The Swedish Connected League Project between Allsvenskan and Superettan
Mats Enquist, General Secretary of the Swedish Football League, presented the Swedish Connected League Project during the ESSMA Summit. He explained more about the system that they are developing to compete in Europe and to build a better identity.
Background and analysis
The Swedish Football League encountered several matters:
- Unclear role as an organisation
- Not an active stakeholder in the development of Swedish football
- Poor supporter relations
The Swedish Football League changed its perspective from inside-out to outside-in. Instead of waiting for partners and sponsors asking for support, they are now actively looking for new partnerships and sponsors. As a result, the Nordic Best League (NBL) was created to develop and elaborate their new point of view.
The NBL project was built on five fundamentals:
- New media: looking into the media situation
- Stadium/event: making events an experience
- Income: getting more money back to the clubs
- Image: building an image
- Sport/competition: creating a better environment for talents
“The goal of the NBL project was to build a league organisation that could manage these fundamentals.”
EFIT (Elitfotbollens IT)
| What? | The League’s joint business- and IT-system |
| Why? | Securing contacts with fans and partners to enable new business and business control |
| Who? | All clubs and stadiums in Allsvenskan and Superettan |
| How? | By building a joint IT-platform to connect all clubs and stadiums and creating a new digital channel to their fans and partners where they are in control of their content |
Better results are achieved when clubs and leagues work together instead of fighting each other. Therefore, the 32 clubs of the Allsvenskan and Superettan partnered up and implemented a connected league to improve Swedish football.
Some projects which have been implemented:
- Wi-Fi in all stadiums
- Adding an Arena Control System
- Connecting stadiums with a high-speed fibernet connection
- Taking control over production of the Sports Media Centre
“The clubs generate the interest, the league is just the facilitator.”
The first step in their process has been to ‘catch’ fans and put all the data in a CRM system. Next, they had to establish their own digital channels and to stay connected with them all-year round.
Results?
In 2012, only 11% of Swedish football fans had interest in their domestic first league. Three years later, this percentage has increased to 31%. Moreover in 2015, they were the number 1 growing league in Europe and have been awarded the title of Sportel ‘Best TV Rights deal in Europe 2017’.
Future development
The Swedish Connected League project’s future development consists of:
- Video content
- Integrating betting partners in the communication and platform
- Social campaigns
- Fantasy league
- Combining value
- eSports league
- Futsal competition
Access his Summit presentation on the ESSMA Knowledge Platform
The recorded version of Mats Enquist's presentation can be found on the Knowledge Platform. All presentations of the ESSMA Summit are available on the Knowledge Platform. The ESSMA Knowledge Platform is only available for ESSMA members. If you have not received your login, contact communications@essma.eu.