Global Fútbol

Technology and innovation have been vital components of the football industry for several years already, with more and more entities deciding to invest time and resources in this field. When doing so, there is logically a demand for a return on that investment and this can be maximised when adopting an innovation strategy that is both inward-looking and outward-looking.

At LaLiga, for example, the organisation did such a good job of designing technology solutions for the competition’s own needs in the sports and entertainment sector that a new business unit called LaLiga Tech was launched in 2021, offering out the cutting-edge technologies that had been developed in house. As such, LaLiga was able to obtain value internally from the innovative processes that were developed, as well as from offering these solutions to external clients.

This kind of approach was discussed during a panel at the recent SportBiz Europe conference in Barcelona, one which was titled ‘Leveraging technology to drive value: How a refined innovation strategy can empower the business’.

Olivia Archanco, Consumer Strategy Director at LaLiga Tech, was on that round table discussion and explained LaLiga Tech’s journey, stating: “During the last eight years, LaLiga has evolved and invested a lot in technology and become a company that is really data-driven. We realised that we were very unique because we are a global competition that was developing its own technology in house. This led to the creation of LaLiga Tech. We have created a vertical in sports and can provide services like competition management, anti-piracy tools, anti-match-fixing tools, content-enhancement tools, fan engagement platforms, etc. The secret is that the technology is made by sports professionals for sports professionals.”

The fact that LaLiga Tech creates tools and services that tackle the needs LaLiga has for its own competition makes for a unique selling proposition in the industry. The key is that LaLiga understands the value of the tools before making them available to other partners.

As Archanco explained, this stems from the culture of innovation at LaLiga. She told the SportBiz Europe audience: “I think innovation needs to be at the core of the culture of a company. It's a mindset. It's a way to envision an idea. Then, technology goes behind to make it happen.”

Football clubs also want to invest in technology

Given that LaLiga is able to drive value from its investments in technology and innovation, football clubs are keen to do so too and LaLiga is helping them to achieve this. The clubs also understand the value of investing in ideas that can benefit them first and foremost, but later generate a profit when shared with the industry as a whole.

For example, Real Madrid have a technological innovation department called Real Madrid Next and director Julien Piwowar was also on the same SportBiz Europe panel. Explaining their mindset, he said: “We don't want to invest time or money in a company to develop something we're just going to use as Real Madrid. We have the vision to expand the products we allow a start-up to launch with us, with the possibility for us in the long term to become shareholders of the start-up. We might launch a new product and be also part of the ROI in the long term. The product could eventually be a worldwide product and even a B2C product, to benefit the global population and not only sports teams.”

Another LaLiga Santander club with its own innovation hub is RC Celta, who have CeltaLab1923. Co-founder Lalo García was also on the panel and added: “We are focused on exploration, as we need to explore different solutions. We created an observatory to scout different start-ups. We create the environment to collaborate and test the start-ups, new business models and new value propositions. For us, it's interesting to know how to create for the future of the team and the future of the industry.”

There are so many opportunities for football clubs nowadays, especially as they expand their horizons. Valencia CF’s innovation director Franco Segarra was the other speaker on this panel and explained the modern football club as so: “One of the things that people need to realise is that a football club does many other things other than just playing football. We have become a food and beverage company. We have a very important tour in Mestalla. We have ticketing, online and offline. We have lots of content. We have retail, online and offline. We do many many many things.”

This means that football clubs have many needs and lots of space for innovation. Of course, not all clubs can afford to build their own tools in house to tackle these requirements, so LaLiga helps all LaLiga Santander and LaLiga SmartBank clubs that are looking for support in their digital transformation.

On this, LaLiga Tech’s Archanco explained: “We have been working for many years to develop an ecosystem and there is a project to help all the clubs in LaLiga to join in and undergo a digital transformation, with new apps and new websites. The backbone of this is that we designed an ecosystem, one that has been perfected by new add-ons, new features and new technologies.”

By continually innovating in this way, for the benefit of LaLiga and Spain’s football clubs and also the wider sports and entertainment industry, LaLiga Tech is able to, as the panel’s title put it, leverage technology to drive value.