The following article was written by SportBusiness and highlights the new partnership between Euroleague Basketball and KORE Software. SportBusiness is a trusted global intelligence service, providing unique news, analysis, data, consulting and events.
By Matthew Glendinning | Photo by JEAN-PHILIPPE KSIAZEK/AFP via Getty Images
Euroleague Basketball has chosen KORE Software to help manage its business intelligence and sponsorship strategy.
Europe’s elite club basketball competition organisers will use the software tool to oversee its sponsor pipeline and multiple sponsorship deals, track availability of inventory, create deals, and manage pricing and contracts.
According to Roser Queraltó, Euroleague’s chief business officer, the deal will help fulfil its five-year strategic plan, set in 2020.
“One of the key areas [of the plan] to develop was the digital transformation, both of the league and its participating clubs,” Queraltó told SportBusiness.
“We already launched the ‘Digital Transformation Fund’ aimed at supporting Turkish Airlines EuroLeague clubs in projects that allow them to undertake a step forward in their digital transformation journey and another natural step, among others, was to integrate the digital transformation and the inner structure of the league – the updated sponsorship software is a clear example of this.”
Euroleague’s sponsorship sales drive is integrated with the sales teams of external agency, IMG, which formed a joint venture with Euroleague to manage the commercial operation, and the management of all global rights covering both media and marketing, from the 2016-17 season onwards.
Queraltó said: “It is obvious that starting to operate with the market-leader software will bring improvements in efficiency, coordination and, most importantly, will widen the door to synergies that will impact positively on the joint venture. Centralising the management of all partnership-related data and inventory and tracking will allow us to optimise asset performance and allocation, maximize revenue and identify new partnerships opportunities.”
Euroleague sponsorship assets have also grown and became more complex in recent years as a result of specialisation within the organisation. Queraltó explained: “We have a new business intelligence and analytics area that allow us to specifically target our different markets and offer to each one of our partners a tailored made proposal based on target audience, platforms, activations and markets.
“For example, one partner may be interested in targeting the millennial audience of a specific market and based on that, we can develop a full proposal based on data analysis, with platforms fitting better to reach the audience. This strategy opens an interesting door to target different partners with different needs, covered by the wide list of assets provided by Euroleague Basketball platforms.”
Queraltó concluded that the cancellation of last season due to the Covid-19 pandemic has brought the organisation closer to its partners. “Looking for the best way to help each other has been fundamental. During the pandemic, while we were forced to stop our games, we increased the volume of our digital assets to cover our sponsors commitments and at the same time to keep on feeding our audience with relevant content.
“Full classic game streams, special highlight reels, virtual games, players activations are just some of the initiatives we developed during the pandemic and we can proudly say that the outcome was very positive.”
KORE is the global leader in engagement marketing solutions, serving more than 200 professional teams and 850+ sports and entertainment properties worldwide, providing practical tools and services to harness customer data, facilitate sponsorship sales and activation, and create actionable insights.
