COMMENT: Live sports need fast, insightful storytelling

In the heat of a match, things move at 100 miles per hour – seemingly big goals may turn out to be insignificant, and seemingly insignificant moments can have lasting implications.

I grew up with the commentator providing the dominant diagnosis of what is happening on the pitch. Shoulder content, social platforms and digital media have distributed that analytical responsibility to more providers, but that initial broadcast remains for many the primary interaction with a match.

”The challenge is how you deliver accurate and engaging insights before another goal, red card or chance missed twists the game in a new direction.”

The challenge, more often than not, is how you deliver accurate and engaging insights which truly uncover the story of the game before another goal, red card or chance missed twists the game in a new direction.

The likelihood of your viewer watching your broadcast and that alone is low.

In 2019, Deloitte Global stated that 60 percent of North American men aged 18–34 who watch sports on TV will also bet on sports—and the more often they bet, the more TV sports they’ll watch. Whilst this is a US statistic, the trend is likely even higher for Europe.

And it’s no surprise, in our current day, that almost all sports fans are actively scrolling and posting on social media during a game or match. In fact, browsing social media during a sporting event is the second most common reason for social media use, followed only by personal milestones.

With competition becoming fiercer, pressures rising and the marketplace becoming ever more crowded, differentiating your offering is key to building and securing an audience.

Speed plays a vital role in this – we can no longer draw a line between the sort of storytelling fans expect during a match and the sort of storytelling expected during the week – the lines have blurred.

Good live storytelling in sport combines timeliness (what is happening now) with relevance (why is what just happened important) and insight (what does this mean).

”A well-thought out, hand-crafted piece of editorial insight does little good when it is minutes behind the competition.”

The real challenge comes into play when we introduce speed into the equation. A well-thought out, hand-crafted piece of editorial insight does little good when it is minutes behind the competition.

A social media graphic showing the score has reached the end of its lifecycle when the next major event in the game happens: perhaps another goal is scored, a foul draws a red card, a player is injured, or any other major event that pulls away the focus of the viewer.

”The speed of the action is one of the many reasons we are drawn to sports, but it also serves as one of the biggest challenges for sports organisations.”

The speed of the action is one of the many reasons we are drawn to sports, but it also serves as one of the biggest challenges for sports organisations.

You may have access to more graphic designers, data scientists and statisticians, but if you’re challenged with the number of people who stand between the creation of an insight and the publication, you risk missing out to a smaller organisation who can move quicker to publish.

To be first with unique insights, Stats Perform’s PressBox Live could be the tool you need. It features a real-time, content stream that uses data and AI-powered insights to unlock the story of sports. Users can now see new analytics and predictive data sets, as well as live chat with research and editorial teams, during in-game action, building upon decades of experience supporting sports broadcasts. Tools like PressBox Live are there to enable this sort of storytelling ‘in-play’.

Mike Morrison is marketing manager at Stats Perform.