The Digital Value of Fans - Horizm
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The Digital Value of Fans
The Digital Value of Fans
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Foreword & Approach &
Executive Summary Methodology Leagues
PAGES 4-5 PAGE 7 PAGES 9-11
Teams Channels Conclusions
PAGES 13-20 PAGE 22 PAGE 25
TEXT
2
The Digital Value of Fans
FOREWORD
& EXECUTIVE
SUMMARY
3
The Digital Value of Fans
FOREWORD
Whether at elite or youth level, sport is a physical pursuit, but one who’s future increasingly lies in the digital
world.
From how it is consumed and communicated, to how it is commercialized, sport has grown increasingly reliant
on digital channels such as social media for its business operations, particularly as organisations look to recover
from the financial impact of the global pandemic. For instance, in the recent PwC Sports Industry Survey,
82,9% of respondents identified the creation and monetization of digital assets as one of the top opportunities
to grow revenues in sports.
With digital channels representing such an increasingly significant source of value for sports rights holders,
we have created this report to better understand value of the digital landscape in sports by focusing on three
key questions:
Firstly, which leagues and teams have the biggest digital inventory? While this list contains the “usual
suspects” it is important to understand this element of size, in terms of which properties command the biggest
audience and convert this to the greatest digital value.
Secondly, and perhaps of greater insight, which of these leagues and teams are more efficient and are more
successful at extracting value per fan? This measure of efficiency is a key metric in evaluating how properties
are performing; similar to the concepts of GDP and GDP per Capita, the biggest teams and leagues will always
have the largest overall inventory due to the size of their followings, but which teams are generating the most
value relative to the size of their audience?
Finally, we wanted to understand what drives value? Is it related to the rights holders’ activity levels? Or the
performance of their posts? Or is there an inverse relationship between activity levels and the quality of those
publications?
The Digital Value of Fans uses the power of Horizm’s platform and the rigour of its analytics to deliver data
driven answers to all these questions, and more, including an analysis of which channels drive the most value.
I hope you enjoy!
Luis Viveiros
Head of Strategy
Horizm
4
The Digital Value of Fans
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Activity key to unlocking billion Euro opportunity
The digital inventory of the world’s top sporting leagues across Facebook, Instagram and Twitter is projected
to be worth more than €1.1bn in 2021. Of this total, the world’s top 20 sports teams by inventory value are
projected to account for two thirds, offering €733m in the same period.
Our study shows that activity is the biggest lever of value, with a greater correlation present between activity
levels and value than with engagement rate and value. This implies that a volume play rather than a heavily
curated strategy is the best approach to maximise the commercial potential of your digital inventory.
Premier League dominates digitally
Collectively, the teams of the Premier League produced the most amount of digital inventory in Q1, ahead of
LaLiga and NBA, and is projected to be worth more than €350m in 2021, which is almost as much as the 2nd
(LaLiga €219m) and 3rd place (NBA €142m) combined.
NHL were the most efficient at generating value amongst the world’s top sports leagues in Q1 ahead of The
Premier League and NBA.
Manchester United the top performing “Global Sports Brand”
Our top 20 ranking by inventory value of “Global Brands” - teams that have a social audience in excess of 20m
across their primary social platforms - is dominated by European Football teams, accounting for 15 of the top
20. The other five teams are NBA franchises.
In this category, Manchester United has the biggest digital inventory in Q1, ahead of Barcelona, Real Madrid,
Liverpool & Chelsea and are projected to generate more than €105m in digital inventory this year across
Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.
Manchester United is also the most efficient of the teams at generating value per fan, ahead of the Golden State
Warriors and Inter Milan. The Premier League’s “Big Six” clubs are amongst the most efficient in generating
digital value with all six in the top 10.
In terms of posts published in Q1, Premier League teams dominate this category with Manchester United topping
the activity charts ahead of Manchester City and Tottenham. Golden State Warriors head the performance
rankings ahead of LA Lakers and Inter Milan.
US sports lead the way amongst “Elite Teams”
Our top 20 ranking of “Elite Teams” - teams that have a social audience between 2m and 20m - is a lot more US
dominated with North American teams accounting for 15 of the top 20 teams by value per fan.
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers were the most efficient “Elite Team” in Q1, generating €0.5 per fan, although it
should be noted that the Florida-based franchises’ Super Bowl triumph took place during the period of measure
which will have driven up their usual level of digital engagement.
There is a diversity of sports in the top five with Athletic Club Bilbao (football) second, Buffalo Bills (NFL) third,
Brooklyn Nets (NBA) fourth and Washington Capitals (NHL) fifth.
Athletic Club Bilbao, Leicester City and Real Sociedad lead the way in terms of activity levels in this bracket.
Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Buffalo Bills and Leeds United top the performance charts.
Instagram is the most valuable channel
Instagram is the most valuable of the three primary social media channels for the world’s top sporting leagues
& teams, accounting for 49% of the total value generated. Facebook accounts for 36% and twitter 15%.
Looking at value per fan, Instagram is particularly strong, generating on average double the value per audience
compared with Facebook and Twitter. European Football teams are stronger on Instagram while American
teams perform better on Facebook and Twitter, particularly on Twitter.
5The Digital Value of Fans
APPROACH &
METHODOLOGY
6The Digital Value of Fans
APPROACH & METHODOLOGY
At Horizm, we are focused on helping our clients better understand and take advantage of the opportunities
presented to them by their digital inventory and by that we mean all content shared across social media, and
the value it creates for the rights holder and their partners through the reach and engagement it generates.
With that in mind, we created Intelligenz, our benchmarking solution that uses AI to project digital performance
based on publicly available data, enabling sports rights holders to compare their key metrics with the most
relevant set of competitors.
In this report we have used Intelligenz to compare Q1 inventory and audience size, value per fan and the
primary drivers of value - activity levels and post performance - from the world’s leading sports leagues and
teams. For this report, we have focused all analysis on the three primary social channels, Facebook, Instagram
and Twitter.
Below we outline our approach to these different areas:
SIZE VALUE PER FAN DRIVERS OF VALUE
Which teams / leagues have Which teams / leagues are Besides size of audience, what
the biggest digital inventory? able to generate more social / drives the value being generated?
digital value relative to the size of Activity or quality and performance
the audience? of the posts? Is there a
correlation between number of
INTELLIGENZ posts published and the performance
of those posts?
TOTAL INVENTORY ACTIVITY
÷ = (NUMBER OF POSTS)
VALUE
PER FAN PERFORMANCE
TOTAL AUDIENCE
PER POST
(IMPRESSIONS / ENGAGEMENT)
7The Digital Value of Fans
LEAGUES
8The Digital Value of Fans
AUDIENCE & INVENTORY SIZE
Of all the world’s top sporting leagues, The Premier League has the largest social audience and is predicted
to generate the largest digital inventory in 2021, based on the cummulative totals of member teams. Total
inventory predictions are based on extrapolations of the Q1* analysis, shown in the table below, with seasonal
weighting applied.
600
565 TOTAL AUDIENCE
537
PREDICTED ANNUAL
500 TOTAL INVENTORY (€)
400
356 357
300
MILLIONS (€)
219 223
200 194
142 143 134
118
100 100 109
73
46 46 41 40
0
RANK LEAGUE TOTAL INVENTORY Q1 2021
1 Premier League €86,836,448
2 LaLiga €53,425,089
3 NBA €40,439,088
4 Serie A €24,453,392
5 NFL*
TEXT €19,770,023
6 Bundesliga €12,098,791
7 Ligue 1 €11,304,716
8 MLB* €11,252,956
9 NHL €6,339,555
*Denotes leagues who were in off season for some or all of the period monitored
9The Digital Value of Fans
VALUE PER FAN
This new industry metric represents the ability of a league or team to generate value from its digital inventory
on a per capita basis.
Our analysis of value per fan - calculated as total inventory divided by total audience - of the world’s top
sporting leagues, based on average value of their member teams, shows that NHL is the most efficient at
generating value from its social audience, with a value per fan of €0.17, leading the way ahead of the Premier
League in second place. From NBA in third to Bundesliga in eighth the rest of the leagues are relatively clustered
together, with the excpetion of MLB which is hampered by being in off-season for the period measured.
All figures below are in Euros and for Q1 2021.
RANK LEAGUE VALUE PER FAN Q1 2021
1 NHL 0.17
1
2 Premier League 0.15
33 NBA 0.11
4 Serie A 0.11
5 NFL 0.10
6 LaLiga 0.10
7 Ligue 1 0.08
8 Bundesliga 0.08
9 MLB 0.05
10The Digital Value of Fans
ACTIVITY & PERFORMANCE
Success in generating value per fan is driven by two key factors:
1. Activity level – the number of posts published in the given period
2. Performance per post – a quality index that combines engagement rate and impressions rate to
determine the average performance of a post based on the relative size of the audience.
Our analysis of the major sporting leagues shows that NHL is the only league in the high performance quadrant,
delivering high levels of activity and performance per post. The bulk of the leagues have chosen to make a
volume play with the exception of NFL and MLB who have employed a more curated approach which is likely
heavily influenced by the fact that most, or all, of this period was during these leagues’ offseason.
CURATED APPROACH HIGH PERFORMANCE
110%
100%
90%
80%
Performance per Post
70%
60%
50%
40%
30%
CONSERVATIVE APPROACH VOLUME PLAY
600 800 1000 1200 1400 1600 1800 2000 2200 2400 2600
Average Activity Level per League
11The Digital Value of Fans
TEAMS
12The Digital Value of Fans
ELITE TEAMS & GLOBAL BRANDS
Social media represents an increasingly valuable commercial opportunity for sports teams at all levels, but it
is important to recognise that the characteristics of fanbases, and their potential for generating value, differ
depending on the size of the team’s following.
At the top end of the scale, you have a select group of sports franchises who, through periods of historic
success and investment, have been able to build up large global audiences that behave differently from the
more domestically centred followings of smaller teams, making any direct comparison difficult.
For this reason, it is important to ensure that any analysis compares sports team with similar characteristics
and to do this we have focused our evaluation on two categories of teams:
• Elite Teams – team who have a combined following across Facebook, Instagram and Twitter of between
2m and 20m.
• Global Brands – the biggest teams in sport who boast a combined social following across these primary
channels in excess of 20m.
The Global Sports Brands Category, which we begin this section with, is made up of Europe’s biggest football
teams and NBA’s leading franchises and is most relevant to look at in terms of audience and inventory size. The
Elite Teams category provides a much broader spread of sports and leagues.
13The Digital Value of Fans
GLOBAL BRANDS - 1-10
AUDIENCE & INVENTORY SIZE
250
244 TOTAL AUDIENCE
235
PREDICTED ANNUAL
TOTAL INVENTORY (€)
200
150
138
Millions
106 103
100 101
91 92
86 86 85
75 73
58 60
50
41
37
28 31
25
0
RANK GLOBAL BRAND LEAGUE TOTAL INVENTORY Q1 2021
1 Manchester United Premier League €25,770,098
2 FC Barcelona LaLiga €24,658,842
3 Real Madrid LaLiga €22,246,607
4 Liverpool Premier League €14,605,653
5 Chelsea Premier League €14,083,083
6 Arsenal Premier League €10,065,247
7 Juventus Serie A €9,419,900
8 Manchester City Premier League €7,553,161
9 Paris Saint-Germain Ligue 1 €6,841,770
10 Inter Milan Serie A €6,372,415
14The Digital Value of Fans
GLOBAL BRANDS - 11-20
AUDIENCE & INVENTORY SIZE
50
TOTAL AUDIENCE
48
PREDICTED ANNUAL
TOTAL INVENTORY (€)
42
40
38
37
35
31
30 30
28
27
Millions
25
24 24
20 21
20
17
10
10
8
7
6
5
0
RANK GLOBAL BRAND LEAGUE TOTAL INVENTORY Q1 2021
11 Tottenham Hotspur Premier League €6,058,923
12 FC Bayern Munich Bundesliga €5,993,104
13 Golden State Warriors NBA €5,944,316
14 Los Angeles Lakers NBA €5,853,393
15 AC Milan Serie A €4,258,256
16 Borussia Dortmund Bundesliga €2,399,508
17 Chicago Bulls NBA €1,975,064
18 Atlético Madrid LaLiga €1,941,366
19 Houston Rockets NBA €1,636,440
20 Miami Heat NBA €1,483,561
15The Digital Value of Fans
GLOBAL BRANDS - VALUE PER FAN (VPF)
The Premier League’s so called “Big Six” clubs are amongst the most efficient teams in our Global Brands
Category at generating digital value, with all six featuring in the top 10. The ranking is dominated by European
Football teams who account for 15 of the 20, the rest are teams from the NBA.
Manchester United are top overall, ahead of Inter Milan and the Golden State Warriors
All figures below are in Euros and for Q1 2021.
RANK CLUB VPF RANK CLUB VPF
Manchester
1 0.19 11 AC Milan 0.10
United
2 Inter Milan 0.17 12 Juventus 0.09
Golden State
3 0.17 13 Real Madrid 0.09
Warriors
Paris Saint-
4 Liverpool 0.17 14 0.08
Germain
Tottenham Borussia
5 0.16 15 0.08
Hotspur Dortmund
6 Chelsea 0.15 16 Chicago Bulls 0.07
FC Bayern
7 Arsenal 0.13 17 0.07
Munich
Los Angeles
8 0.12 18 Houston Rockets 0.07
Lakers
9 FC Barcelona 0.10 19 Atlético Madrid 0.07
10 Manchester City 0.10 20 Miami Heat 0.06
16The Digital Value of Fans
GLOBAL BRANDS - DRIVERS OF VALUE
Our analysis of the drivers of value - actvity levels and performance per post - from the top teams in our
Global Brands category shows that Premier League clubs are the most active by some way, with the league
accounting for the top five places according to volume of posts. In terms of performance per post, NBA sides
the Golden State Warriors and the La Lakers lead the way. Inter Milan is the highest placed football club in 3rd
with Arsenal (4th) and Liverpool (5th) completing the top five.
CURATED APPROACH HIGH PERFORMANCE
68%
62%
56%
50%
Performance per Post
44%
38%
32%
26%
20%
CONSERVATIVE APPROACH VOLUME PLAY
1900 2100 2300 2500 2700 2900 3100 3300 3500 3700 3900 4100 4300
Activity Level
17The Digital Value of Fans
ELITE TEAMS - VALUE PER FAN (VPF)
Our top 20 ranking by value per fan of “Elite Teams” - teams that have a social audience between 2m and 20m
- is a lot more US dominated with North American teams accounting for 15 of the top 20 teams.
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers were the most efficient “Elite Team” in Q1, generating €0.5 per fan, although it
should be noted that Florida based NFL side’s Super Bowl triumph took place during the period of measure
which will have driven up their usual level of digital engagement.
All figures below are in Euros and for Q1 2021.
RANK CLUB VPF RANK CLUB VPF
Tampa Bay
1 0.50 11 Real Betis 0.21
Buccaneers
Athletic Club New York
2 0.35 12 0.20
Bilbao Rangers
Toronto Maple
3 Buffalo Bills 0.33 13 0.20
Leafs
Philadelphia
4 Brooklyn Nets 0.32 14 0.19
76ers
Washington Green Bay
5 0.30 15 0.19
Capitals Packers
New Orleans
6 Leeds United 0.27 16 0.18
Saints
7 Denver Nuggets 0.23 17 Boston Bruins 0.18
Cleveland
8 Saint Louis Blues 0.23 18 0.18
Browns
Kansas City
9 0.22 19 West Ham United 0.17
Chiefs
Baltimore
10 Lazio 0.21 20 0.17
Ravens
18The Digital Value of Fans
ELITE TEAMS - ACTIVITY LEVELS
All values are total volumes of posts for Q1 2021.
3,621
3,553
3,540
3,344
3,254
3,203
3,080
3,069
2,924
2,899
2700 2900 3100 3300 3500 3700
Activity Level
RANK ELITE TEAM LEAGUE ACTIVITY LEVEL
1 Athletic Club Bilbao LaLiga 3,621
2 Leicester City Football Club Premier League 3,553
3 Real Sociedad LaLiga 3,540
4 Denver Nuggets NBA 3,344
5 Charlotte Hornets MLB 3,254
6 Philadelphia 76ers NBA 3,203
7 Olympique Lyonnais Ligue 1 3,080
8 Boston Celtics NBA 3,069
9 Sevilla LaLiga 2,924
10 Los Angeles Clippers NBA 2,899
19The Digital Value of Fans
ELITE TEAMS - PERFORMANCE PER POST
All values are pecentages, based on the quality index outlined on page 11, and for Q1 2021.
256%
214%
204%
201%
180%
171%
168%
166%
162%
158%
100 125 150 175 200 225 250 275
Performance per Post
RANK ELITE TEAM LEAGUE PERFORMANCE PER POST
1 Tampa Bay Buccaneers NFL 256%
2 Buffalo Bills NFL 214%
3 Leeds United FC Premier League 204%
4 Kansas City Chiefs NFL 201%
5 Los Angeles Dodgers MLB 180%
6 Atlanta Braves MLB 171%
7 Arizona Cardinals NFL 168%
8 Los Angeles Chargers NFL 166%
9 Washington Capitals NHL 162%
10 Cincinnati Bengals NFL 158%
20The Digital Value of Fans
WHAT IS THE KEY DRIVER OF VALUE?
In this report we look at the two levers which affect value on social media - activity level and performance per post,
in terms of engagement and impressions - but which of these has the greater bearing on the total value generated?
By analysing the relationships between inventory value and activity and inventory value and performance in the
scatter graphs below the coefficient of determination shows that there is a more positive correlation between
activity and value. We also analysed the relationship between activity and performance and our analysis showed
that, with a R-squared of -0.02, there is little to no correlation between the two. This means that those who
posted the most didn’t see a decrease in the quality of the content they published.
24
Inventory Value (€ M)
18
.46
R=0
12
6
1800 2000 2200 2400 2600 2800 3000 3200 3400 3600 3800 4000 4200 4400
Activity Level
24
Inventory Value (€ M)
18
R = 0.15
12
6
0.14 0.18 0.22 0.26 0.30 0.34 0.38 0.42 0.46 0.50 0.54 0.60 0.64 0.68
Performance per Post
21The Digital Value of Fans
CHANNELS
22The Digital Value of Fans
SOCIAL CHANNELS - KEY METRICS
€264m
The combined total inventory from the
world’s top sports leagues, in Q1, on
Facebook, Instagram and Twitter was
36% worth €264m, with almost half of that
value generated in Instagram. Facebook
49% accounted for 36% and Twitter 15%.
European Football teams are stronger
on Instagram while American teams
perform better on Facebook and
Twitter, particularly on Twitter.
15%
INSTAGRAM FACEBOOK TWITTER
# TEAM VPF # TEAM VPF # TEAM VPF
Athletic Club Tampa Bay Tampa Bay
1 0.93 1 0.51 1 0.47
Bilbao Buccaneers Buccaneers
Tampa Bay Washington
2 0.52 2 Buffalo Bills 0.43 2 0.38
Buccaneers Capitals
3 Brooklyn Nets 0.44 3 Leeds United 0.41 3 Leeds United 0.24
4 Real Sociedad 0.41 4 Saint Louis Blues 0.33 4 Buffalo Bills 0.21
5 Inter Milan 0.39 5 Edmonton Oilers 0.28 5 Brooklyn Nets 0.20
6 Buffalo Bills 0.39 Washington Wolverhampton
6 0.27 6 0.17
Capitals Wanderers
7 Real Betis 0.39 7 Kansas City Chiefs 0.27 7 Baltimore Ravens 0.16
Manchester
8 0.34 8 Dallas Stars 0.26 8 Saint Louis Blues 0.16
United
9 Denver Nuggets 0.32 9 Brooklyn Nets 0.25 9 Toronto Raptors 0.16
Toronto Maple Athletic Club Athletic Club
10 0.31 10 0.25 10 0.16
Leafs Bilbao Bilbao
23The Digital Value of Fans
CONCLUSIONS
24The Digital Value of Fans
THE FUTURE IS HERE
As we approached the end of the last decade, sport was awash with talk of OTT, augmented reality, digital
fan engagement and a host of other technology driven developments that were full of potential. In short,
technology was already embedded firmly in the industry’s ecosystem and clearly sign posting the way forward.
Then along came Covid, rapidly accelerating our digital connectivity and bringing into sharper focus the
significant role digital channels will play in sport’s immediate future. It also highlighted - as this report shows
- the extent of the commercial opportunity that is out there; an opportunity that is not currently being
maximised.
This can be seen clearly when we compare the numbers of some of the media and social media giants with their
counterparts in European Football. Netflix have amassed 240m users worldwide – a number that no doubt
swelled during lockdown – and has a market cap of just over €185bn. As reported in the Unofficial Partner
Podcast, Pinterest has an audience of 458m and a market cap of almost €44bn and TikTok an audience of
689m with a market cap of over €80bn. In contrast, Real Madrid have over 240 million followers on their three
primary channels alone – with another 5-10m across emerging and market specific channels – and Manchester
United have nearly 140m followers but they are only valued at just under €4bn and €2.5bn, respectively. There
is a clear opportunity for these European giants to increase the monetization of their vast fanbases, one that
exists at scale throughout the football pyramid.
Technological advances in content creation and distribution may have allowed rights holders to become media
owners in their own right, but they are a long way behind the big media companies in terms of fully realising
the monetary potential of their passionate fanbases; audiences more loyal than Netflix or Amazon could ever
hope to command.
As sport looks to move forward post pandemic and recover lost revenues, digital offers a rich and largely
untapped opportunity to bring in new commercial partners and offer more value for existing sponsors. As
shown in this report, the key to driving more value per fan across Facebook, Instagram and Twitter is striking
the right balance between increasing activity and maintaining performance. However, there is also the need
to shift the mindset; to think about what brands are looking for and what can be offered across different digital
platforms to match these needs. The rights holders that best exploit the digital opportunity in front of them
will be the ones who put social channels at the front of their thought process and embrace the flexibility and
accountability they provide.
With over €1bn to go after across the world’s top leagues in 2021, sport’s digital opportunity is no longer just
the future, it is very much the here and now; a golden opportunity for those with the right mindset and the
right tactical approach.
25The future of digital revenue in sport
Chosen digital partner of
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