American sports culture has diagnosed consumer behavior and has been heavily exploiting it as Statistics Entertainment. In Canada and the United States alone, the industry already has more than 60 million users, only from the best-known aspect, fantasy games. Of these, the average annual expenditure on these activities is USD 650 per person.
As a result of the introduction of a forged generation closer to video games than to TV, knowing statistical elements has extended the duration of electronic games since the 1990s and, consequently, the retention of consumers within it for more. This is a feature that is independent of the game genre involved. And as happened in games, the ability to multiply narratives and increase retention make it an indispensable variable in the planning of sports broadcasts of the last 5 years.
The open path through this universe in pop culture is visibly successful and has found fertile ground to develop as a second-screen narrative of a series of public events, particularly sporting events. The NFL fantasy game is already a pivotal arm of football league territory expansion and is responsible for redefining the calendar of events and content that teams and players generate. Brazil, for example, has one of the largest player appearances in the fantasy game of a sport that is still struggling to stop being amateur in the country.
On TV, we saw Globo start a slow approach with the segment through Cartola F.C, a product that was gaining muscle and relevance in building the financial remuneration environment in the model of the carioca broadcaster. Lately, Cartola has been gaining narrative prominence within game broadcasts, with storytellers highlighting how many points a player scored or lost as a result of certain action taken during the match.
Tracking disputes on social networks is easy enough to detect people trapped to follow them much more concerned about whether they will get a red card or the amount of fouls committed by a particular athlete than the outcome of the fight. And it is in this opening of new possibilities of narratives created by the interests of each consumer that lies the beauty and the money hidden in this “game”.
New products are emerging in this wake, which still needs to be better understood editorially and commercially by all agents involved. The recent episode of Vasco da Gama's embarrassing exhibition of goalkeeper Sidão, due to a broadcaster award, is the consequence of the adoption of gamified narratives within a still linear transmission structure, directed by journalism, where entertainment is accessory and not the master line of content.
Another activity that benefits greatly from Entertainment Statistics is sports betting, which is about to be regulated in Brazil. Their integration with broadcaster players, in partnership or sponsorship relationships, will multiply narrative possibilities for audience retention during a game and change broadcaster relationships with both the event and the generation of new exploration rights undetected or not valued yet.
It is not difficult to predict that in a few years it will be possible for a regular fan to have real-time access to, for example, videos and reports about the performance of a particular athlete, to sophistify his own knowledge, influenced a behavioral betting activity during the match. It is also easy to see that during a game, the consumer will have the option to watch it with a narration focused on the statistical evaluation of the game, instead of listening to a journalist describing the emotions of what is going on the pitch.
There is still a plethora of narratives to be created within the sport and, for each of them, the possibility of new forms of exploration and new sources of revenue. This is just one of many opportunities for those who want to think about new sports related businesses. The next few years will see statistics taking up more and more time-consuming information from major vehicles, attracting more people to the sport, retaining broadcast audience and placing bets around it. This is all just the beginning of the great transformation ahead. The sport will no longer be the same. The numbers don't lie…
Source: GMB / Meio & Mensagem
