[Source: ASOIF] The Association of Summer Olympic International Federations (ASOIF) have released a new report which, for the first time, establishes a standard set of data points for event stakeholders to cost-effectively assess the value of sporting events.

Overseen by ASOIF’s Commercial Advisory Group (CAG), the report consolidates relevant and easily available data in a clear way to ensure consistency of data gathering and reporting between events, with the intent of helping the industry deliver, and demonstrate, true value to investors and policy makers. It provides event professionals with a practical tool throughout the lifecycle of events, including a defined set of 30 “input”, 50 “output” and 10 “outcome” Key Performance Indicators from which rights owners and partners can gather data relevant to their own event objectives.

Click here to read the full report.

ASOIF President Francesco Ricci Bitti said about the report: “Through previous projects in this field we knew about the lack of systematic approach to IFs’ sporting event data collection and analysis. However, consistent data reporting is essential to build trust amongst all stakeholders seeking to benefit from the staging of sporting events, whether that be for tangible economic gain or less tangible benefits to society. At a time when communities start to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic, it has never been more important for events to show their value.”

The indicators and guidance align with international best practice and intergovernmental work linked to the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). They support other global initiatives such as the OECD Recommendation on Global Events and Local Development, that calls for “rigorous criteria that enables comparison across different types of events in different geographic areas which should be set to monitor public expenditure and impact at all levels”.

As more organisations use these common indicators, it will become easier to learn from past experience, become more cost effective to gather data and improve how events deliver, and report on, a return on investment for their investing partners.

The report is authored by Iain Edmondson, Founder and Managing Director at Legacy Delivery, commissioned by ASOIF to aggregate the perspectives of key players in the sporting event evaluation industry. For this purpose, three workshops were conducted between July and October 2020, with more than 40 participants from IFs, host cities, commercial entities and academic experts.

In May 2021, in a joint commitment to implementing the common indicators amongst both event host organisations and international rights owners, ASOIF signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the International Association of Event Hosts (IAEH) to endorse the content of this report and support their members in implementing it.

The Chair of IAEH, Susan Sawbridge, said about the new report: A common view of event impact measurement standards is something event hosts have been eager to have in place for a long time. The partnership between the IAEH and ASOIF to build this shared language has reached a significant milestone this week, with the publication of the report. We expect this work will help hosts and rights holders to better understand the social and economic benefits events generate for many years to come.

As a next step, ASOIF and IAEH will collaborate to obtain additional support from third-party organisations to enhance the tools available for sporting event impact evaluation.

[Source: Global Esports Federation] The Global Esports Federation announces the appointment of Sports Innovation Lab as Global Supporter, aimed at further enhancing the GEF’s mission to promote the credibility, legitimacy and prestige of esports. Through this global partnership, Sports Innovation Lab will develop the GEF’s global events portfolio, including the landmark GEFcon – the Global Esports Federation’s convention, thought-leadership and dialogue platform.

“We are proud to welcome Sports Innovation Lab as our Global Supporter in an effort to deepen our involvement with the stakeholders in esports, including fans worldwide on one global, inclusive platform,” said Chris Chan, President, Global Esports Federation.

“As the world’s convening platform for the esports ecosystem, engagement with players and athletes, as well as fans is paramount,” said HRH Prince Faisal bin Bandar bin Sultan Al Saud, Head of GEF’s Focus Group on Culture and Board Member, Global Esports Federation. “We continue to work towards elevating esports in the global arena, encouraging greater inclusion, interaction and participation within the world’s esports community,”

Sports Innovation Lab inspires brands to create breakthrough fan experiences through data-driven technology insights and industry-leading research – putting ground-breaking research into practice and ultimately providing exponential value to the end customer (the Fluid Fan).

“Sports Innovation Lab is honored to be named as a Global Supporter of the Global Esports Federation. We look forward to applying to the esports space and this partnership with the GEF the expertise and insights we’ve gained from our experiences in working with world-class organizations like the NFL and others,” said Angela Ruggiero, Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer, Sports Innovation Lab.

“Together, we will create and scale breakthrough fan experiences for esports globally to benefit the entire esports ecosystem.”

Sports Innovation Lab is co-founded by Angela Ruggiero, a global sports leader and Olympic Gold Medallist, advocate, entrepreneur, and advisor; and Josh Walker, former VP of Research at Forrester Research and Entrepreneur-in-Residence at General Catalyst. Learn more about Sports Innovation Lab at www.sportsilab.com.

[Source: British Rowing] British Rowing is delighted to announce that analytics leader SAS will continue to provide its world-leading analytics solutions to British Rowing until December 2021 through the rearranged Olympic and Paralympic Games next summer.

SAS will work with British Rowing to develop powerful data solutions across the business including the GB Rowing Team, as well as investing in grassroots rowing. Since becoming the Official Analytics Partner of British Rowing in 2014, SAS has helped British Rowing maximise the use of data to inform decisions across the whole organisation.

Commenting on the extension of the partnership, Andy Parkinson, British Rowing CEO said: “In challenging times for the sport, it’s fantastic that SAS has agreed to continue its support beyond the Olympics and Paralympics next year. Through this partnership, we’ve been able to significantly accelerate our understanding of our data and build infrastructure that is now helping us make decisions and optimise our long-term strategy.”

Charles Senabulya, VP & Country Manager, SAS UK & Ireland, said: “We’re delighted to continue our support for British Rowing in what are extremely challenging times for all organisations. Coaches and athletes have had to adapt, just like businesses, to remote training away from the water and communicating virtually rather than face-to-face. On a positive note the postponement of the Olympics and Paralympics until next year at least gives British Rowing more time to use analytics to uncover important insights from performance data.

Through the partnership, SAS’ advanced analytics software and consultancy are being used across broad areas of the business including membership analysis, competition ranking algorithms (the SAS Ranking Points Index) and performance data analysis. In recent years, significant progress has been made in building data-led models of performance data, helping British Rowing better understand the precise factors that can influence and affect an individual’s performance.

Nick Scott, Head of Performance Support explained how the partnership is helping the GB Rowing Team: “Rowing is an incredibly data-rich sport, but just having lots of data does not mean you will automatically find the next competitive advantage. With this latest SAS project, we are using advanced analytics to link and interrogate never before combined data sources to do two things - confirm what has made us successful in the past and find novel ways of optimising our training for the future.”

[Source: ICSS] During a keynote speech on smart cities and the future of sport safety and security, Michael Hershman, Group CEO of the International Centre for Sport Security (ICSS) highlighted the vital role that predictive technology will play in securing future major sport events and encouraged more host cities and nations to integrate smart data systems within their safety and security planning.

Speaking during the INTERPOL World 2017 conference – which brought together some of the world’s top law enforcement, government bodies, academia and international security professionals from across the public and private security sector – the ICSS Group CEO acknowledged the growing and significant security challenges facing many major sport event hosts and gave several insights into emerging trends and technologies currently being developed that could help predict potential threats and safeguard host cities and nations in the future.

Michael Hershman, ICSS Group CEO, said: “The challenge of securing high-profile international sporting events has never been greater and the security threats now facing host cities and nations around the world are now hugely complex, sophisticated and organised.

“In order to combat and prevent growing threats like cybersecurity, terrorism and hooliganism, it is important that there is a step-change in future public and private security efforts and it is vital that we urgently look at how emerging smart technology can be proactively used to support and safeguard major sport events in the future.”

During his keynote speech, Hershman highlighted examples of how emerging artificial intelligence and predictive technology can help automate, accelerate and enhance the ability to predict potential security threats, as well as emphasising how smart data and analytics can be used to identify and forecast emerging trends and risks.

He said: “As part of the ICSS’s ongoing mission, we are committed to sharing our expertise to benefit sport and, alongside key partners and organisations around the world, are working to identify new and pioneering ways to help protect and safeguard sport.

“This is why, alongside several key partners, we are in the process of developing the ICSS ARMED™ Data-Fusion System (DFS) – a comprehensive security resilience and predictive analysis platform designed to collect, integrate and analyse data to help event organizers, emergency services and law enforcement agencies predict potential threats and deliver safe and secure major events.

“As we have seen recently, technology that is used in the right way can play a pivotal role in protecting and securing large-scale major sporting events. At the ICSS, we believe strongly that there is now a clear need to help strengthen the smart data and security capabilities of major events and law enforcement agencies, as well as proactively enhance their situational awareness in the high-demanding security situations.”

Hershman concluded: “At a time where technology is playing an increasingly significant role in the lives of many people around the world, it is vital that we use it as a force for good and to enhance technical capabilities of those who secure and safeguard major international sport events.”

For more information on the ICSS and if you are interested in exploring how the ICSS ARMED™ Data-Fusion System (DFS) can help secure your major event, please visit http://www.theicss.org or contact info@theicss.org

HOST CITY: What kind of support do organisers need most to manage the huge numbers of press that come to a mega sports event?

Guido Bouw: A well organised event serves as a foundation for positive press coverage. Organisers must focus their attention on all of the different elements that can make or break an event.

From a media perspective, we’ve found journalists benefit greatly from fluid access to the various elements of a major event which enables them to focus on their jobs and deliver quality coverage of the event. This includes access to:

• The sports event and event venues
• Timely information around the event and its participants to support storytelling across multiple platforms including TV, print, online and social media
• Real-time communication of the event flow and logistics

At Gracenote Sports, we have worked at many international multisport events such as the Olympics and smaller single sport events. We offer solutions designed specifically to make life easier for the press, marketing departments and technology partners. This includes timely and accurate sports data and information for media professionals, as well as social media services to maximize exposure for events and drive fan engagement.

At our core, we help drive compelling stories. Whether it is comprehensive background information on the sports and athletes, unique Facts & Figures services or real-time feeds that provide updates, our primary objective is to help media do their jobs by getting them the right information in a timely manner for use in their coverage.

HOST CITY: Event organisers need to maximise good publicity. How can this be achieved?

Guido Bouw: Relevant and timely information is key. The more positive coverage you can generate about the event itself, the more visibility you can create for the host city or region.

News reporters want breaking news, but most other media are writing feature stories that require context – context on a particular competition, athlete or team. Gracenote Sports understands the time constraints that media are under while on editorial deadlines and have developed seamless data feeds to support more in-depth and thoughtful event coverage.

At Gracenote Sports we understand how to tell a good story. That is why we put a premium on distributing timely information to media that can spawn the next story angle or support an existing one. The richness and depth of our unrivalled global sports database, our deep experience working at sports events and expertise in delivering fact-checked information has made Gracenote Sports a trusted partner for many events and federations.

HOST CITY: And what can event organisers do to avoid negative press?

Guido Bouw: As mentioned earlier, a successful event is the foundation for positive press coverage. If the event itself is perceived to have external challenges, the coverage will likely mirror that sentiment. That is precisely why it is critical that organisers focus on the overall success of the event and a seamless experience for media. This includes the proper access required to generate positive news stories. Once event organisers understand that media can serve as the ultimate evangelists for an event, they understand that managing the media with white glove service is just as important as taking care of participating athletes.

They should be treated as a client with top clearance to important access points throughout the event. Minimising disruptions, actively managing their expectations and becoming a resource for information is key.

Additionally, we advise having a highly experienced “information team” on-hand that can effectively address media questions, mitigate issues and manage a potential crisis before it grows into a media storm.

HOST CITY: Major events are a fantastic opportunity to showcase the host city itself. What services are available to bring these kinds of stories to the fore?

Guido Bouw: Hosting a major sporting event can have a positive effect on the profile of the host city and, often times, the broader region. Based on this, it is important that organisers remember the important role media can play in showcasing the host city and plan accordingly.

At the most basic level, this means creating opportunities for media to experience the host city. Be sure to schedule media events at appropriate times and locations so journalists can easily attend. We’ve seen organisers enjoy great success hosting media events and ‘showcase events’ during big competitions in iconic locations. This strategy results in great visuals which can capture the beauty of the host city and result in additional exposure.

We also encourage our customers to create unique experiences that allow media to see the host city more intimately. We have had clients greet incoming media with welcome kits detailing “must-see” local attractions as well as invite key media on facilitated “city tours” to guide their experiences. 

HOST CITY: There is a vast amount of data and statistics that can be collected around a major event that would be of use to journalists. What sort of tools are there to make this information available?

Guido Bouw: At Gracenote Sports, we have mastered how to efficiently deliver the most accurate and timely information, including results and statistics, athlete information, flash quotes, press conference highlights, analytics and insights, to the media around the world. We’ve spent over 20 years refining our event and data offerings as well as diversifying the vehicles to distribute information to our customers spanning newsfeeds, APIs, widgets and newsletters.

At the heart of our global operations are the experienced professionals who live and breathe sports data. These individuals – avid sports fans themselves – spend countless hours mining our industry-leading database containing information on 4,500 of the world’s most popular sports leagues and competitions to develop content that adds context and relevance to our customers’ media coverage. In addition, our social media desk specializes in developing custom content around major sports events for popular platforms including Twitter and Facebook to driving direct engagement with fans.

HOST CITY: What can smaller or more niche events do to get in the media as much as possible?

Guido Bouw: This goes back to the first question. An event organiser of any scale should pay close attention to facilitating easy media access to the event. To reiterate, that is access to the event and relevant event venues, the dissemination of timely information around the event and its participants and real-time communication of the event flow and logistics.

The engagement with media shouldn’t begin when they get off of a plane in your city. The engagement should begin well before their arrival when you become a reliable source for relevant statistics, historical context and news coverage leading up to the event. Media are often looking for unique story angles about the history of the event and compelling stories behind the athletes. By serving as a resource to media leading up to, during and after a major sporting event, you can cultivate lasting relationships with journalists and ideally, emotional connections with the host city that could last a lifetime.