How can Belgian professional football clubs use digital technologies to improve the experience of their fans and the return on investment for their sponsors?

Abstract

Digitalization and new technologies have been widely developed in football clubs in recent years. For example, stadiums are trying to become smart stadiums by using all kinds of technologies. These include 360-degree cameras, the use of virtual reality, the use of GPS sensors, the use of applications, the use of artificial intelligence tools and many more. In addition to these new technologies, clubs have become highly digitalized through the creation of websites and social networks.

All these advances have been put in place to improve the relationship that clubs have with their fans and sponsors. For the fans, the objective is to offer them a better fan experience. For sponsors, the aim is to see how the return on investment can be improved.

This thesis aims to understand how clubs use the technologies they have at their disposal to provide a better fan experience and to provide a measurable audience for sponsors to really measure their return on investment.

A qualitative survey was conducted to better understand what technologies clubs are using and how they are achieving benefits for fans and sponsors.

The survey revealed that some clubs are lagging behind in terms of digitalization. Furthermore, due to the different budgets available within clubs, they do not use the same technologies.