It’s often said that sport fixates too much on revenue with the less said the better about the bottom line. Even in more straightforward economic times it is easier to spend than it is to earn.
At PTI we have been talking recently about our soon-to-be-published report on senior industry views on the state of the economy, sport’s business model and its relationship with data, which many see as a key to growth, but which remains misunderstood.
What is much easier to understand – and can be more quickly realised – are cost savings, driven by marketing and operational efficiencies. In the course of our work we find that by far the most common answer to the question “What would make your life easier?” is “more people” but when we get into the weeds we often find siloed structures, a lack of process and a technology infrastructure that does not integrate, all of which tend to be addressed with manual processes, which takes time and increases the risk of human error.
These headlines from our report supported our experience:
📉 More than 60% said they did not have a company wide technology procurement process
💰 At the same time more than 70% say they intend to spend at least £100k next year on technology
👨💻 Only 8% said they could foresee technology creating operational efficiencies in the next 12 months
👥 Meanwhile almost half could see themselves increasing non-playing headcount during the same period
It is clear from the findings from our report that there is a lot of potential for sports organisations to make significant – and relatively quick – improvements to their cost base, thus allowing staff previously engaged on admin to be freed up to deliver revenue-generating activity.
The full report will be available in October. You will be able to download it from www.ptidigitalgroup.com
