Leaders Sport Business Summit Abu Dhabi - What have you missed?
Leaders Sport Business Summit Abu Dhabi - What have you missed?
The Streaming Lab #40
Hey streamers 👋
Welcome to the 40th edition of The Streaming Lab. Thanks for reading me!
Before we start, I’m happy to announce that The Streaming Lab - MENA is becoming The Streaming Lab. As simple as that ;) Every week, I will explore the trends that matter to streaming professionals in MENA but also in other markets: India, Europe, US, etc.
You can read all the previous editions here, and subscribe below to get the newsletter every Monday.
The agenda today
This week, I’m telling you what happened during Leaders Sport Business Summit Abu Dhabi 2023.
What’s Leaders in Sport?
What have you missed in Abu Dhabi?
Interview of a streaming media professional
How sports properties can leverage streaming in MENA?
What’s Leaders in Sport?
Leaders in Sport offer 3 main activities to the global sport community:
Events
Leaders organise conferences globally, bringing together professionals in the sports industry to explore the latest trends and drive the industry forward.
Community
Leaders have created a series of communities that connects industry executives in the sport sector, including Leaders Meet Diversity & Broadcast Disruptors.
Intelligence
The Leaders Intelligence Hubs offer the latest sport business intelligence with exclusive insights: Specials Reports, podcasts, articles and videos.
We’ll focus today on the event activity, and more specifically on the conference they have been organizing in Middle East for the past 5 years: Leaders Sport Business Summit Abu Dhabi.
What have you missed in Abu Dhabi?
5 key facts about Leaders Sport Business Summit Abu Dhabi 2023:
🌎 500+ international attendees
👥 33 speakers
📢 16 sessions
📅 2 days of content
🏁 1 iconic venue
Whats sports properties were around?
Formula E, Saudi Pro League, UAE Volleyball, Al Ain F.C, UAE Pro League, Asian Chess, Abu Dhabi Knights, Al Nassr Saudi Club, ESPN, Starzplay, Serie A, Team ADQ, DP World Tour, Al Jazira Sports Football Club, Big Bash Leagues Cricket Australia, Bani Yas FC, USE Equestrian & Racing, Norwegian Football, UAE Jiu-Jitsu, AS Roma, International Cricket Council, Arsenal, Newcastle United, W Series, Paris Basketball, FIDE, We are Padel, Rajasthan Royals, NBA, and much more!
The sessions
Seeing Stars: Boxing and it’s celebrity athletes with Franck Smith, Mauricio Sulaiman and Tony Bellew.
Goals off the pitch: The commercial deep dive with Juliet Slot
The Vision for serie A with Luigi De Siervo
Introducing Abu Dhabi 360: placing health at the heart of a national strategy with John Bromley
Inspiration, Aspiration & Action: women’s sport Leaders in the region with Safia Al Sayegh and Dr Omniyat Al Hajiri
Reformat and Repair: Cricket’s major innovations with Rajeev Khanna and Alastair Dobson
The Reality of AR: Snapchat’s guide to shaping your content with Amnol Malhotra and Alejandro Arenas
Mass participation and growing your sport with Kate Bosomworth, Melissa Moncada, Dylan Hartley and Charlie Dewhurst
The Athlete as influencer with Benny Bonsu, Luol Deng and Ronny Turiaf
The Development of Saudi Football Worlwide with Garry Cook and Ibrahim Al Kassim
Looking to leadership with Roy Hodgson and Alan Pardew
The commercial, strategic and player-led opportunities in modern football with Peter Silverstone, Alan Redmond, Sarah Gregorius and Kate Bosomworth
The next step for global cricket with Geoff Allardice
Generating amazing foundation: The legacy of the Qatar world cup through social development with Nasser Al Khori
Innovation in Sports Sponsorship with Olivia Nichols, Bénédicte Carrière, Giacomo Ziani and Mike Davis
Performance in the Premier League with Mikaël Silvestre, Carlo Cudicini and Sol Campbell
You can listen to the podcast Leaders on the Ground and discover the event highlights below:
Day 1:
Day 2:
This time I won’t tell you what session caught my attention, but I asked someone else ;) Meet Viniit Metha, a streaming media leader building successful businesses across video and digital advertisement globally ↓
Interview of a Streaming Media Professional
Why did you attend Leaders Sport Business Summit in Abu Dhabi?
Leaders Sport Business Summit in Abu Dhabi showcased the best professionals, content and thought leadership in the burgeoning sports business, which has made a tremendous comeback after a tough COVID phase where live sports were held in empty stadiums and significantly impacted the entire eco-system. This year's summit in our region showcased the awesome opportunities that exist not only in one sport, but pretty much every sport that you can think of - there is a real buzz about not only getting live sport events to the region, but also growing sport at the grass roots, encouraging participation by one and all, irrespective of gender OR demographics and leveraging the world class sporting infrastructure that the UAE and other GCC countries have to offer. From the power of social media in building the popularity of athletes globally, role of sports in creating massive socio-economic impact across the world, growth of women's sport, disrupting existing sport with newer ideas and formats, direct to consumer fan engagement strategies etc - the conference covered a wide variety of topics with commentary from the best sports professionals, athletes and experts from around the world in one room. At Endeavor Streaming, we power direct to consumer streaming businesses with world class and award winning video / OTT solutions. Towards that my attendance at Leaders was also to meet customers and prospects and share with them ideas for audience growth, retention & fan engagement with a view on successful implementation of combination of business models.
What session did you like the most and why?
Every session taught me something new with perspectives which were in line with today's challenges and opportunities that the sports business faces. For me it was a toss-up between the "Athlete As Influencer" session (featuring the amazing panel of Benny Bonsu of the Olympic Channel Services, Luol Deng, Two-Time NBA All Star, originally from South Sudan and Ronny Turiaf, NBA legend) & "The Next Step for Global Cricket" where Geoff Allardice, Chief Executive Officer of the International Cricket Council (ICC) spoke about the massive success of the recent Women's T20 Cricket World Cup in South Africa, which also brought that entire country together to celebrate their national team, in spite of differences, growth of the sport in the US, Women's IPL, a $100 million for the first edition - already the 2nd most valuable women's sporting league in the world, without a ball being bowled (!), Scheduling leagues v/s international cricket, Gully cricket & Beach cricket, ICC social impact and of course spreading the game online as well using icc.tv. On the other hand, Luol Deng's story of growth as a NBA All Star from his humble beginnings in Sudan and now back to South Sudan to grow basketball there is one that I immediately told my kids when I got back from the conference. It is not every day that you come back from a work conference so inspired and raring to go!
How do you think streaming in MENA can help international or local sports properties?
MENA is probably the fastest growing region in the world when it comes to streaming opportunities in "sport". Outside of the Top 3-4 OTT platforms in region who have rights for most of the major live sports events in the world, Tier 2/3 sports clubs, leagues and federations is where the next phase of growth will come from! Fan engagement using streaming is another growth area where content owners and rights holders can leverage different business models and build "data" focused streaming businesses using localization and distribution. Additionally, there is an expat available here for every major and minor sports league from outside of the UAE as well & streaming is the best way to leverage these eye-balls!
Do you want to know more? Contact Viniit on LinkedIn.
How Sports properties can leverage streaming in MENA?
The sporting entertainment scene in MENA is changing fast: Streaming services from the region will keep acquiring sports rights available, and sports will become a key differentiator in their content mix.
I see 5 opportunities for Sports properties trying to leverage streaming in MENA:
Understand the region: 9 streaming services offer sports as part of their content mix, do you know who they are and what leagues & tournaments are available?
Distribute your content to local players: Identify what streaming service could better represent your brand, find the right contacts and the best time to meet them.
Get ready for hybrid models: Advertising-based services will keep growing and offer premium international sports content soon. Most of the SVOD services will switch to hybrid models this year.
Launch a FAST channel: A good way to penetrate the market, get data from OTTs and assess the potential of your sports property in MENA.
Localize your existing platforms for MENA viewers: Do you already have an OTT service? You need to make sure your local fans know about it, access it, and use it.
That’s all for today, what happened at Leaders Sport Business Summit in Abu Dhabi.
See you online next week. Until then, enjoy the new season of The Mandalorian on Disney+.
Whenever you’re ready, there are 2 ways I can help you with:
If you want to learn more about streaming in MENA, I’d recommend starting with my market report:
→ The Streaming Ecosystem in MENA: Learn everything about the local streaming services in the region. Get full access here.
Work with me 1:1 to diversify your streaming revenues: FAST channel business, OTT/CTV Advertising, Content acquisition & distribution, Market analysis and business representation.