Tim Underhill: Reshaping the Sports-Spectator Experience (Full Transcript)
Ronen Ainbinder Coming up next on the Halftime Snacks is a sports business magnet from the UK.
He's the Founder & CEO of SportonSpec, a company looking to reimagine the sports spectator experience post-Covid-19!
This mas is a firm believer that all top-level sports athletes deserve the same exposure.
His expertise lies in the intersection between sports, experiences, and entertainment, and he's here to snack with us about it.
It is an honor and a pleasure to host him in the Halftime Snacks;
Ladies and gentlemen, Tim Underhill!
Tim Underhill
Well, thank you, Ronen! Sport magnet! That's a very good start. I'm very happy about that. It's great to be here.
Ronen Ainbinder
Thank you for snacking with me, Tim. I want to start right away and talk about spectators and, of course, the main trending topic of today, COVID-19. I want to know how do you envision the spectator experience once sports are back to full capacity?
Tim Underhill
I think people, many clubs, and event hosts together are keen just to get back on track, back in the venue hosting live sports. For the majority, that's going to be the number one priority, because of financial reasons, just getting back doing it and being able to perform and having people in again, it's going to be something that will be a focus, predominantly. And then I think alongside that, you're going to see the continuation of a loss of innovation around different formats, the actual events themselves. So we have missed this year that the hundred in cricket is an example. We haven't had that. But fingers crossed that we'll be back in 2021. There's an in horse racing another sport. There's a new interface called the Racing League. Once again, we haven't been able to enjoy that this year. But that's kind of multi-team over six weeks in the sun next summer, a competition with about 2 million pounds of prize money. And it's sort of doing horse racing differently. Bringing the team aspect of folks on the jockeys and the trainers, and making a real sort of family-friendly festival type of event.
We've got the Rugby League World Cup coming up next November, which will be the first time men's and women's and wheelchair vans have been brought together, and that's across the UK. So that's a that's going to be. I think the main multi-event is coming back. And then I think, yeah, how the experiences are going to change going forward. Everyone is reviewing how tech, how tech will change things, and how tech will change the experience of events. And I think there's a lot of innovation out there at the moment, all sorts of ways of thinking that fans maybe come on to that bit later, whether they're a bit their needs are different now they want to use tech inside a stadium. They want to relate more, have more content at them, maybe have food, and drink delivered to them. And I think that side of things, a lot of it's dependent on five key that seems to be the message but then and good connection in stadiums. Still, I think that's sort of innovation, and we saw the new Super Bowl where they have augmented reality in the stadium at the top hundred NFL. I think that was a really good best illustration so far from that way of using tech in events. So, yeah, I think a long way back but lots of innovation to come and into 2022. I think that could be the best year ever for spectator sport. We've got the Commonwealth Games, which will be the first big multi-event globally, which will allow full crowds back, so many look forward to but yeah, lots of unknowns as well.
Ronen Ainbinder
I believe that the fans want to feel safe when they go back, mostly because of the fear that this global pandemic has created. I guess that if technology can provide a sense of safety, that's the biggest step that we're going to take towards bringing fans back as we knew it. I'm a curious team to ask you about SportonSpec because your company is very oriented towards the spectators. And I want to know, of course, you have a background in music in the music industry. So how did you come up with SportonSpec? Like, what's the story behind it?
Tim Underhill
I wasn't previously in the sports industry as such. I was a lawyer, as he says. And then I was in the music business. Putting in is comfortable monkey music and preschool music franchising. Hence, as Operations Director, they're so, so they are very different from being in the sports industry. Still, I've always had a love of live sport. Being in in a stadium at a venue, I think it's called the absolute reality. I've heard it referred to it's great it's where you're sort of, there's nothing quite like being there. Experiencing sports, you just don't get unless you're at the venue. I think what led me into sport and spirit was London 2012 was the catalyst that Epic Games fortunate to live probably 50 miles from the Olympic Park. So it's on the doorstep in London. And long story short, a lot of people try to get tickets that came in stock. I just got, I think one session can't remember the sport, but I've ever thinking oh, wow, this Olympics great shoulders once every 50 years. So what one-shot opportunity in your hometown, and then and I was having some time off at that time. And I sort of fell upon a group on social media called the Twitter hashtag 2012 tweets. So they're a great group of people who came together really around that time. The same issue of not getting tickets for this event but just really want to go and maybe wanted to tell their friends and family. So all around about how can we go? How can we enjoy people through that? And that's probably a story for another podcast about how you got tickets. Looking abroad through authorized resellers of other countries is completely different from getting tickets when you couldn't get them here. That led me to have this amazing opportunity to see sports every day at the Olympics, see some of the most amazing sport, and see a real variety of sport. Really good example one of the people there who said, Why do you guys see weightlifting as one of the sports you could just say, I thought, weightlifting I said, that's a bit different. But sure enough, I got a couple of tickets. And there I was suddenly, the Olympic Games watching weightlifting and you would think maybe people listening to this. I don't think many of your listeners would have ever seen weightlifting live, and you probably think, Wow, I can't visit will that we live. Still, I don't think it would be very exciting. It was one of the great sports experiences I had because I was lucky that there was Judo, boxing, and Taekwondo for the Olympic Games. I guess about 3000 people in this massive auditorium. It's a huge place, but it was packed. And there was a just I have on this day, one of the athletes GB athlete, Zoe Smith, was in action and got to go for the British record. So this was a crowd of people who probably come some of them would have been diehard weightlifting fans, the rest were they were here to be entertained. Well, it was an amazing atmosphere. And it was dramatic. I didn't realize how dramatic as sort of waiting to be because, of course, it's very primeval. It's sort of an enormous weight you're either going to lift, or you're going to fall. Everything terrible could happen, so the whole crowd knew that this is okay; it's a British record. We're going to see some history here. And it's very tail went quiet. And anyway, she did the lift, broke the clean and jerk record, and the crowd went wild, absolutely bananas. So then all these other sports that I saw either you would call them to say, I don't like all of my large sports. As a negative connotation, I'd call them an underrepresented sport, which is they are because they are they're great to watch. Still, they don't get the attention they deserve. So I began to see handball or volleyball or Kudu slalom or fencing. All these everyone basically, what I saw was people being captivated by the entertainment that lies for at the top level. You put that cocktail together, and It's fantastic. What happened after the Olympics was there's an awful lot of attention around it. And kind of, it wasn't too long after that, that a lot of these sports captivated the nation was sort of cast aside slightly, and that they didn't get the attention they were getting. You don't get the chance to slip off the radar, but all these athletes continued to do their thing. And there were all these championships still happening all around us. But no one was aware of that. So I kind of thought, why isn't there a marketplace? Why isn't it somewhere you can say, look, I want to go and see some live sport and be entertained? Why is there no existing? Sport is the biggest entertainment genre there is; arguably, it's bigger than music, it's bigger than shows, whatever. It's the number one thing that brings us all together. So I found it puzzling, but also maybe a business opportunity. And so that's the journey of looking into why wasn't this happening? How can we create this? What would it take and delving into the world of sport, there's, of course, not being from the world of sport, had to sort of learn the industry, like with anything, and so it's a kind of very long learning curve. But ultimately, I think that this is something that needs to happen. And there's a massive audience for it.
Ronen Ainbinder
That's a fascinating story. Tim, I want to ask you about the business model and funding strategy you have in mind for SportonSpec?
Tim Underhill
the problem we're trying to solve is issues about the lies for going on and many unsold infantry tickets places to go. And we play across any number of events, that that is an issue. And suppose you speak to clubs or event-holders. In that case, the number one reason that always pops out is awareness. We've got it a great, great product safe for one of a better expression since great experience to be had. Still, the car, get the word out beyond there, you probably have a base of diehard, as I mentioned. But beyond that, this sort of more casual fan, so people live pranks, etc. They can't get the word out to that. So so there's an issue on that side. On the other side, you have the fans, people who we're now in the realms of the experience economy, where more people want to go. We're in the middle of a global pandemic. Of course, we can't have our experiences this whole different type. When we get through this, in the experience economy, people want more. They're still hardwired to go out and socialize and do things with friends and family and have a shared experience and be entertained so that that audience out there does not know what's going on. So how can they go and experience it? So if you look on the web, where the information is very fragmented, or it might not even be in sort of a decent format at all, you can't go to one place. Therefore we can't find it, how can you go? How can you get tickets? So, so that's how you want to solve it. Being in the middle of that, you're then in the business model of being around ticketing, ticketing affiliate. We're also looking at the subscription model, where you could pay different chairs for the subscription. You could access promotions on tickets, or you can access opportunities or a flat fee and go to a different set of sports. You could pick and choose from any range of sports. There's a lot of opportunities for how you bundle things up. And but fundamentally, yeah, it's around that I'm solid infantry and how you solve that. And then, of course, on top of that, you've got data opportunities, sponsorship, and there's advertising, but that's really how the model would work. To a certain point, on the funding side, COVID has been interesting and enabling us to sort of sitting back and think, Okay, this is what we've done to date. And then we establish a track record in London and Scotland, there are two bases, and around the cities, Glasgow and Edinburgh, and then London. And so okay, going forward, how's everything going to look when support comes about? And how can we then be part of the system and work with clubs and event holders to get people back into venues that require funding? I mean, I'm glad you've asked the question. It requires significant funding where you have a structure and a route to have the capital injection to scale to build the tech to fit the staff to build the audience and test. So that's something we'll be looking to do. Later. We're looking at the moment putting a pitch deck together. Now we've sort of thing as far as you can, in these times, right, this is what this one looks like. This is how we can be in the business model and how we can work with sports. So that's going to be ready pretty soon, so if anyone listening to the podcast wants to reach out to me, Feel free on LinkedIn or social media. By all means, I'm happy to talk to people.
Ronen Ainbinder
People listening here are lucky because Tim is still available! Later, he might not be. SportonSpec is in a great spot because it's basically about predicting the outcome of the experience. Suppose you have enough evidence or knowledge of the entertainment business, and you know how people will demand. What would people want from the new experience? Whoever creates a framework for experiences post-COVID will be the winner. And I'm looking forward to that team. And I want to ask you a little bit more about the technology that you guys use? Is there something special or specific about SportonSpec that you guys are leveraging? Or are you guys focusing more on the marketing or the experience side of the business? What can you tell us about the tech side?
Tim Underhill
Yeah, sure. So I think I think when the shutters came down in March, it was an interesting time. See, okay, how do you play that? In terms of things, many people would say, well, we might pivot, you might move towards doing content online, trying to is there a way of joining the broadcast side of things. Still, I've always felt our niche has to be a live event. That's the long term play. That's what there is no other marketplace for the live event. You got to understand the fan. In terms of how we use tech, are we now in a position where we're starting to partner sports? We will leverage it until we build as we found we build the platform out then clearly being in check being on social being on digital. So having the website and being on social media and understanding where the fans are. We're looking to do a podcast into the New Year's fall comes about look doesn't have the newsletters. All these channels are where we now we're looking to move into those. I spoke about work with the clubs to showcase them fire that technology if you like, such as a little exclusive for you today. I've always wanted to get with clubs and event holders to get behind the scenes and start to do a little bit more than just promoting their events. For example, with a netball team in London, London's pro netball team who plans the vitality Super League, the top UK club league, starts in February. In December, we're going to be doing some content pieces. We showcase these amazing players because they've got great international and young rising stars and an international roster that just put together.
Still, so we could get behind, and who are these players? How do they train? What do they like doing? Understanding more about the personalities so that they start playing with each other a bit better and be incentivized to go to watch when they come back. People will go in the copper box just to see the copper box because it's an amazing place to go. The views are incredible. The atmosphere is great, so it's a great night our to do not spend you on the fixtures are, but so we're not yet in terms of tech for me it's at the moment is around, where are the fans? How can we engage them on the digital, on their phones, on their desktops? Where's my connection? So yeah, that's for the next few months.
Ronen Ainbinder
I appreciate the exclusive. Of course, I am very curious to know if there are one or two specific lessons that you've learned through SportonSpec. About fans in general or behavior or what their needs are, what they want? Is there something from learning about specific things about people looking for entertainment? Is there something you've learned through SportonSpec?
Tim Underhill
a lot of the knowledge I've got comes from ever since Dunder twins are going to a lot of different sports and watching the action to understand what we would be promoted and watch the people there. The fans who are there, what gets me excited. During COVID, one of the really interesting things has been for me. It is listening to a whole range of podcasts and following newsletters, of course, your podcast being a good example, and learning from all over what different perspectives are on the fan. And there's a phrase. There's a concept in America, small innovation. They call it the fluid fan. What is the fluid fan? So the fluid fan is kind of this genius rule. Thank you where we're at once, sort of not just millennials or generation Zed, but pretty much everyone now is on a smartphone. And there, they kind of break down three things that a fan is open to change, is they have a lot of they're trying things out, but there's a lot of choices, their power to choose, which is this issue. Well, I've got lots of things I can be doing. There are a zillion one things I can do with my leisure time and then continuously evolving. So that habits are shifting all the time. And I think that's where I think the real opportunity is for safe sports betting being bringing the marketplace that you have every sport has its diehard fan, who will go come what may. And every sport I speak to says you haven't got diehard fans, for sure. But we will want to reach out beyond that. There are, like all the other fans who would enjoy this castle fans, new fans, people never heard, but that's who we need to reach. So I think, understanding from my point of view, this is a big play. It's like, Okay, if you agree with that, then that is a massive opportunity. But then you've got to win by understanding where they are. And then getting to the right places, and giving them reasons to come along because they're going to give up their time and money. So you've got two things, you there's not enough spines, and they're coming and spending an evening. So So you've got to get over those hurdles. But what I also know is that once they get to a live sport, they will invariably love it. So I'll give you three sorts of examples of random sports I've been to, not taught expecting what to see. And then what I've observed. So one, roller Darby to chessboxing, and three is drone racing. I'm the only person you'll speak to that has been seen those three live, so I don't know what that says about me, but there you go. But so, so roller derby, and they all very different experiences, very different orders. But everyone who I've gone has had a great time at the event. Roller derby is a Canadian sport. Women-only. I think men started to get involved. Now it's kind of like rugby on roller skates. And it's played a scene in Spain in landscape Scotland. And it's in this gymnasium to get two or three thousand people in. And it's just a bit of a riot. It's very physical, very skillful when you start to understand the rules, but it's a great sort of party atmosphere. And this is similar to chessboxing, where you have your speed chess for a certain amount of time. And then that's in the rink, and then the outcomes, chess comes up, and the players put the gloves on three minutes, boxing, and rotate. And the winner is the first play the first athlete who either you got to either knock out your opponent and stop them or checkmate them. So it's, and I just thought I was crazy. And I haven't. I'm a boxing fan. I thought that's a crazy mix. So then I went to see it live. And it was the audience. It was really interesting. It was kind of a night owl in a night in a sort of music venue in North London. And people were having a great time just social, but then they came on, and they were passionate chess fans, they'd be drawn on there. And it was a great event. And as was the drone racing. I mean, you might be familiar with drone racing, which is the American scene. Well, world drone racing. They came to London the early Tallulah year before last, I think, and that was extraordinary to go and watch. And that was sort of almost like a big, sort of some sort of motor racing event here. This speed roller drone racing is flying around the halls of Valley Patrick's huge venue. So I think what I'm trying to say is that the sport itself, I mean, you go back. You just touch on the fact that people want safety, which is right. There's that they're the core four things around fans, which are what I've come to realize. People want to enjoy sport, be entertained, see people excel, have a great view, be in a safe, comfortable venue, and have a great atmosphere. So if you start with those for which an awful lot of sport pretty much delivers, then on top of that, you have the tech play people, yes, now they want more, they want to be engaged in other ways as well. So you build that, which is all coming. That's what I've come to learn and seen and demonstrated my own eyes is what, what is the opportunity? And what fans I think I think fans are shifting, and I don't think sometimes I hear different opinions, I think there's a reluctance to accept that fans are quite so fluid now. And foot. But that, that I think the reality and I think that that's here to stay in and you've got, you might have a great night out, but how are you, you've got to get to these people and present it and get them in and then they will love it. But you've got a battle on and so. So that's the challenge.
Ronen Ainbinder
That's awesome, Tim. I've never in my life heard about the three sports that you mentioned. But now I can't wait to sit down on my couch, put some YouTube videos about chessboxing and drone racing because I feel like it would be so exciting. And it also sounds super disruptive in terms of what we're used to. You have a very good sense of what fans are looking for, their motives, and the type of people looking for the entertainment provided, but by sports. That's one of the multiple reasons I think SportonSpec is going to be very successful. And I wish you the best of luck on that. And I think that's a great place to wrap today's conversation. And I want to thank you so much for joining me. I learned so much about you. You're a great guy, and I'm sure you're going to have lots of success. And I can't wait to see what you do and where you get to. I wish you the best of luck. And I hope that we can meet up in the future to talk more about sports and technology and everything else. So thank you very much, Tim.
Tim Underhill
Well, thank you for having me. It's been great. I enjoyed talking.
Transcribed by Otter.