The opportunity for creating and monetizing live video for sports clubs and franchises has become easier than ever using a combination of cloud video production, social media and sponsorship agreements. 

Without live rights to matches, you must turn to the resources you have at your disposal. Your players, coaches and key personnel are your USP and today, fans can’t get enough access to their favorite teams or athletes. 

But how do you maximize these assets to generate revenue from video?

Option 1: Sponsored live digital shows

Creating and producing a live digital show takes less investment and resources than you think. Many of our customers have created live shows from scratch and continue to produce them using our live production platform – these include Arizona Cardinals, LA Kings and UFC. 

Arizona Cardinals have created pop-up live shows for the NFL draft and weekly segments from training camps, press conferences and more, all delivered to its social channels. Their team uses little more than a laptop to mix live feeds with VOD segments, remote guests and audience contributions such as social media posts. 

UFC’s pop-up social media show, Quick Hits, started with a workflow that required two iPhones, two ring lights, LiveU’s mobile app and a laptop. The show eventually progressed to use higher-grade equipment and attracted sponsors, similar to the Cardinals. 

You have multiple options for creating a live show that will attract fans – regular magazine shows, live training sessions, press conferences, Fan Q&As, live interviews and behind-the-scenes tours. There is no limit – fans want to access and feel immersed in your franchise. 

Once you have created a live digital show, monetizing it with sponsor partners is your best bet. This could be an extension of an existing sponsor by offering them more inventory. You could also partner with new sponsors for one-off shows or weekly segments that offer them exposure to a specific audience. 

Option 2: Social media advertising 

Grabyo has direct integrations with all major social media platforms – including native monetization options for YouTube, Facebook and Twitter. 

When delivering clips or videos to your social channels, you are easily able to set up ads and sponsor partnerships within our platform. 

Facebook Branded Content allows you to tag sponsor partner pages in posts natively from Grabyo Studio, giving you the ability to easily monetize your content and offer added inventory for your brand partners. 

Our deep integration with Twitter includes in-stream advertising, which enables you to monetize content using open advertising or with sponsor partners. 

This feature also allows you to geo-target your ads on Twitter, with individual sponsorship program controls, ensuring you can run timely and relevant ad campaigns with a specific brand over an agreed time period.

You can also ensure your IP is protected when creating content using Grabyo, using YouTube Content ID. Copyright owners can block a video from being viewed, monetize the video by running ads against it, track the video’s statistics and geo-block content to specific countries.

Option 3: Driving eCommerce

Leveraging both live and VOD content, you can drive traffic to your merchandise and eCommerce websites, using advert insertion, graphic overlays and branded clips. 

Many social media platforms include seamless eCommerce journeys, with direct links to featured products. 

Using our integration with live graphics platform Singular.Live, you can also create fully interactive live streams on your own digital channels, with shopping features to facilitate a frictionless customer journey. 

We work closely with all of our partners to create workflows that enable you to maximize the value of your video content, with easy-to-use video production tools accessed from anywhere using just a web browser. 

For more information on how to monetize video content for sports teams and franchises, get in touch!