The Australian and New Zealand A-League is seeking to expand its sponsor inventory, renewing its media data partnership with Stats Perform to do so.
Under the terms of the renewal, the London-based international sports tech and data firm will continue leveraging its Opta data product for the A-League, adding the Opta Search and Opta Stream functionalities.
It is hoped that these functionalities will help the A-League step up both fan engagement and sponsorship activity. Opta Stream in particular will be used for rolling, automated, sponsored visuals of real-time game stats, live text commentary, milestones and insights to achieve this goal.
Opta Search, meanwhile, will be used to enhance sports storytelling for content professionals providing coverage of the A-League. Additional caveats of the deal include the continuation of Stats Performs use of Opta data, widgets and tools to power A-league fan platforms like its app, social media channels, YouTube channel and the league website.
“Our leagues are rich in stories that Stats Perform and Opta make it easy for us to tell our fans, connecting them more deeply to our teams and players,” said Ned Negus, Chief Commercial Officer at the A-Leagues.
“By leveraging Opta’s real-time data, insights and products, our content team will be able to showcase key statistics, player performances and milestones in a visually stunning and informative manner, and our commercial teams are delighted with the additional high quality inventory created for our sponsors.”
Australian football – not to be confused with Australian rules football – has been growing in popularity in the country, clocking rising attendees and viewership in a packed sporting ecosystem where appetite for rugby league and union, cricket, and the aforementioned Aussie rules is already strong.
Data will likely prove critical to the sport and A-League’s future growth, playing a key role in informing content and fan engagement activities. Across various sports, leagues and countries, data has become one of the most valuable commodities in contemporary sports.
Renewing its arrangement with the A-League solidifies Stats Perform’s position in this competitive data market. The company’s major sporting partners include the likes of the English Football League (EFL) and International Cricket Council (ICC), with both deals clinched this year.
On the A-League renewal, Steve Xeller, CRO at Stats Perform, commented: “We’re pleased to meet A-Leagues’ requirements for detailed, trusted, reliable data and products to drive fan and sponsor growth across the Isuzu UTE A-League Men and Ninja A-League Women.
“I’m particularly excited about their addition of Opta Stream and Opta Search – they’re among our newest AI-powered products and have already broken records for customers in Europe, boosting them to the top of search engines and attracting enormous user numbers. We can’t wait to see what they achieve for A-Leagues.”
