Digital & Dirt
00:07:06 · Monica Ellingson
[00:07:06] S1: Well, I think now it's it's definitely more possible than it ever was before. And, you know, if you think about from a digital, you know, perspective, how we've all followed sports in the past, it was relatively passive. You know, we were watching it on TV or listening to it on the radio. And it... That content was being fed to us in a very, you know, structured way. But it wasn't something that, you know, let's just say that the top player of the, you know, of of a, let's say, tennis event, it wasn't my favorite player because I'm from another country or what have you. And, you know, so everyone followed it in the same way. And the the differences are... Were basically the stage that you brought from home to that, but still the actual watching experience was passive. But now it is much more, you know, interactive. So I I, as a fan, I want to have and I need, I expect to have personalized content. I expect to be able to, you know, see in-depth stats, you know, fed up in almost real time for my favorite players so that I can learn more about the sport that I'm, you know, passionate about and learn more about these players. So it's interesting too how we're become so focused on these players. I mean, there's celebrities there. You know, we wanna know everything about them. They're part of our families. And, you know, so I think that it's that level of intimacy that we all expect with with sports, with players, with really, you know, appealing to every type of sports fan, whether it's someone more casual, like, hey, I wanna see, you know, what the latest fashions are or what have you, or, you know, I want to see all the latest, most in-depth stats for my team, etcetera. So, you know, now it's become possible, you know, either through the fact that we have so many different ways of streaming and feeding out digital content through apps, apps that are pulling content from multiple directions, whether it's live streaming, whether it's stats, even betting is feeding into this equation. On our live streaming platforms, we're, you know, seeing enhanced stats that are coming in that we don't have to dig into. So it's... We are anticipating what fans are looking for and providing that content in the context that makes sense. So not afterwards, but when the action is happening.
00:09:29 · Ian Dallimore, Monica Ellingson
[00:09:29] S0: Yeah. It's... I was making a note to give a shout out to my good friend Dixon McMurphy, who is the voice of LSU football. Uh-huh. And he just came into that role, and him and I have had in-depth conversations about this. Like, growing up to your point, we were always passively watching, and whatever the announcer said was all the knowledge that we had. And then if you had some really bizarre friends, including myself, that were, like, big into baseball stats. Like, I feel like baseball was the beginning of, like, showing the speed, and then you had football that threw out, like, the first down marker. I'm old enough to where that was mind blowing. [00:10:07] S1: Yeah. I still think it is.
00:10:07 · Monica Ellingson, Ian Dallimore
[00:10:07] S1: Yeah. I still think it is. [00:10:08] S0: Yeah. Still is. Yeah. I also still don't trust it either. But to your point, like, we as consumers, we now expect that. And then now they even... Within the NFL, as I'm thinking about it, another New Orleans native, the Manning Brothers. Like, now there's an entire station on ESPN that you get to listen to the Manning Brothers. And we were just talking offline. I'm glad you're not a Abby Falcons fan because you could make fun of us today as the the Falcons beat the the Saints in our twentieth year before Katrina. But the fact that now... And I think the stat that you shared with us, it's 72% surveyed sports fans use an app with 40% saying having information in one place is leading motivation. And that's that's another level now. So now we're... You're telling us that, like, you're watching sports, but then also you may have your iPad and you're watching the stats and the data behind it as well.
00:10:59 · Monica Ellingson
[00:10:59] S1: Exactly. I mean, we've... We're seeing a move where, let's say, even now, you know, we're thinking about apps as a secondary screen. Right? So you're you're watching your, your team on TV, on your live streaming channels, etcetera. And, you know, the app is secondary, but we're actually seeing the shift so that, you know, one of the funny stories I have is, you know, we several years ago redid our basement, put a big media space in, and, you know, my kids were home at that time. I said, hey, guys, you know, now you can, you know, watch everything here. They all were just watching right there on their stuff. Okay. I mean, it started with a certain behavior, you know, that people are are using their apps as their primary screen and knowing that those apps are... You know, we can take advantage of all of these interactive interfaces and features to be able to feed content up while users are ingesting and enjoying that sports content.
00:11:59 · Ian Dallimore
[00:11:59] S0: Yeah. And it's interesting because the way people follow sports, it's, I guess, the question to you and in your role, it feels like there's not too much information and data to share. Like, you guys are going to continue to evolve and show as much as possible. And then you, we, the consumer get to dictate like, you know, hey, I I don't need that in-depth of of data where, you know, you and I are are old enough to where you just needed to know just enough to where you showed up on Monday and you could talk about football, you could show up on Wednesday and you could talk about the baseball game. But now, I mean, it's on another level, But it's important because I feel like people are more invested in sports than ever. Like you said, beyond just before they even walk onto the field, like, what shoes are they wearing? What, you know, what dress did that tennis player wear before she came out on the court and put into another dress?
00:12:49 · Monica Ellingson
[00:12:49] S1: I think it's an interesting balancing act, though, because, you know, at the... At these events, we have a massive volume of data that we have access to. I mean, one of the stats we were quoting for the US Open, which just finished a couple of weeks ago, was 1,200,000,000 individual data points that we're collecting over a typical tennis match. Anything from traditional stats all the way to 21 joints and for in terms of biometric data. But data is not the end result. Mean, we still have to... The focus has to be on the fan experience and being able to bubble up insights that are relevant and, you know, contextually relevant at that time because we wanna make sure that they're, you know, we don't take away from the experience of an of an enjoying, you know, watching your your team or your favorite player. But the power of being able to sift through that data, especially using Gen AI and, you know, to create new insights that are that are insightful and to to bubble them up when it's relevant so that we're not taking away from it. So the fan experience still has to be, you know, the most important thing. Data is just another source of content that we're able to pull through and create, you know, new insights that help fans better understand their particular player or their team or the sport as a whole.