ASOIF Workshop identifies global commercial trends in sports and IF best practice
Current commercial challenges and opportunities relating to Esports, sporting event cancellation insurance and Web 3.0 were the focus of the third edition of ASOIF’s Commercial Workshop held on 25 April in Lausanne. Organised by ASOIF’s Commercial Advisory Group (CAG), the one-day meeting brought together 30 commercial and marketing experts from more than 15 member International Federations (IFs).
Antony Scanlon, CAG Chair and Executive Director of the International Golf Federation (IGF), said:
The ASOIF Commercial Workshop has been a great platform for IF commercial and marketing executives to exchange views and experiences with not only their peers but also experts from the sport business in the post-COVID world.
The annual Workshop is aimed at sharing expert opinions on global commercial trends in sports and presenting best practices of engagement between IFs and the sport industry. Once again, this year’s edition featured a number of renown external experts who shared their insights on pressing topics.
James Savage, Associate Director at Deloitte, set the tone with his opening keynote presentation on the evolution and the future of the sport market, outlining six macro forces of change which will shape the future of sport.
During the rest of the morning, the participants took a closer look at the topic of Esports. Vincent Pereira, Head of Virtual Sport and Gaming at the International Olympic Committee (IOC), shared details of the Olympic Esports Series. The Series is a global virtual and simulated sports competition for both professional and amateur players, created by the IOC in collaboration with certain IFs and game publishers. Baseball is one of the sports on this year’s Series and Valerio Cianfoni, Head of Special Projects at the World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC), presented his federation’s experience to date. The WBSC approved Esports as an official discipline in December 2020 to increase its global reach. Meanwhile, the federation has adopted a dedicated strategy and sealed partnerships with specialised providers.
The afternoon session on IF sporting event cancellation policy featured Gary Flynn, Associate Director at Howden Broking Group and Thomas Guesde, Senior Vice President at Marsh, as external experts. The participants learnt about the different types of risks potentially disrupting their events, the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on insurance schemes, the long-term market outlook and different solutions and approaches.
Christian Müller, Managing Director at Partners for Sport, led the final session on Web 3.0 and IF engagements, focussing on the potential of blockchain technology for sport. He presented specific use cases and outlined commercial opportunities for IFs in this regard.
The next Commercial Workshop will be organised in Q2 2024.