The Era Of Sports Content Automation Is Upon Us

Infront X look at how automation is changing the landscape of the content produced by sport.

Automation changed the way humans work, saving countless hours of wasted manpower and money. 

While automation’s roots lie in manufacturing, the concept of automating processes to improve workflows is now part of nearly every industry, from transportation, to health, medicine, sales and marketing. 

Content automation for marketing hasn’t just become the norm, it is a necessity. The modern day content marketer is overloaded with tasks: generating in-depth marketing plans for user acquisition, writing and editing, SEO optimization and content distribution, to name a few. They do everything while keeping up with best practices, following the habits of younger generations and coordinating with other departments. 

“For many marketers, especially those working on small teams, there isn’t enough time to complete tasks correctly. This is where content automation becomes increasingly valuable.”

For many marketers, especially those working on small teams, there isn’t enough time to complete tasks correctly. This is where content automation becomes increasingly valuable. By leveraging Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning (MLP) and Natural Language Processing (NLP), marketing teams are able to create and distribute content while reducing human error, without additional human resources. 

In most industries, content marketing teams are able to plan ahead and leverage automation for tasks ranging from writing blog posts and creating elaborate infographics to repurposing content for wide distribution and scheduling posts ahead of time.

However, this type of automation isn’t feasible in the sports industry. Sports content teams have been able to utilize some scheduling and analytics platforms, such as Hootsuite and Later, for their content. But these platforms don’t address the fact that in sports, these content editors do not have the luxury of time; they must react to the action and quickly deliver stories and results to many different audiences.

The Challenge of Automating Sports Content

Sports content teams create content that fans care most about – the goals scored, the buzzer beaters, upsets and dramatic finishes. 

“These platforms don’t address the fact that in sports, these content editors do not have the luxury of time; they must react to the action and quickly deliver stories and results to many different audiences.”

In the digital age, if highlights and reactions aren’t posted moments after key events happen, they are considered late. 

Aside from a continuous battle against time, sports entities face additional challenges on a daily basis. They must create large volumes of high-quality, engaging content for fans while competing with the likes of Netflix, Disney+ and OTT platforms for attention. This includes catering to millions of fans of different ages, in different countries and languages, each with their own preferences. 

These factors, as well as the sheer number of social profiles teams must operate – like Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, and Snapchat, to name a few – make automating sports content more challenging than that of a typical marketing department. But it is now possible. 

Content X: Your Content, Automated

Advancements in AI and ML propelled sports technologies forward. This allows for the automation of key components of  sports content production: 

• Creating engaging highlight videos and infographics
• Generating copy that speaks to fans and is tailored for languages and locations
• Packaging and distributing  content across platforms
• Leveraging analytics platforms that show rights owners the real value of their content 

While these advancements were game changers for the industry, they operate independently. Content teams face the issue of navigating through these platforms on their desktops, creating videos on one, infographics on another, downloading content to their computers and manually uploading elsewhere for publication. 

Content X combines the leading technologies to supply sports content teams with a one-of-a-kind, fully-automated platform. It generates in-depth content plans, produces, packages and distributes highly engaging, original content from a central location, while leveraging performance analytics to continuously improve digital game plans. 

Automating the content creation process with Content X allows for a greater volume of personalized content without additional resources, time or man power.

Personalization at Scale

Content X’s ground-breaking technologies enable content teams to overcome one of the biggest frictions they face: creating content that is both personalized and at scale. The technologies generate content for fans of all ages, delivering it to the right audiences, in the right format and language, on the relevant channels and at the right time. This allows content teams to increase their overall reach and engagement, creating a true, global network of fans. 

More content means more assets, leading to more monetization opportunities for rights owners, especially when dealing with personalized content. Personalizing content on such granular levels can enable rights owners to maximize their partnership opportunities and increase the value of their content by pairing it with the best possible sponsor. 

“In reality, most rights owners are missing a significant understanding of where their content is placed and who is watching it.”

It is imperative that rights owners understand the true value of their content. This may sound like common sense; in reality, most rights owners are missing a significant understanding of where their content is placed and who is watching it. The sports world enjoys an abundance of user generated content across the web, resulting in increased exposure for sports entities, brands and sponsors, while making it increasingly difficult to get a real understanding of its value. 

Content X’s analytics show the true value of content by scanning the web for all copies of a piece of content, showing exactly how many copies are online, how many views each has and how many views are on each social channel. Rights owners are given a more holistic view of their content’s reach, allowing them to create new business models based on hard data.

The era of editing play-by-play clips and manual uploads is behind us. Gone are the days of fretting over the correct sponsor activation, at the right moment and with which content. We will no longer agonize over statistics that don’t offer actionable data. 

Automation allows content teams to re-imagine workflows and output, providing faster produced content that is free of human error. The team can then focus on in-depth, premium content. 

The era of automated sports content is upon us, let’s embrace it.