PTI

Sport is obsessed with chasing revenue. The big deals. The sponsorship glamour. The top-line excitement. But here’s the reality. Most organisations are leaking thousands behind the scenes. In almost every audit we’ve done, we’ve found: ↳ Duplicate systems across departments ↳ Licences being renewed but not used ↳ Manual work that tech could easily automate It’s not glamorous. But it’s fixable. And fixing it changes everything. Our Sports Leadership Benchmark Report found 57% of leaders don’t believe tech will create efficiencies this year. That’s a huge opportunity being missed. Every sports organisation has untapped potential to save money, reduce risk and fund innovation. Efficiency creates the headroom to grow. Drop me a message if you’d like to find out how we can help.

I love conferences. I know that's not what i am meant to say but honestly I do. I get to experience the vibe of the industry. Some panels may be interesting (i often speak at them so i am biased), but critically what is said in the green rooms and around 100 coffees i'm drinking is what I am there for. In the past 2 weeks, with one more to go, it drove me to Madness... I hear everyone agree and privately say TV rights and Sponsorship are really under pressure... and yet they do little about it. Perhaps what also drives me crazy and led me to writing this - is that the solution is often to call in external parties to help fix it and the people they call are the same as everyone else! If you thing all cars look alike, take a step back because other than the colour of your shirt, is your team any different to the one you play against on Saturday? Enjoy the read, and know that my Halloween Costume this year will be Suggs, as it truly is Madness. Hugo Vicente de Freitas Andy Meikle Fredrik Ulfsater Mark Pannes Geoff Wilson Georgi Stoimenov Charlie Neil Andy Marston Ricardo Fort Prof. Dr. Sascha L. Schmidt Peter Hutton Kabir Nagpal Julie Uhrman Unofficial Partner #sportsbiz #innovation #tech #sportsech Luis Vicente Luis Ureta PTI Ben Wells #consulting

PTI’s latest ‘Sports Leadership Benchmark 2025 (UK)’ clearly shows that Sport is leaving value and revenue on the table. Key takeaways: 🔸 87% of UK rights holders face flat or declining revenues. 🔸 Sponsorship is seen as the main growth driver. Most will cater solutions for brand association, equity and some engagement - but to unlock performance marketing that delivers real impact you need data, technology, engaging experiences, inventory and clear value propositions. 🔸 Over half monetise less than 10% of their audience through D2C, leaving huge potential untapped. 🔸 Investment still flows to players and debt, not infrastructure and growth. IMO, future success depends on aligning business, brand and digital strategies - built on data (with the fan at the centre), technology & AI, insights, value propositions (experiences), marketing and commercial integration. The right integrated approach sets the path to grow, engage and commercialise audiences - while solving sport’s critical dilemma: what to syndicate to third-party platforms, and what to own and operate. Transformation requires clear strategy, feasibility, investment ($), top-down C-suite support, well-designed / integrated technologies and a supporting operating model. Sport is often guilty of short-termism, but transformation requires patience. Returns across multiple value drivers take time - they don’t happen overnight. Get this right and marketing will no longer be seen as a cost centre, it will be recognised as an engine for growth. Download the study here >> https://lnkd.in/eSJi3Ydt #Data #Technology #Marketing #Commercial #Sport

𝐒𝐩𝐨𝐫𝐭’𝐬 𝐮𝐧𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐭𝐚𝐛𝐥𝐞 𝐭𝐫𝐮𝐭𝐡: 𝐨𝐩𝐭𝐢𝐦𝐢𝐬𝐦 𝐢𝐬𝐧’𝐭 𝐚 𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐠𝐲. Last week I enjoyed reading PTI's latest Sports Leadership Benchmark. This document showed a widening gap between those who are growing commercially and everyone else, and a persistent disconnect between what leaders say will drive growth and what they actually invest in. 𝐒𝐨𝐦𝐞 𝐢𝐧𝐬𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭𝐬 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐜𝐥𝐮𝐬𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐨𝐝 𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐭𝐨 𝐦𝐞: - 𝐌𝐨𝐬𝐭 𝐫𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭𝐬-𝐡𝐨𝐥𝐝𝐞𝐫𝐬 𝐛𝐞𝐭 𝐨𝐧 𝐬𝐩𝐨𝐧𝐬𝐨𝐫𝐬𝐡𝐢𝐩, yet only 15% extract meaningful insight. Roughly 50% monetise ≤10% of known fans. That’s leakage. - 𝐀𝐝 𝐬𝐩𝐞𝐧𝐝 𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐲: 72% now goes to pure-play digital (mostly Meta/Google/Amazon). Brands buy audience & outcomes, not asset menus. - 𝐓𝐞𝐜𝐡 𝐠𝐚𝐩: 57% have no senior tech lead; 50% lack a procurement process. A basic audit can unlock six-figure savings to reinvest in fans/partners. - 𝐀𝐈 ≠ 𝐦𝐚𝐠𝐢𝐜: Only 2% use AI at scale (though 65% expect growth). Without clean, connected data, AI is theatre. - 𝐅𝐨𝐥𝐥𝐨𝐰 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐦𝐨𝐧𝐞𝐲: New investment often goes to debt or players; only 12% to marketing and 9% to tech/innovation. Investors see a red flag. 𝐌𝐲 𝐭𝐚𝐤𝐞: if you’re banking on sponsorship growth, you need a data-first, outcome-led model now. With outcomes > assets  and where data leads to revenue. 𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐈’𝐝 𝐝𝐨 𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐧𝐞𝐱𝐭 90 𝐝𝐚𝐲𝐬: - Ship a company-wide data plan (collection → consent → activation) and connect it to pricing, ticketing, CRM , merchandise and partner targeting. Enrich this with adequate processes and investments in the right people and their capabilities. - Rebuild one sponsor package as an Outcome Blueprint (Reach → Engage → Convert) with a simple KPI ladder and quarterly proof. - Treat AI as an optimizer on top of clean data— not a shortcut. Interested in reading the report yourself? I've included a link in the comments. Looking for fresh perspectives to review your plans? I'd love to help out!

This was painful to write. I am, and will remain, a bull on sports. Also i am at pains to highlight this line from the article: "What shocks me is that I work in this space daily and the people i meet and talk to understand this and are planning around it and making amazing changes, so honestly reading this report was a shock to my system." Yet my thanks to PTI and Ben Wells and the whole group who put together this analysis. I always welcome more information and yet when I read it i was genuinely struggling. It highlights some real challenges for the space - between the enthusiasm for the sector, the recognition of what needs to be done, but critically highlighting the continued mismatch between what is needed and what is provided in resources to deliver. My tone has changed the past few years as i have seen better and smarter people than me move the industry forward. The events i speak at, attend and the widespread conversations i have fill me with excitement that we are headed in the right direction. So read this knowing how frustrated i was to pen it. But also why when i try to do something in sports i try to go as high up the heirarchy as possible because without the right business strategy or resource allocation all these smart people i meet will be hamstrung from the off. Jason Griffiths Andy Meikle Antonio Cacorino Luis Vicente Daniel Brusilovsky Daniel Brown Olly Dale Simon Kantor Roger Mitchell Charlie Greenwood Achille de Rauglaudre Danny Townsend Andy Marston Paola Marinone Pet Berisha #sportsbiz #change #investment #sports #innovation #report

The second edition of the PTI Sports Leadership Benchmark is out today. Compiled by surveying C-suite leaders at sports rights-holders, it is a quantitative analysis of the challenges and opportunities for the UK sports industry for the forthcoming 12 months. The headline figures show that a third of UK sports rights-holders project their revenues will increase in the next 12 months, however 80% expect profits to stay flat or decline. The full Benchmark report also has a deep-dive analysis on sport’s relationship with data and technology. Link to download in comments

In our 2025 Sports Leadership Benchmark, released later this summer, 39% of UK sports rights-holders said they expect significant third-party investment in the next 12 months. But of those expecting investment, more said that the money would go into debt repayment than technology or innovation. Ben Wells explains why investors are concerned by this - and where investment should be allocated 👇 https://lnkd.in/enjECCD5

We're delighted to be working with Basketball England on a new digital transformation brief. PTI will support Basketball England in redesigning its technology stack with a focus on its website, and memberships and licensing and competitions platforms. More: https://lnkd.in/eQvkFiSu