Professional sports have been facing new challenges for several years. Younger generations are less and less likely to come to stadiums and sports halls. At the same time, the nature of interaction between fans and clubs is changing. In the past, everything revolved around matchday. Fans bought tickets, and most often on this occasion they stocked up on company gadgets or made use of the stadium’s catering facilities. Today, the inter-match period is just as important.
– Traditionally we speak of match days and non-match days. Sportigio changes this philosophy and supports clubs in successfully engaging fans throughout the season. Our mission is to help at a difficult time when sport is competing for a fan’s free time with social media, gaming and streaming platforms like Netflix. Without interesting forms of engagement and smartphone presence, sport in its current form has no chance to survive the coming years – says Marcin Zwierzychowski, founder and COO of Sportigio.
The direction in which digitalization is heading in the world of sport can be perfectly seen on the example of the biggest leagues and clubs. The NBA, NHL, Premier League, FC Barcelona, or Juventus invest huge money in creating content and engaging fans every day, regardless of the season’s sports calendar.
– “Digitize or die” – this slogan thrown by me towards the banking sector a few years ago, is now very relevant in relation to sporting events. Sportigio’s offer perfectly fits the needs of clubs of various sports disciplines at all levels of competition,’ says Zbigniew Jagiełło, who in the last round of financing became involved in the development of Sportigio.
– By creating Sportigio we wanted to change the face of sport by offering a proven, easy to manage and cost attractive platform that even small clubs and federations can afford. Today, we have a product that has been tested by top league clubs in several sports disciplines and we know how to effectively implement it for subsequent customers – explains Mariusz Zwierzychowski.
According to the Central Statistical Office, there are 14 thousand sports clubs in Poland and according to the data collected by Sportigio, there are more than 5 thousand teams in 40 leagues in adult games.
– We have selected about 300 Polish clubs that operate on a professional level and are in our circle of interest. We want to develop the project together with them by increasing the clubs’ revenues and strengthening the relations with fans and sponsors. However, our target market is much larger. Every entertainment receiver potentially interested in sport and every company interested in promotion through sport is on our radar – adds Mariusz Zwierzychowski, CEO and founder of Sportigio.
Clubs and federations cooperating with Sportigio achieve benefits on several levels. Strategic, thanks to implementation of an efficient communication channel with fans increasing their engagement. Revenue-wise, through easy integration of the store and the ticket and payment system with the website. And also cost-wise. The implementation of services offered by Sportigio does not require the involvement of IT resources on the part of the club. Sponsors also see benefits, thanks to positive brand exposure to engaged fan groups.
– Sports marketing is still a very underestimated segment of promotional and sales activities, dominated in our country by state-owned companies. The services offered to the clubs by the Sportigio platform provide the clubs with the first platform of its kind, which on the one hand allows you to effectively carry out activities aimed at fans and build an active community around the clubs and on the other hand enables effective monetization of activities thanks to cooperation with sponsors and companies promoting themselves through sports – says Wojciech Pysiewicz, founder of WP2 Investments and co-author of the book dedicated to sports marketing.
Thanks to the possibilities of personalization and advanced segmentation, clubs and companies can, thanks to the Sportigio platform, conduct their marketing and loyalty activities more creatively and reach their target groups more precisely. Costs for clubs are then many times lower and financial benefits from ticket sales or club gadgets are significantly higher. All this, combined with youthful enthusiasm and knowledge of the specificity of clubs makes Sportigio well positioned to achieve success not only on the Polish market – adds Wojciech Pysiewicz.
– We decided to increase our cooperation with Sportigio as we see the potential in the product platform in the area of sports, eSports and business solutions for companies. New Sportigio products such as tokens, tickets, eShop perfectly complement Verestro’s product portfolio and sports and eSports clubs increase cross-selling opportunities for Verestro products in Poland and globally – explains Krzysztof Drzyzga, CEO and founder of Verestro.
