Expert Speaker – Fernando Sotomayor – Assets Control & Creation – Business Intelligence, FC Barcelona
On November 18th, 2023, an online CIES Conference was organized by the Pillai Institute of Management Studies and Research, Navi Mumbai. Mr. Fernando Sotomayor, who is responsible for Assets Control & Creation – Business Intelligence at FC Barcelona spoke about “The Impact of Data in Properties Decisions.” Mr. Fernando has worked with New York City FC as the Partnerships Business Intelligence Analyst and with FC Bayern Munchen for North American Business Development. He has an MS in Sports Management from Columbia University and a Masters in Sports Marketing from Real Madrid Universidad Europea.
The conference started by discussing the various business models on which the clubs operate like, broadcast, sponsorships, merchandising, and various other matchday and non-matchday activities. While broadcast contributes to the majority of the revenue for top clubs like FC Barcelona and Real Madrid. Sponsorships and selling IP rights can also bring in huge revenues. The class discussed the example of FC Barcelona who sold their stadium’s (Camp Nou) naming rights to Spotify to increase their revenue. He emphasized the role of data in making such key decisions. He said, “Knowing your fans and profiling them can help you design the best strategy to maximize your revenues.” The clubs that have a global fan base will have a different strategy to a club that is starting to create a fan base for itself.
Mr. Fernanado talked about the different governance models of sports properties. He explained in detail the competition structures which can be classified in mainly two categories, closed and open. Closed competitions are suitable when creating a new league IP. In such cases, the competition entity decides the revenue share, and salary caps for players and staff, and sets other key regulations for clubs. But open leagues are more about meritocracy, where the clubs might face promotion & relegation and the clubs can decide on their strategies to maximize the results without much intervention from the league. Mr. Fernando emphasized that fans’ data play a key role in the modern world; collecting data from various sources and deriving valuable information is crucial in identifying future partnerships and sponsorships. Automating data can be a powerful tool when dealing with large data sets. The students thanked Mr. Fernando Sotomayor for sharing such valuable insights.
