J. Michael Evans – Alibaba Group, Yiannis Exarchos – OBS, Javier Tebas – LALIGA, Gerard Piqué, Marco Materazzi and AWS to headline at SPORTEL flagship event

In just under three weeks SPORTEL Monaco (28-30 October 2024), the world’s leading event for the sports media, broadcast and technology industry, will kick off with an unprecedented level of conference programming, capturing the hottest topics and future trends, presented by a new wave of top tier visionaries, star studded businessmen and disruptive innovators, at the heart of a bustling exhibition and market floor – the largest gathering of its kind, bringing together decision makers from the global sports media industry.

Industry heavyweights including President and Director, Alibaba Group (J. Michael Evans), CEO, OBS (Yiannis Exarchos), SVP Content, Production & Business Operations, WBD Sports Europe (Scott Young), led by Michael R. Payne, will share exclusive insights around “Paris 2024: An Olympic Broadcast & Viewership Success”, which showcased the biggest tech overhaul in decades – never seen at this level at the Olympics.

Inspiring discussions with footballing legends turned entrepreneurs lead the way, starting with Gerard Piqué, Kosmos-Kings League Founder, who will share exclusive insight about the creation of this competition with a Gen Z focus and how it is disrupting the beautiful game. Also hear from Marco Materazzi, Official Ambassador of (GRAS) Blockchain Sports and mentor of the Brazilian reality show “O Grande Jogo” (The Big Game), helping young boys to develop their football talents and become a part of the sport. The renowned LALIGA President, Javier Tebas, will share through his highly anticipated Keynote session, how LALIGA is leading the change as a top-tier sports organization to fight against audiovisual fraud in the sports media and broadcast industry.

Two exciting Masterclass topics will be hosted by SportBusiness including, “Behind the Lens: Creating a Successful Sports Docuseries”, diving into the business of creating blockbuster sports docuseries. Revealing the key factors that turn compelling sports narratives into profitable, global entertainment phenomena, will be the PGA Tour (Tom Jeffs), World Athletics (James Lord) and Fremantle (Georgette Schlick), led by SportBusiness’s Callum McCarthy. Following on, SportBusiness’s Imran Yusuf will host the SPORT(EL) spotlight panel, “What’s Next for Cricket as it Continues its Growth Journey?”, both commercially, powered by India, but also still going strong in its historical territories, notably the UK and Australia and now exploring new exciting territories such as the US, how are fans and digital set to play a key role? Expert panelists include FOX Sports Australia (Nic Goard), Rajasthan Royals, (Jake Lush McCrum) and Quidich (Gaurav Metha).

Sponsorship is now the second most important revenue stream for most rights holders and an informative panel, “The Role of Sponsorship Evolving in an Industry Under Pressure to Generate Revenues”, will dive into the different models of sponsorship, whether category exclusive marketing rights, or a broader, more fragmented sponsorship strategy and how brands strategically connect with their target audiences. Sponsorship experts led by SPORTEL’s Giovanni Aquilanti will feature Milano Cortina 2026 (Nevio Devide), FIFA, (Marco Nazzari) and Protocol Sports Marketing (Lowell Conn) to complete the line up.

Opening the conference programme will be podcast pioneers, Unofficial Partner, with their popular sports media podcast series coming to the SPORTEL stage. “The Bundle Live” will explore the biggest stories of 2024 and the people and companies having the greatest impact on the sports media industry. Expert insights will be shared by Gemba Europe & Middle East (Claire Kelly), EBU, (Glen Killane), OneFootball (Yannick Ramcke) and led by Unofficial Partner’s Richard Gillis.

Speakers Corner will also play host to a slate of case studies and presentations highlighting the latest technologies and solutions trending for the sports media and broadcast industry, including topics and speakers: “Live Sport Production” (LiveU with EBU/Actua Films); “Building a Champions League of MMA” (PFL); “How FAST is Shaping the Future of Sports Streaming” (WURL with EBU/Nagra and World Rugby); “Maximising a League’s Value Beyond Automatic Production” (Spiideo with Svensk Elitfotboll); “First Live Referee Camera in MMA” (Tivio Studio); “Amazon Web Services Innovation in Sport” (AWS with European League of Football); “Future Fans: Engaging Younger Audiences with GenAI” (WSC Sports); “Reality Show the Big Game” (Blockchain Sports with Marco Materazzi); “Revolutionizing Sports Streaming: AI and New Monetization Innovations” (Harmonic) and “The Opportunities and Vision for Regional Sports: CBC Sports Connect’s Evolution” (Pixellot with CBC).

New for 2024, the Innovation Stage will also shine the spotlight not once, but twice on multiple presentations: “Private 5G, Mobile & Ultra Low Latency: Lessons Learned from a Summer in Paris” (Haivision); “Sports ABC – Sports Economy and AI Tech” (ISB with Ztudium) and “Breaking Down The Fan-Centered Formula for Sports Streaming Success” (Infront Lab, whose Activation Engine will be on display throughout Masterclasses at SPORTEL Monaco for interactive polls and audience Q&A).

Warming up to the “Pitch” session, now a firm highlight at SPORTEL events, the spotlight will shift to a select group of new SPORTEL companies that are transforming and revolutionising sports content with AI and other groundbreaking technologies, in this quick-fire pitch, powered by Magnifi. Each “Pitcher” will have just three minutes to present and two minutes Q&A, to impress both the audience and an international panel of judges, with the winners receiving prize money and prestige!

Another first, is a special event championing women in sports media and innovation, co- sponsored by AWS, with a networking lunch and the panel: “How Women are Driving Innovation in Sports”, featuring awesome ladies led by AWS (Julie Souza), with Formula E (Aarti Dabas), and SailGP (Melissa Lawton) and Sportradar (Diana Ustymenko).

Wrapping up on day three, is another first in collaboration with SVG, the “Sports & Generative AI Workshop”, with sessions led by SVG’s Ken Kerschbaumer and George Bevir, plus guest moderator Carlo de Marchis (A guy with a scarf). An interactive discussion between the panelists and audience, will debate the potential role AI will play in everything from rights, advertising, content creation, content distribution, and the fan experience, addressing concerns and opportunities. On stage panelists include AWS (Paul Devlin and Dave Mace), PGA Tour (Scott Gutterman), Veritone (Peter Leeb), Magnifi (Ross Tanner) Spectatr (Shifa Garg), ISB (Ursula Romero), HBS (Johannes Franken) and Tradable Bits (Maurizio Barbieri), entwined with lots of audience engagement throughout the morning, wrapping up a truly engaging and innovative SPORTEL conference programme.

“SPORTEL Monaco continues to evolve, with the pulse of the sports media landscape. This year, we are thrilled to welcome an unprecedented number of executive leaders and innovators, sharing their visions on the future of sports media and the technologies that are redefining our industry. In 2024, the focus on emerging trends such as AI and innovations for broadcast, demonstrates how SPORTEL remains at the forefront of innovation. Our goal is to provide participants with an environment where they can not only discover these technologies and trends, but also engage with the minds shaping the future of global sports. » said Loris Menoni, Executive Director, SPORTEL Monaco.