Case studies
$50 BILLION OF SPORTS TRANSACTIONS ACROSS THE LINE
Media rights, sponsorship, equity stakes, competition restructures, new leagues: over 30 years we have helped get more than US$50 billion of sports transactions across the line. We have sat on both sides of the table – advising rights holders on what their properties are worth and how to take them to market, and advising investors and broadcasters on what they should pay and why.
Our clients include international federations, governing bodies, leagues and clubs, alongside agencies, rights businesses and investors of all scales.
What makes a deal close is rarely the headline number. It is a valuation each party can defend to its own stakeholders, a structure that survives the next rights cycle, and a clear-eyed view of what the buyer can actually do with the asset. That is the work we do.
ACHIEVING 50%+ UPLIFTS IN STATIC MARKETS
Following a contentious rights process in 2018, the EFL wanted to develop a long term approach to the next rights cycle – creating a detailed, shared vision of the future, a consensus on the correct approach to follow, and a process that would maximise value.
Against a challenging market backdrop where other rights holders had struggled, EFL concluded a domestic deal with Sky that secured a 50% uplift in rights fees and the broadcast of more than 1,000 live fixtures each season – the largest deal in world football.
Internationally the rights were awarded to two agencies, including a US specialist, with a view to increasing resonance in this key market.
CUTTING THROUGH THE NOISE OF CHALLENGER FORMATS
We were asked by UEFA to help in its response to FIFA’s proposals for a biennial World Cup, radically changing the football calendar.
This included not just the economics of the second World Cup but also the impact on continental tournaments, the Women’s World Cup and Euros, and national team matches.
Our work found that while there was an increase in revenues it was nowhere near double, so that when costs were considered, the overall uplift was relatively low. The impact on continental competitions and national team matches was more negative, and the impact on Women’s competitions was severe.
SHAPING A SUSTAINABLE FUTURE FOR WOMEN’S SPORT
We understand that while there is core commercial value in the sport (which will grow hugely over the next ten years), there is also value for sports, broadcasters and sponsors to promote Women’s Sport – and being seen to do so. We understand what this value is and how you can capture it. We also know that if sports want to be seen to be inclusive and serve the whole population, it’s increasingly untenable not to have a Women’s Competition. Synergies between Men’s and Women’s sport are available - but there are negative synergies if you don’t.
Women’s competitions form an important part of all our sports work from rugby through volleyball to tennis, but we’ve also helped the FA Women’s Super League understand the drivers of their value as they secure record levels of media and sponsorship income, and we have helped UEFA derive a ten year strategy for Women’s Football – growing it to commercial viability across Europe and placing it firmly alongside mainstream sports.
OPTIMISING ENGAGEMENT, MAXIMISING MONETISATION
Very few sports have an interest problem, many have a conversion problem. Our work on professional rugby union found more than 800 million people worldwide with some interest in the sport but only 24 million fully engaged fans of professional club rugby – and club audiences of 250,000 to 350,000 against 5 million-plus for major international test matches. The commercial gap follows the engagement gap.
We map that funnel for our clients, from casual awareness through to paying subscriber, and we know what moves people along it: scheduling, format, reach, digital and social strategy, pricing and packaging, and which parts of the product should be sold wholesale and which held direct.
Because we work across media and sport, we can tell you what an audience is worth to a broadcaster, a streamer, a sponsor and a betting operator – and therefore where the next increment of value actually sits, rather than where it feels like it should.
O&O WORKING ACROSS THE GLOBAL SPORTS ECOSYSTEM
We work with every part of the sports ecosystem: international federations and continental confederations, leagues and clubs, national governing bodies, broadcasters and streamers, sponsors, agencies, private capital and public bodies. Since 1995 we have advised over 200 organisations across media, entertainment and sport.
That breadth is deliberate. A sport is a system, and value created in one part of it is often taken from another. Our work spans soccer, cricket, tennis, motorsport, rugby union, rugby league, basketball, ice hockey, baseball, american football, athletics, aquatics, volleyball, golf, cycling, horseracing, wintersports and more.
It also means we understand the parts of a sport that do not generate revenue but determine its future: participation, pathways, grassroots funding and the flow of money from the elite game downwards. Sustainable commercial strategies depend on getting that right.