Published on February 10th, 2022 📆 | 6527 Views ⚑
0The NFL Keeps Itself Young Through Technology; 187M Seem to Agree
LOS ANGELES--The NFL is looking to get younger, as in GenZ younger.
During a Super Bowl panel discussion on Wednesday entitled âFootball, Media and Technology: A Look Into the Future of Engagement,ââ the league and several of its partners were most passionate about Nickelodeon slime trails, RomoVision and Caesars Sportsbook commercials with the Mannings âanything that might light up the eyes of the precious 9-to-17 or 18-to-34 demographics.
Nine year olds?
âWe donât want to age-out, right? So the only way to make sure weâre going to continue to grow our fan-base is really focusing on the younger fan,ââ said Renie Anderson, chief revenue officer and executive vice president NFL partnerships.
âAnd we want to also focus on the younger fan in a way that theyâre consuming entertainment. Today weâre doing some really fun stuff with the metaverse on Roblox. So letâs imagine the next time we do this panel, letâs all do it in the metaverse. The avatar of Warren Moon would be amazing.ââ
Moon, the Hall of Fame quarterback who played professionally in four different decades, was seated to Andersonâs rightâŠand laughed while making a bitter-beer face. But he then crystalized the duality (and inherent generation gap) of the NFL by describing how he and his teenage son each watch football: almost never in the same room.
âThereâs certain people like myself who like watching [football] the old-fashioned way,ââ Moon said. âWith an announcer and an analyst and stats and all that. I have a 15-year-oldâso heâs always looking at either YouTube or TikTok. A lot of times heâs just watching video highlights and, when you talk about how kids are watching the game today, thatâs what they want to see, little snippets. And they want to see the exciting plays, the wild plays.
âThe [fans] you really want to try and grab are the ones from, like 7 to 18, because theyâre the ones that have the short attention spans right now and they look at things very quickly. And if itâs not exciting to them or engaging to them, theyâre going to move on to something else. Because thereâs so many other platforms for them to watch on that smartphone right here in their hands.ââ
Cincinnati Bengals QB Joe Burrow has a Super Bowl to play and a fanbase watching his every move.
In other words, itâs not just about the game anymore; itâs about gamification. Itâs not just about a TV broadcast anymore; itâs about a ManningCast,(which ESPN just extended through 2024) a SlimeCast and a RomoCast. The NFL is embedded in technology, or technology is embedded in the NFL, but, either way, the future of the leagueâaccording to Wednesdayâs panelistsâis that there are 187 million ways to skin a cat.
âWeâve got 187 million fans, and theyâre different,ââ said panelist Rajiv Maheswaran, president of the player-tracking technology company Second Spectrum. âThey go from 13 to 80. My dadâs 82, and heâs a huge fan. But I think thatâs the whole idea of sort of mass personalization.âŠYou canât basically do one-size-fits-all for 187 million people. You got to meet people where they are. So weâve got 13-year-olds engaged with the game, and 80-year-olds engaged with the gameâand thatâs the whole point. They donât want the same thing. But I think thatâs what technology lets us do. You can serve all 187 million or a billion fans in the way that they want.ââ
In Second Spectrumâs case, they serve the naĂŻve and the not-so-naĂŻve. For this yearâs Nickelodeon Wild Card Game, Second Spectrum collaborated with the NFLâs Next Gen Stats and Nickâs graphics group (along The Famous Group and CBS) to produce the slime trails that illustrated how receivers ran routes on the field. The slime replays were instantaneous, and they were a gooey, smashing success.
But on a mainstream CBS broadcast that weekend, Second Spectrum âagain in concert with Next Gen Statsâproduced RomoVision, a 21st Century spinoff of the John Maddenâs telestrator. A mini-gridiron appears on the side of the screen, at which point Romo describes what routes the receivers were running âonly without the slime.
Second Spectrum teamed with NFL's Next Gen Stats to produce RomoVision for CBS.
In both instances, it was Second Spectrum technology elevating fan engagement for the younger or not-so-sophisticated football audience. But then thereâs Second Spectrumâs other audience: the gamblers.
Through its partnership with Genius Sports, Second Spectrum has a tracking system installed in stadiums that can monitor real-time player and ball movement, with the data being used to create prop bets or the like. That, too, is another one of the NFLâs burgeoning technologies, considering the league has a betting data deal with Genius Sports.
âBottom line, going back for a long time, people have been gambling and betting on these games,ââ said Steve Bornstein, the former ESPN CEO who is president, North America Genius Sports. âAnd for the first time in the past three years, weâve actually shined a light on it. And to me when you take stuff out of the darkness and put a light on it, itâs going to be better and be more fun and be safer.
âSo thatâs what weâre seeing today, with the legalization of gambling, youâre going to allow for the gamification of content. And to me, thatâs ultimately how youâre going to connect with more fans and the younger fans is by gamifying content. And thatâs what Second Spectrum does well and thatâs what Genius Sports does very well. And thatâs where I see it going. Thatâs how weâre going to engage Warrenâs 15-year-old. And Renieâs two daughters, through gamification of content.ââ
The NFL has partnered with Caesars Sportsbook, as well as DraftKings and FanDuel, in its quest for gamification.
Legalized betting, fantasy football â it is relative new ground for a league that once shied away from any or all of it.
âI did have the pleasure of playing the game within four different decades, so Iâve seen things happen from the '70s to the 2000s when I retired,ââ Moon said. âAnd I remember the days when fantasy football, it was looked at by the players from the league: âDonât get involved in fantasy football, you donât want to talk about fantasy football.â All of a sudden, it got to a point where it could be monetized, it can be controlled, and fantasy football kind of blew up. And thatâs where a lot of the fanbase comes from nowadays.
âSame thing with gambling. We were told, âDonât do any appearances in Las Vegas. Donât do any appearances in casinos, thatâs a no-no, thatâs a no-no.â But now itâs come full-circle and here we are with gambling everywhere and casinos everywhere. And itâs all okay. I Â just joined the board of a minority gaming company called Atlantis Gaming. So Iâve kind of joined into that realm, as well. Itâs here to stay. People are going to bet on games, and theyâre going to make it easier to bet on games, and Iâm sure [fans] will be able to use your phone right inside the stadium and make your bets as youâre sitting there watching the game.ââ
Anderson said the NFL promotes responsible gamblingâand only wants so many Caesar Sportsbook/Manning commercials per gameâbut all bets are not off for a league that seems more invested in the 20-something fan (even the 10-year-old fan) than the 50-something fan.
Which is why Thursday Night Football will be on Amazon next season. GenZ streams, so the age-old NFL, your fatherâs NFL, is going to stream along with them.
Young fans, exactly what the NFL covets, surrounding Denzel Perryman of the Raiders at last week's Pro Bowl.
âItâs for the continuation and the growth of the game,ââ Anderson said Wednesday. âWeâve been around for 100 years, and weâre going to be around 100 more. We have 187 million fans. Weâre not done. Weâre not going to be complacent and say, 'Okay, weâve got the most, so weâre good.' Weâre going to continue to move forward because weâre going to continue to grow, not age out.
âSo itâs really important that we focus on that younger fan. Because theyâre the future, right? Not just of our country, but of football.ââ
Gloss