Business is often told to consider what it can learn from sport. But what about the other way around? What could sport learn from business? Sport focuses on winning, the team spirit and match analysis, but could it also learn how to focus on customers, empower teams and better use technology?
Could technology disrupt sport and the talent-scouting process? I think it could definitely benefit from technologies that could decentralize decision-making.
I had an experience in Africa that convinced me to try and develop a solution. In Abidjan, a city on the southern Atlantic coast of Côte d’Ivoire, I came across a group of young footballers. Boys, with sandals on their feet, were playing on a field that looked more like scrub than a Premiership stadium. They let me join in for a little game. And we lost 10-0! Despite having never set foot in a training center and playing in sandals, one young player scored 8 goals! It disappoints me that this boy’s raw talent could go unspotted due to a lack of resources and visibility.
The sports world wouldn’t be the first entertainment industry to be challenged by technology. The music industry has had to reinvent itself by harnessing, rather than continuing to fight, technology. So, the sports world could reinvent itself through digital to combine entertainment experience, performance, and the experiences of professional and amateur athletes.
The benefit is twofold: to give more visibility to talent, and to facilitate their relationship with potential supporters. All this and an opportunity to restore sport’s positive image, which has been tarnished by numerous scandals.
But how would this work when so many people play sports? In 2017, 2 out of 5 people across Europe played at least one sport once a week; 3 out of ten also played in clubs. That’s nearly 155 million, not to mention the amateurs who sometimes play several sports, in the park or at home. More than 600,000 hours of videos are uploaded to YouTube every day. With so many people participating in sport, it is difficult to identify the new talent who could dominate their discipline.
The solution would need to incorporate an innovative social network based on openness. Today, our talent spotting system is focused on just a few institutions located in the richest countries. So we need a mechanism which could enable young talent to truly emerge from the multitude of amateur athletes around the world. This is still difficult to imagine on social networks in their current format.
In asking myself how we could make sports-scouting less random, I started thinking about my experience of business, banking and blockchain. Could scouting benefit from blockchain; the disruptive technology that is disrupting the business world? It is a decentralized and participatory system and so, through its differentiating cultural and monetary value proposition, we could use blockchain to engage the social sports community in a different way.
Why bet on the blockchain? Because the fundamentals of this technology are based on the very notion of transparency and information sharing. It is a technology that is open to almost everyone, is decentralized and transparent. As a result, each transaction belongs to both individuals and everyone at the same time, making the system completely democratic and robust.
This technology gives us an opportunity to bring fans back to the center of sport. Using decentralization, athletes can showcase themselves and fans can like them, raising their profiles to potential patrons, sponsors and clubs. They can even give new talent a boost by microfunding new boots or access to professional training grounds.
In business terms, this clearly demonstrates how sport can better listen to their customers (fans) and empower them. Fan involvement could also bring their passion and sense of fair play back to the heart of the global sports community.
I want us to imagine a sports social network model that integrates a cryptocurrency and gives power to the fan communities that will elect the young athletes of tomorrow. it’s not a pipe dream. Social networks could take on their full meaning and we can move from a narcissistic vision to a holistic approach, taking on the role of revealing talent and creating a meritocracy. The world of sport is truly at the crossroads of funding innovations and the emergence of new media to reinvent the entertainment of tomorrow.
At the moment, too much talent is never seen, never makes it out of the park game and into the arena, because the players never get scouted. We’re inventing a decentralized global talent detection platform, within the reach of sports professionals, which will promote champions from multiple horizons.
What if new technology and business nous could find, support and sponsor the next Usain Bolt or the future Kylian Mbappé? That’s the plan at WeSportUs.
Business is often told to consider what it can learn from sport. But what about the other way around? What could sport learn from business? Sport focuses on winning, the team spirit and match analysis, but could it also learn how to focus on customers, empower teams and better use technology?
Could technology disrupt sport and the talent-scouting process? I think it could definitely benefit from technologies that could decentralize decision-making.
I had an experience in Africa that convinced me to try and develop a solution. In Abidjan, a city on the southern Atlantic coast of Côte d’Ivoire, I came across a group of young footballers. Boys, with sandals on their feet, were playing on a field that looked more like scrub than a Premiership stadium. They let me join in for a little game. And we lost 10-0! Despite having never set foot in a training center and playing in sandals, one young player scored 8 goals! It disappoints me that this boy’s raw talent could go unspotted due to a lack of resources and visibility.
The sports world wouldn’t be the first entertainment industry to be challenged by technology. The music industry has had to reinvent itself by harnessing, rather than continuing to fight, technology. So, the sports world could reinvent itself through digital to combine entertainment experience, performance, and the experiences of professional and amateur athletes.
The benefit is twofold: to give more visibility to talent, and to facilitate their relationship with potential supporters. All this and an opportunity to restore sport’s positive image, which has been tarnished by numerous scandals.
But how would this work when so many people play sports? In 2017, 2 out of 5 people across Europe played at least one sport once a week; 3 out of ten also played in clubs. That’s nearly 155 million, not to mention the amateurs who sometimes play several sports, in the park or at home. More than 600,000 hours of videos are uploaded to YouTube every day. With so many people participating in sport, it is difficult to identify the new talent who could dominate their discipline.
The solution would need to incorporate an innovative social network based on openness. Today, our talent spotting system is focused on just a few institutions located in the richest countries. So we need a mechanism which could enable young talent to truly emerge from the multitude of amateur athletes around the world. This is still difficult to imagine on social networks in their current format.
In asking myself how we could make sports-scouting less random, I started thinking about my experience of business, banking and blockchain. Could scouting benefit from blockchain; the disruptive technology that is disrupting the business world? It is a decentralized and participatory system and so, through its differentiating cultural and monetary value proposition, we could use blockchain to engage the social sports community in a different way.
Why bet on the blockchain? Because the fundamentals of this technology are based on the very notion of transparency and information sharing. It is a technology that is open to almost everyone, is decentralized and transparent. As a result, each transaction belongs to both individuals and everyone at the same time, making the system completely democratic and robust.
This technology gives us an opportunity to bring fans back to the center of sport. Using decentralization, athletes can showcase themselves and fans can like them, raising their profiles to potential patrons, sponsors and clubs. They can even give new talent a boost by microfunding new boots or access to professional training grounds.
In business terms, this clearly demonstrates how sport can better listen to their customers (fans) and empower them. Fan involvement could also bring their passion and sense of fair play back to the heart of the global sports community.
I want us to imagine a sports social network model that integrates a cryptocurrency and gives power to the fan communities that will elect the young athletes of tomorrow. it’s not a pipe dream. Social networks could take on their full meaning and we can move from a narcissistic vision to a holistic approach, taking on the role of revealing talent and creating a meritocracy. The world of sport is truly at the crossroads of funding innovations and the emergence of new media to reinvent the entertainment of tomorrow.
At the moment, too much talent is never seen, never makes it out of the park game and into the arena, because the players never get scouted. We’re inventing a decentralized global talent detection platform, within the reach of sports professionals, which will promote champions from multiple horizons.
What if new technology and business nous could find, support and sponsor the next Usain Bolt or the future Kylian Mbappé? That’s the plan at WeSportUs.
[“source=businesschief”]
