Eric Bolten, a 5G industry expert, joins former NFL players and current sports technology consultants Kenyon Rasheed and Brian Jones, as they discuss how data can be used to create “fan bliss” for sports fans.

VIDEO TRANSCRIPT

ERIC BOLTEN, ZIXI:

The NFL – let’s pick on that because it’s our subject of the day. They know they share revenue, they have a very understood model about the assets and how the teams participate, merchandising, and all that stuff. But the teams themselves have their own lines of revenue. The key part here is before you would know who your season ticket holders are, and maybe you reached out to them in a mailing campaign. But now you’re going to have data on your entire fan base at an unprecedented level. And that’s going to become your most valuable asset. But what you do with the teen fans on that data… if you’re Pittsburgh, you’re New England. For teams, it doesn’t matter, it’s now all about the fan data. You know who your fans are and you know the grandfather, the father, the mother, the kids, all the way down. You’ll be able to figure out who is playing on sports Fantasy. there’ll be data share between the Madden games and that data integration is going to tell us about how you provide “fan bliss” and “fantopia.” Whatever we’re going to call it in the future because it’s not entirely clear on how the next generation of fans will consume sports media entertainment. And anybody who thinks they understand today doesn’t. Because here’s a bunch of us that you know are in our 50s trying to understand what someone does at 15. So you need to be able to iterate on your data. You got the whole Silicon Valley idea of “fail faster” and barely viable minimum product, but at the same time what teams will be able to do just in a simple tailgating aspect… it’s going to be crazy. I mean you’re going to be able to have holographic things, you’re going to be able to have a direct player and coach contact fans, you’ll be able to sit outside and watch the actual press conference. Instead of sitting for three hours in traffic as you exit a parking lot going nowhere, you’ll be waiting for your Uber, you won’t even have to worry about the driving part anymore, and even Ubers are going to be tricked out with all kinds of internal screens and immersive experiences. So I think if anything Sports is going to be able to connect to their fans in a way that was just literally impossible before, and what teams will be able to provide as experiences is up to their imagination to be creative with a crazy palette of technologies that are becoming available.