OTT and betting on live events will be directly connected as siamese sisters, and if you work in entertainment you should be aware. Backed by the blockchain, they will change the sport in the next decade.
It is noteworthy that the expression "OTT" is pronounced without as much depth as it should have for those who work in the market. For those who are still new, roughly speaking, we are talking about a business model that connects the two main ends of a sports rights broadcasting chain, until now long and full of players.
In OTT, it is reduced to the consumer and the content owner - who may be someone who bought the right to exploit it (as Globo does in the Brazilian Championship, or DAZN with several leagues) or the creator himself (like the NBA and NFL, which became broadcasters of themselves).
Operator, cable TV, satellite, will get in the way of OTT and the transmission will be exclusively data, especially if we can maintain the necessary neutrality of the internet. With this all-digital transmission of data, an infinite field opens up for hyperlinked interactions with other types of second-screen activity, whether through audience platforms such as social networks, the consumption of fantasy games or other activities.
Fantasies, by the way, are introducing the big change in audience. We are moving from the passive experience to the mixed, engaging with more moments during a broadcast.
To help to understand how this changes everything, traditionally, during a football broadcast, I ask: what does the audience celebrate? Basically, the goals - the great moment of football. In the broadcast of the future, we will also celebrate the data. Think about how someone who participates, for example, in CARTOLA FC, has much larger variables to generate commemoration or pity during a broadcast: whether or not the player took a yellow card, points are earned, as well as stipulating if and the player ran so many miles, or predict who hit the most passes… Statistics are the new motives of celebration and not just the goal of your team at heart.
In addition, there are already observations about how statistics are able to help retain consumers longer over the course of transmission and also start new supporters of a sport.
And that's where things tend to accelerate, as this new age of entertainment-related statistics intersects, plus the reinforcement of gamified language, allowing viewers to increasingly interact and benefit over the experience of watching a live event.
Some people think the outcome of the game itself may even go to the background - I'm not among those. But undoubtedly future generations of consumers - to take it easy, not to mention a lot of people already there - will live a new custom logic within the experience of following live events, especially sports.
Everything will be more fun with the coupled statistics stimulating endorphin in each of us. At this point we return to the beginning of the text and the power of OTT as a customizable broadcast template for each user, who can live live entertainment with the data they want at their fingertips, engendering every possible interaction, and having access to tools for compete (or just bet) in a group about it all. And don't think that the stakes are associated with the sports score. This is just a small part. They are increasingly linked to the experience of following the live event and become important elements, such as statistics, for audience retention.
Recently a friend witnessed how he could persuade his girlfriend to watch Superbowl with him, without complaint and still engaged: he invited her to a R$ 5 wager on a website, where the amount of times that model Gisele Bündchen would be framed by the broadcast was a reason for betting. The girl was turned on the whole game, waiting for the model's appearances, and a particular experience throughout that super event. To her, Tom Brady was detail, what mattered was Gisele.
A very powerful universe is coming, because we are talking about already heavily capitalized and structured industries, ready to act and leverage technologies in this direction. For now, this text is not including how much the blockchain and the new capital flow logic also help in that, bringing transparency and control to accelerate all of this forward. The potential for income generation in this new model will carry the industry in the coming years.
It is easy to foresee the creation of joint ventures between betting groups and broadcast companies and sports leagues. More than just the “Black Mirror” exercise of watching sports live, this quick reflection wants to invite us to think that all these so-called “futurism” cards are already on the table.
The question is how long it will take for them to find this new arrangement and I don't think it will take long. The challenge of our generation of professionals is that we need to understand the new sport with our minds, who grew up in the old model and is not native to this new reality. It is not easy to create this foresight and deepen into opportunities and conflicts. It will require communication and business professionals to pursue a thorough and dedicated exercise. Time will not wait for any of us to enforce our changes, but it tends to be generous with those that help to make them faster.
Bruno Maia is CEO of Content Agency 14 in Rio de Janeiro, a specialist in business and new technologies in sport, and Vice President of Marketing at Vasco da Gama football club.
Source: GMB/ Lance!
