The international volleyball federation has partnered with Microsoft to improve the fan experience through better content distribution and consumer engagement.
The Microsoft Sports Digital Platform, which the tech giant launched last fall, is a SaaS business with two major solutions that seek to grow the sport of volleyball for the FIVB — the governing body is known by its French acronym, which is short for Fédération Internationale de Volleyball.
The first provides live streaming, on-demand video, statistics, social posts and more. The second offers a holistic view of fan behavior with automated marketing and analytics and integration with external data sources.
“While Microsoft can provide technological expertise, we want to show our vision to engage and expand our loyal volleyball fan base,” FIVB president Ary S. Graça F° said in a statement. “By providing highly engaging digital content, which speaks directly to the specific interests of our fans, we believe we can significantly enhance fan experience all-season round.”
The new digital products will be built on Microsoft Azure, the company’s cloud-computing platform.
“Technology will help the FIVB to adopt a new digital business model, leveraging digital fan engagement and their sponsorship strategy as well as new monetization models,” added Sebastián Lancestremere, general manager of sports business at Microsoft Corporation. “Thanks to the Microsoft experience in similar sport organizations, such as LaLiga and Real Madrid, we will work with FIVB also to explore new innovation opportunities that will make volleyball more relevant to the global fan base.”
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SportTechie Takeaway
Finding new fans and strengthening the loyalty of existing fans is the holy grail for any sports league or federation, but extra important for organizations like the FIVB that don’t have the scale of, say, the NBA or the Premier League. Targeting viewers and consumers through advanced data collection and analysis can only be a benefit.