In this week’s SBJ Tech newsletter, we dive into a Roblox collaboration by the USGA and Ally Financial, and also get insights on the potential sports industry impacts that will come out of the conversational AI provider Satisfi Labs’ new head of AI hire. — Ethan Joyce
In today’s edition of Power Up:
- Videocites measuring the Ripple of high points in sports
- Monumental, DXC expand partnership
- Prime Video’s NASCAR debut close to cable numbers
Videocites produces new Ripple reports to capture impact of user-generated content
Luka Doncic’s first game against the Mavericks after his trade to the Lakers was a major spectacle. So is any visit Lionel Messi makes in MLS. But understanding just how far-reaching those events were had been hard to quantify before recent user-generated content tracking by Videocites, an AI-powered video-tracking technology.
In a new series of reports -- called Ripple, for the long trail of impact -- Videocites has been providing updated social media measurements of games to its clients while sharing some of the top-line findings publicly to generate interest from prospective ones. Whereas an average NBA regular season game averages about 44 million views across all social channels, Doncic’s so-called revenge game against the Mavs drew 20 times that total, 865 million, with 79% of the content created by fans independent of team and league owned-and-operated platforms.
“The time of looking only at your own channels is over,” Videocites CEO Eyal Arad said. “You have to start looking at your full social footprint.”
These reports can help identify the most influential creators in a sport’s ecosystem, too. The NBA, which invested in Videocites’ $10M Series B round in 2023, saw which Facebook, TikTok, YouTube and Instagram accounts generated the most views. Brands Google, Nike and State Farm benefitted most from the added exposure.
“It shows how much power the team has and the fans have in terms of exposure, that this could be five, eight, 10 times more exposure than what a team would suspect when they’re looking at their own channels,” Arad added.
Such data can also be actionable for sponsors. In its work with LAFC, for example, Videocites revealed a robust view-to-upload ratio for the MLS club’s TikTok posts. So LAFC more than doubled its publication of those videos, from 8% of its social total to 20%. In return, LAFC had an exponential 5,747% gain in viewership with its seven brand partners receiving an average growth of 10% in earned media exposure.
Messi’s appearance, unsurprisingly, created the biggest lift with roughly 480 million views across more than 2,000 uploads from a single match.
“Non-owned channels are driving significant growth, particularly around viral moments on social,” Videocites Marketing Lead Bryce Parrish said, noting that it leads to engagement, audience growth and potential revenue streams. “It’s not all just coming from TV anymore.”
Videocites was named an SBJ Tech Most Innovative company in 2024.
MSE, DXC Technology expand tech partnership
Monumental Sports & Entertainment and DXC Technology are extending their six-year-old tech partnership on a multiyear basis and plan to expand its scope in light of MSE’s ongoing, $800M transformation of Capital One Arena.
The expanded partnership will likely touch several of MSE’s business units, but its fan experience applications are top of mind of MSE’s President/Business Operations & CCO Jim Van Stone. Van Stone told SBJ that one area MSE expects to lean on DXC’s digital transformation capabilities in particular is in the development of a new app and app ecosystem.
“We own a variety of teams, both in the NBA [Wizards, Mystics, Capital City Go-Go] and the NHL [Capitals]. We run really big venues [Capital One Arena, District E, CareFirst Arena, EagleBank Arena], some of the busiest buildings in the country. And then the media part of our enterprise is unique in that we own the regional sports network,” Van Stone said. “So, working with best-in-class technology companies to bring all those different facets of who Monumental is together is really important for us.”
DXC President & CEO Raul Fernandez, who has also served as MSE Vice Chairman and Partner since 2000, said DXC and MSE are in the early stages of identifying additional use-cases for DXC’s tech services, with possibilities including cloud infrastructure, cybersecurity, enterprise applications and AI.
“A subset of those will be areas that we’ll engage in,” Fernandez said. “But this is a journey that is now in year one out of four, and it’s going to take a while to get the infrastructure in place and get everything going.”
In the past nine months, MSE has also announced tech partnerships with Verizon Business and KPMG that will focus on future-proofing the organization in areas like cyber resiliency and venue operations. The DXC pact is another piece of that effort.
Additional elements of the deal include DXC being the presenting partner of Monumental’s new show, Sports Business Journal: Inside the Industry, and gaining access to both MSE’s broadcast studio and an expanded business and conference center in the new Capital One Arena for meetings.
“The opportunity is to grow this into an integrated partnership,” Van Stone said. “It’s an exciting opportunity for us.”
SBJ and Monumental are partners on a monthly television show, “SBJ: Inside the Industry,” that airs on the Monumental Sports Network.
Prime Video NASCAR debut close to cable numbers
Prime Video drew around 2.6 million viewers for the Coca-Cola 600 on Sunday night, which marked the first NASCAR Cup Series race to ever be offered exclusively on a streaming platform. That audience is down 16% from what Fox drew for the race last year (which was cut short by rain). The 2.6 million viewers is right around what the Cup Series averages on cable TV during the season (races on FS1 or USA).
When Nielsen’s Big Data numbers are released later this week, the race figure could rise closer to 3 million viewers.
Prime Video’s median age for the race was 56 years old, a figure six years younger than the median age for Cup races on linear TV outlets. For a comparison, Prime’s median age for the NFL’s “Thursday Night Football” package last season was 49 -- also around six years younger than NFL linear TV partners.
The Coke 600 on Prime Video beat out the 2.3 million on Sunday morning that ABC got for the F1 Monaco Grand Prix. But that was still good enough for the best live Monaco GP ever in the U.S. (a tape-delayed airing in 2002 drew 2.78 million on ABC). It’s also the fourth-best F1 audience of any kind on U.S. airwaves. Last year’s Monaco telecast on ABC drew 1.97 million viewers.
More headlines from SBJ
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- PGA Tour approves new Tour Championship format
- Broncos see early surge in single-game ticket sales
- Havens leaving as Mets’ President of Business Ops
- PWHL franchises bracing for change as expansion draft nears
- YouTube’s hire of Disney’s Connolly part of ongoing push for sports-centric future