Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund set perfect scores for their fan-facing digital transformation efforts, according to N3XT Sports research into German football’s Bundesliga men’s top-fight club competition. Our analysis puts the two decorated clubs among Europe’s elite technological players when it comes to the diversity of their digital portfolios and data-collection capabilities.
Albeit standout benchmarks domestically, the Bundesliga’s 2024-25 club ecosystem also owns a higher average digital and data maturity compared to other continental leagues such as Italy’s Serie A and Spain’s LaLiga. By comparison, Bundesliga clubs score an average 80 percent and 85 percent for their collective digital and data maturities, respectively, compared to 60 percent and 45 percent in Serie A and 50 percent and 40 percent in LaLiga (see tables further down the article).
The Premier League, English football’s top-flight, scores a higher collective-club average for digital products (90 percent) than its German counterpart, though slightly lower than Bundesliga clubs for its average data-collection score (80 percent). Only Manchester City and Manchester United match Bayern and Dortmund for their digital and data maturity levels, while a lower percentage of Premier League clubs consolidate their fan data via a single sign-on (SSO), according to our latest analysis.
Bundesliga’s two most popular clubs based on social media following, Bayern (131.7 million) and Dortmund (38 million) still have some ground to make up before they can claim to be as widely adored as Spanish giants Real Madrid and FC Barcelona, which attract hundreds of millions of eyeballs respectively. However, neither Real Madrid nor Barcelona receives perfect scores outright for their direct-to-consumer (D2C) portfolios, whereas the German outfits collect first-party data across their entire product line, including their own dedicated websites, mobile apps, ecommerce and ticketing, over-the-top (OTT) streaming platforms, and mobile-supported fan-predictor games, within a universal web login.
Bayern sits atop the Bundesliga Digital Transformation League Table (see below) due to its superior social media following, while the club is also setting a benchmark for the stadium experience, which includes matchday and non-matchday modes within the club’s Allianz Arena mobile app.
N3XT Sports research is carried out with the sole purpose of highlighting the benchmarks and opportunities for sports properties to digitalize and follows a unique methodology focused on the breadth of each entity’s digital portfolio, their ability to collect first-party fan data, and social media presence.
Each category offers a maximum of ten available points (see graphic below), while the organization’s overall score represents an average of its three category scores converted into percentages. Download our latest industry and market reports to gain more insight into how we assess sports organizations via these three pillars.
DIGITAL ASSESSMENT | BUNDESLIGA CLUBS AVERAGE HIGHER DATA-COLLECTION SCORES THAN PREMIER LEAGUE COUNTERPARTS
European football’s club ecosystem remains one of the most digitally diverse in the sports industry, albeit disparities exist between the continent’s most digitally and data-rich properties and those at the beginning of their digital transformation journeys. In a recent article on the link between fan-data management and commercial opportunity among European football’s top-level clubs, N3XT Sports’ Director of Commercial Services, Marcos Pelegrin, says that many clubs are not yet “mature enough digitally” to compete financially with the continent’s biggest earners.
Based on N3XT Sports’ unique research methodology, the Bundesliga’s collective-club digital and data scores highlight clear opportunities within the German football market to engage and retain new audiences, both domestically and globally.
For instance, whereas 94.4 percent of Bundesliga clubs own a dedicated mobile app compared to 100 percent in the Premier League, a higher percentage of German top-flight football clubs (89.9 percent) collect first-party data via mobile. Meanwhile, far more are optimizing their mobile products to leverage new fan activations in the Bundesliga. For example, whereas only 20 percent of Premier League clubs collect fan data via a fantasy-gaming product, 38.9 percent of Bundesliga clubs do so via mobile-supported predictor games, designed to engage subscribers between matchdays and promote a more interactive D2C experience.
Furthermore, 50 percent of Bundesliga clubs score highly (90 percent or more) for their data-collection capabilities compared to 35 percent in the Premier League, though German properties score a lower collective average due to a wider disparity between the Bundesliga clubs’ data-collection scores. This indicates – for the most part – a strong foundation among Bundesliga clubs for generating data-informed fan experiences as well as an opportunity to personalize and localize their D2C portfolios based on unique user behaviors per demographic, their personal interests and regional marketplace.
WHAT’S N3XT?
Within domestic club competitions, for organizers and rights holders to establish a strong digital and data maturity more broadly, they must first understand the technological frameworks already in play, how well they connect audiences and the fan journey, and then outline opportunities to innovate.
LaLiga, for example, provides financial support to clubs across Spanish football’s top two divisions through its investment partnership with CVC Capital, including upgrades to their digital ecosystems. Only by investing in digital transformation at all levels, including the second tier and lower leagues, will domestic football increase its collective digital and data maturity and, in turn, create a more competitive marketplace outside its elite clubs.
This is pertinent among other sports leagues and organizing bodies too, whereby top-flight clubs – through greater commercial appeal and financial sustainability – are better positioned to invest in their digital transformation journeys compared to clubs at the lower end of the spectrum.
As a result, this can lead to disparities between the biggest clubs and their neighbours, commercially, and has proven to cause a financial imbalance within traditional sports tiers. By assessing the industry’s wider digital economy, it is possible to highlight opportunities to help clubs become more financially independent by generating new digital revenue streams and fan-focused commercial partnerships. Digital transformation is the first step to creating a competitive market in the long-term, inside and outside European club football.
Our team at N3XT Sports works tirelessly to develop and implement data and digital transformation strategies across a multitude of sports properties at federation level, competition level, and club level. To find out more about how N3XT Sports can serve your organization, fill out the form below, and we’ll be in touch. Our goal is to drive the digitalization of the sports industry and our clients.