey.”
“You see the fruits of your labor well beyond your own legacy.”
“In regards to remuneration, we will have six, maybe eight of our best female cricketers.”
Greenberg conveys, “in Cricket it’s very much almost become an individual sport inside a team game. And the best coaches and the best managers effectivelt are treating every player as an individual, holding them to account, but ensuring their own preparation is to maximise their performance.”
PETER KENYON
CATHERINE MURPHY – Sports Presenter & Journalist
PETER KENYON – Board Advisor, Atlassian Williams Racing
On working for Manchester United, “when you work for a club, it’s a very different relationship.”
“It’s not as enjoyable as being a fan because I think fans across all sports know how to do it better than you do. So I think you’ve got to learn that lesson pretty quicky and decide what you’re here for.”
He shares, “another issue in sports governance can often be the fact that it’s not easy winning. Winning is difficult.”
“It involves hiring people who will challenge you, hiring people who will take you to task.”
On his career trajectory, “I had no intention of getting into sport, so I got into sport and I qualified as an accountant, which I apologise for now, but that gave me a great foundation.”
“What I really enjoyed doing was restructuring sports businesses, which I did for 15 years.”
On his experiences at Manchester and Chelsea, “despite these two clubs operating in the same league, they were years apart.”
Kenyon elaborates on his new job in Formula 1, “it’s quite remarkable in terms of the deisgn and manufacture of a car just to get it to today.”
“So the whole process of just getting your ability to compete is different, and it’s one of constant change.”
He adds, “the car at the end of the season will be a very different car than what starts today.”
On the Atlassian partnership, Murphy states, “the importance of commercial partnerships as being symbiotic relationships that can amplify each other.”
Kenyon adds, “self-sustainability…is critically important.”
“Getting the balance of revenue coming in to revenue going out in terms of building a competitive car with competitive driver is really the job.”
On winning the next generation of fans, Kenyon states, “football is incredibly tribal…but F1 is not that tribal.”
“You know, F1 fans do support more than one team or more than one driver. So, there’s a huge one of the benefits of the F1 is you can actually lean into a fan base.”
“What was happening prior to Netflic was that fan base was predominately white, male, middle class. What Netflix did is they took the helmets off the drivers and that’s what opened up the sport.”
“What we’ve now seen is a much younger demographic, and a lot more women coming into the sport.”
He adds, “I think that’s good for the longevity of the sport.”
“People are critically important to success.”
“The sport is incredibly healthy and going in the right direction. So it’s not about being successful in a team in a sport that is declining, it’s very much going the other way.”
“It takes time but we’re on our way.”
KEYNOTE – GERRIT MEIER, NFL
MODERATOR: EDDIE McGUIRE – Co-Founder, SportNXT
BRENDAN McCLEMENTS – CEO, Visit Victoria
GERRIT MEIER – Managing Director, International, NFL
McGuire opens the panel, “not only is it the national football league, more and more its becoming the international football league.”
Meier on picking Melbourne as the next frontier for the NFL, “although the game is 18 months out, you feel the excitement.”
“It was a long time coming.”
“The excitement for the sport in Australia has been growing and growing.”
“Our ownership decided collectively that we need more games internationally as part of our global expansion efforts.”
“We went from 4 to 8 games.”
McGuire adds, “Brendan, this is a discussion you and I have had for a long, long time.”
McClements elaborates, “we were ambitious from the start.”
“We were ready to take the opportunity.”
“We went into those conversations ready to meet the moment.”
“To be very passionate about what Melbourne could to deliver to ensure the NFL has a fantastic experinece here.”
“Obviously we feel we’ve got an incredible stadium, the potential to have 100,00 people at an NFL games.”
“We understood the opportunity, the economics of it and the potential of it.”
Meier states, “our ownership is very passionate aobut our global expansion.”
“It goes much more beyond the game. The game and what is represents and how its being played and what it does resonates and can resonate even more around the world.”
He adds, “we’re looking at countries all over and see how the fanom develops, whether we have an existing fan base, viewership, cultural relevance that we might be able to create.”
“Australia has always been leading and we’ve always seen it.”
“Having another million fans in a country that is so passionate about sports overall and has unbelievable infrastructure.”
On what McClements visualises for the event, he shares, “we recognise that the NFL is trusting Victoria with probably one of its more precious assets.”
McGuire adds, “this is the perfect opportunity to show people from the US that we’re not that far away.”
McClements furthers this by saying, “we need to demonstrate that Australia is more than Sydney,” and “this is an incredible platform for us to do that.”
Meier shares, “the ambition for us has definitely evolved and turned a little bit from opportunistic to a lot more strategic.”
“At some point we realised that with the advent of digital and the ways content and communication really started to spread globally, there was an expectation to see the real thing.”
Regarding flag football, Meier highlights, “the growth and the participation that young boys and girls have the opportuntiy to play flag, especially with a view towards it being an Olympic discipline in LA in 2028 and then hopefilly in Brisbane 2032 as well.”
“This is the beginning.”
McGuire sheds light on talk about, “LA getting dispensation to maybe get an Aussie punter onto their roster as we move down the track.”
Meier agrees, “I think its very important finding talent, creating local heroes, seeing your own country represented in any sport, any league, on any level always creates more excitement,” and “you have someone to cheer for.”
“It’s on us to create that relevance.”
On pathway programs, Meier stats that these programs “provide ambition for young athletes,” and, “we were missing that path in the past.”
McClements exclaims, “it’s pretty exciting about what we’ll see in 2026.”
Meier adds, “from a tourism and economic impact perspective, we’ve now see it in every country we’ve gone into, which is about the direct local impact for people travelling to where the game is happening.”
“It’s very important to us that we bring the real deal.”
“It’s important that we spend a lot of time understanding how we can bring that local culture, and the local culture of a city”
“It’s very important that we integrate ourselves with local communities, especially with underprivileged communities, that we give access to the game, that we give access to young people, that we give access to people who might not otherwise have the opportunity to see and experience our sport.”
“It’s going to be that mini Super Bowl.”
McClements elaborates that outside of Brisbane 2032 and the FIFA World Cup, the NFL coming to Melbourne is probably the most important thing that the city can pick up.
On the response from the NFL community, Meier states, “I have no doubt that this is going to be an enormous event.”
“It’s iconic.”
McGuire closes on the final day of SportNXT stating, “it’s been a wonderful last two days.”
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