There is a lot that can be learnt from how major sporting events serve their stakeholders and help bridge the gap between the brightest stars and emerging talent. When the underdogs rub shoulders with the game’s elite, it represents a rare chance to test themselves against the best in the business; to see how far they have come and what needs to be done to fulfill their potential.
For national team competitions such as the ongoing men’s Rugby World Cup, there is no greater achievement for the game’s “smaller” nations than to topple a tier-one giant. Ahead of France 2023, the tenth edition of World Rugby’s quadrennial showpiece, there have been four nations which have lifted the Webb Ellis Cup. While this year’s field is perhaps the most competitive yet, there is scope to close the gap off the field, too, and how the sport’s respective unions augment their digital portfolios to leverage fan data.
Whereas the majority of the game’s elite are far more sophisticated when it comes to their direct-to-consumer (D2C) fan-engagement strategies, there is an opportunity for the sport to bridge the divide by addressing the disparity in digital maturity between its member unions, beginning with a simple assessment of the 20 national teams battling it out for the men’s game’s biggest prize.
According to proprietary research carried out by our team at N3XT Sports, 25 percent of the member unions represented at this year’s Rugby World Cup do not collect first-party fan data via their own digital touchpoints. By comparison, findings published in our Olympic Digital Transformation Report 2023 show that 21.8 percent of the International Federations (IF) whose sports will be on display at next year’s Paris 2024 Summer Olympic Games do not collect first-party fan data either, while – in contrast – all 32 member associations (MA) represented at last year’s men’s FIFA World Cup, in Qatar, collect fan data from at least one digital touchpoint.
Among the Olympic IFs preparing for next year’s Olympic Games, World Rugby is one of the two most digitally mature governing bodies on the bill; matched only by FIFA – football’s governing body – while both also own a sophisticated data-collection capability. This is unsurprising considering the popularity of their respective sports globally. Nevertheless, while rugby union’s major tournaments have rarely been hosted outside its traditional markets, digital transformation within its member unions has room to connect new fans with the sport in emerging regions, while for many, it is still in its infancy.
For example, albeit the vast majority (95 percent) of unions competing at France 2023 own a dedicated website, our research shows that 30 percent do not collect fan data via a web login or newsletter subscription. Meanwhile, 60 percent do not collect fan data via a mobile app and 55 percent do not own a customer-facing mobile platform. This highlights a challenge for the sector and its ability to consolidate its digital and data touchpoints.
The methodology used to measure each member union’s digital and data scores is highlighted in our recent Rugby World Cup benchmarking article featuring the hosts France, and previous champions Australia, England, New Zealand, and South Africa. Each respective federation is assessed on its customer-facing owned and operated digital touchpoints, including whether they collect fan data via: a web login / newsletter (1pt); an official mobile app (1pt); ecommerce (1pt); ticketing (1pt), an over-the-top (OTT) streaming subscription (2pts); and whether: the member union utilizes a single sign-on (SSO) for every data touchpoint (3pts); and/or integrates a women’s product into its data strategy (1pt).
According to our research of other sports and competitions, mobile presents the best opportunity to diversify a sports organization’s data-collection capabilities via an omnichannel experience. This is expressed clearly by Hisham Shehabi, N3XT Sports’ Chief Operating Officer (COO), who says that organizations can “strengthen” the digital literacy of their workforce – and not only the fan experience – by adopting digital solutions that consolidate their data-management systems.
Therefore, considering that 75 percent of France 2023’s member unions collect fan data, of which the majority do so via multiple digital touchpoints, it’s clear that the game’s stakeholders recognize the importance of collecting fan data via different avenues, though have yet to find the means to centralize their digital inventory. Mobile adoption is a key step to combining these functions – just as World Rugby has proven with its updated France 2023 RWC mobile app – albeit mobile data appears to be greatly underutilized across the rugby ecosystem.
WOMEN’S RUGBY FAN DATA UNDERSERVED, BUT COULD BE A DIGITAL CATALYST
Among the digital touchpoints in which member unions collect first-party fan data, the majority assessed do so either via a web login / newsletter (70 percent) or an ecommerce platform (55 percent). Of the less popular data touchpoints, 30 percent of the member unions utilize their own ticketing portal to collect fan data, all of which have a unique characteristic: they own multiple data touchpoints, including a web login / newsletter signup, a mobile app, and an ecommerce platform.
This tells us that, although ticketing data is leveraged by fewer member unions, it always sits within a more diverse ecosystem wherever it’s utilized. What’s more, of the member unions that collect data from ticket purchases, all but one nation integrates the women’s product into their own ticketing platform. As the rugby union sector seeks to grow its fan base and D2C capabilities, the women’s game is a pivotal piece for driving engagement. While it is clearly a source of data and revenue for member unions that handle their own ticketing, at the time of writing, only 25 percent of the member unions assessed leverage women’s rugby to collect fan data.
Notably, the Rugby Football Union (RFU), English rugby union’s national governing body, also collects fan data via its livestreams of the rebranded Premier Women’s Rugby (PWR) domestic league. Meanwhile, the French Rugby Federation (FFR) is the only union to integrate the women’s product using an SSO across all of its data touchpoints, giving this year’s Rugby World Cup hosts a 360° overview of the union’s entire digital ecosystem.
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There is a strong appetite among fans for international Test match rugby union. Domestic coverage of France’s 27-13 victory over three-times champions New Zealand, in Paris, on the opening night of this year’s men’s Rugby World Cup was watched by a 15.4 million average television audience. Last year, New Zealand’s 34-31 victory over England in the final of the 2022 Women’s Rugby World Cup drew 42,579 fans to Eden Park, in Auckland – rugby union’s largest attendance for a women’s international match until England defeated France 38-33 during this year’s Women’s Six Nations in front of 58,498 people at Twickenham Stadium, in London.
How this translates to the game’s regional markets and the growth of its national bodies will be the mark of its success. At a time when the professional game is faced with financial pressures – even in its traditional markets – there is a belief within the sport’s elite club game that investment in digital and data transformation is key to driving fan engagement and commercial growth. Speaking on the subject at the Leaders Week sport business conference, held in London last year, Lucy Wray, Chief Executive (CEO) of English men’s club champions Saracens, said that while “the finances of the game are very difficult”, the club’s digital fan strategy is just as important as its on-field pursuits. “You’ve got to have data to understand your fans,” she continued, “who they are, where they’re coming from, and what their challenges are. We all have to reach Gen Z audiences and that comes back to understanding the fans.”
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.