Sep 24

How College Sports Programs Turn Casual Fans Into Daily App Users

Get an 18-year-old to download a pro sports app, and you've got a fight on your hands. Get them to download their college's app freshman year, and you might have a fan for life. College athletics touches more fans and student athletes than almost any other corner of sport, yet most programs are still figuring out how to turn casual attendance into daily digital habits. NIL, realignment, and streaming are colliding at once, and digital fandom strategy hasn't caught up. George Scott is President of SIDEARM Sports, the digital platform behind websites, apps, and fan experiences for more than 1,600 college athletics programs. He spent 12 years running the NFL's Club Media Group across all 32 teams, led collegiate digital strategy at CBS Interactive, and served as Chief Strategy Officer at NCM before joining SIDEARM. George breaks down how gamification and loyalty mechanics can keep a student's app on their phone long after graduation. You'll hear how SIDEARM balances the needs of Power Four powerhouses against Division III programmes and how NIL has forced schools to rethink player content overnight. This episode covers content monetisation, first-party data strategy, and the build versus partner decision every athletics department faces. It's built for digital product and fan engagement leaders in college sports, broadcast, and beyond, not for anyone looking for X's and O's on the field. Key Takeaways George explains why an 18-year-old won't download an NFL app but will download their own school's and what that means for lifetime fan retention.NIL hasn't just changed player pay. It's created a content arms race that SIDEARM is redesigning entire roster and bio pages to support.George lays out why SIDEARM refuses to build gamification in-house and what that decision reveals about where college athletics should focus its limited resources.A single data point from the men's and women's basketball tournaments shows growth in women's sports engagement that most athletics departments are still underestimating.Chapter Markers 00:00 - Welcome to The Future of Fandom 00:14 - Meet George Scott, SIDEARM Sports president 01:52 - The path from NFL Club Media Group to college sports 04:18 - Why apps build the deepest fan connection 05:24 - Untapped fandom potential in college athletics 06:22 - What NFL content lessons taught him about college 08:30 - What SIDEARM does across 1,600 athletics programmes 09:20 - Scaling from Power Four to Division III 11:40 - NFL fandom versus college fandom 12:27 - Winning freshmen before they leave campus 13:10 - Gamification and loyalty as the retention play 14:40 - Different needs, Power Four to D3 17:02 - Where college athletics departments underinvest 19:40 - Building daily habits around game day 21:45 - First party data and fan authentication 24:49 - How NIL rewired demand for player content 28:16 - Why SIDEARM partners instead of building in-house 32:47 - Customising gamification for every school 34:35 - Predicting fan demands five years from now 39:45 - Top advice: reach, engagement, monetisation 41:45 - The underrated growth of women's sports 45:09 - Closing thoughts Useful Links & Resources SIDEARM SportsGeorge Scott on LinkedInLiveLike Connect With the Show LiveLike on LinkedInMiheer Walavalkar on LinkedInWhich college sports program do you think is building the smartest digital fan experience right now? Drop a comment and tell us who's getting it right or wrong. Visit livelike.com to learn how LiveLike helps brands build the future of fan engagement.

Sep 7

3 Trends to Watch at IBC 2026

AI is the word on every badge at IBC this year, but almost no sports organisation has actually put it into production at scale. If you're staring down a show floor full of vendors promising the same thing, how do you know who's actually built something real versus who started six months ago and calls it innovation? And if direct-to-fan is supposedly the biggest lever left to pull, why hasn't every league already pulled it? For this episode, LiveLike Co-Founder and CRO Samuel Westberg swaps seats and sits on the guest side of the mic, walking through what he expects to see at IBC in Amsterdam and what he's learned from years of evaluating sports tech, gamification, and fan engagement platforms up close. You'll walk away with a real question to ask any vendor to separate a working product from a polished demo, plus a clearer read on when a direct-to-fan platform actually makes sense (and when it's a trap). Sam also breaks down where agentic AI still needs a human in the loop, and why he thinks smaller organisations, not the giants, will make the biggest AI breakthroughs this year. Expect a frank take on platform consolidation, digital fandom, and where AI orchestration is genuinely changing production workflows versus where it's still a stage demo. This one's for digital product, audience engagement, and content leaders at sports organisations and broadcasters weighing where to spend their next AI budget. It's not for anyone looking for hype without a framework. Key Takeaways There's one simple question that separates a real AI product from a rehearsed demo: ask the vendor to change something live, in front of you.Direct-to-fan isn't a universal win. Volleyball World is thriving on it while La Liga shut its platform down, and the difference comes down to audience depth and monetisation data, not ambition.Agentic AI can already make editorial decisions at scale, but Sam is clear on the one thing he'd never let it do without human oversight, and why that's the biggest fear inside most organisations right now.The organisations most likely to win the AI race at IBC this year aren't the biggest names. Sam explains why smaller, more flexible operators have the edge.Chapter Markers 00:00 Introduction to this IBC preview episode 00:35 The number one question on everyone's mind at IBC 01:51 Where LiveLike wants AI to move beyond digital 02:49 The truth about platform consolidation 05:36 The smallest first move for testing AI 06:44 AI in action versus AI as a polished demo 08:50 Why organisations hesitate to hand AI control 10:46 What agentic AI still can't do 11:49 Back end automation versus front end wins 13:09 Real AI use cases at scale, or the lack of them 13:37 Why direct-to-fan hasn't been fully pulled yet 15:07 If Sam ran the Premier League or NBA 16:28 His advice for an up and coming league 18:06 Rights fragmentation and the fan discovery problem 19:48 Alex's own subscription fatigue as an Arsenal fan 20:53 How tier one content pulls fans toward new sports 22:26 The one question that spots a real product from a demo 23:53 What to expect from LiveLike at IBC 25:34 Sam's own must-see on the show floor 26:18 A bold prediction for who wins at IBC Useful Links & Resources Samuel Westberg on LinkedInLiveLikeFind LiveLike at IBC, Hall 1, ScorePlay stand, 11 to 14 SeptemberMore conversations on The Future of Fandom podcastConnect With the Show LiveLike on LinkedInSamuel Westberg on XIf you're heading to IBC this year, what's the one thing on the show floor you're actually hoping is real, not just a demo? Tell us in the comments, and if you're an Arsenal fan paying for four different subscriptions just to watch your team, you're not alone. Visit livelike.com to learn how LiveLike helps brands build the future of fan engagement. #FutureOfFandom #FanEngagement #SportsTech #AIinSports #IBC2025

Jul 22

ITV's Head of Generative AI: Why the Best Ideas Come From Bench Conversations, Not Board Meetings

Broadcast content is about to stop being something you just watch, and this ITV exec built the team proving it. Every broadcaster is racing to add generative AI without a playbook, and most leaders still can't answer a simple question: where does it actually move the needle for fans, not just for efficiency? Paul Kerrison is Head of Generative AI Innovation at ITV, where he built Europe's first GenAI-produced TV advert and grew the Creative AI Network into a 3,000-strong community of UK content creators. He started experimenting with generative AI from his own laptop before the role existed, then pitched it to ITV's C-suite with a demo that replicated a show's visual effects on a fraction of the budget. Paul walks through how ITV moved from a chance hallway conversation to a company-wide gen AI strategy, and what it took to get buy-in from production teams who didn't trust the tools. You'll hear how a smart-editing tool tripled output on a major reality casting process, and why some of ITV's biggest wins came from teams nobody expected to adopt AI first. This one's for digital product and content leaders at broadcasters, streamers, and media companies trying to move past pilot projects into real fan engagement gains. Expect specifics on interactive content, sports data personalization, and agentic AI workflows, not theory about where AI is "heading." Key Takeaways - Paul's first viral internal demo wasn't a pitch for a new role, but it created one anyway, and the story behind it says a lot about how innovation actually gets funded inside legacy broadcasters. - ITV's first AI-generated TV advert cost a fraction of a traditional production and opened doors across departments that had nothing to do with advertising. - A smart-editing tool sat unused for months until Paul found one desperate team willing to test it, and it tripled their output almost overnight. - Paul argues content is about to stop being fixed. Fans will soon be able to pull custom stats, remix scenes, and talk to characters instead of just watching a broadcast. Chapter Markers 00:00 Paul's path to building ITV's AI strategy 03:27 The bench conversation that started it all 05:41 The demo that turned into a full-time role 08:18 Building the AI Champions network across ITV 11:44 Making Europe's first AI-generated TV advert 15:28 The smart-editing tool nobody wanted, until they did 19:01 Standardizing gen AI workflows across production 20:10 What generative AI means for sports broadcast content 23:39 Making content remixable and interactive for fans 26:26 Building a bidirectional relationship with audiences 30:23 Agentic AI workflows and where orchestration is heading 32:06 Why data can't replace human intuition 36:39 Moving fast on AI without breaking trust 38:04 Paul's five-year vision for fan experiences 39:39 The Creative AI Network and closing thoughts Useful Links & Resources - Paul Kerrison on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mrpaulkerrison/ - Creative AI Network: search "Creative AI Network" on LinkedIn for events and community details - LiveLike: https://www.livelike.com Connect With the Show - Samuel Westberg on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/samuel-westberg-a836713a/ - Samuel Westberg on X: https://x.com/samuelwestberg - LiveLike on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/livelike/ - Website: https://www.livelike.com Has your organization found a use case that changed how teams think about AI internally, or are you still waiting for the one demo that gets buy-in? Tell us about it in the comments. If you're building the next generation of fan engagement, subscribe to Future of Fandom so you don't miss the next conversation. Visit livelike.com to learn how LiveLike helps brands build the future of fan engagement. #FutureOfFandom #GenerativeAI #FanEngagement #SportsTech #Broadcasting

Jul 8

Fan Engagement Beyond Borders: Why Demographics Are the Wrong Starting Point

Most media companies are still building for an audience that no longer exists. Demographic boxes - Hispanic or American, soccer or football, Spanish or English - were built for a world where culture moved slowly. The fans those boxes were meant to describe left them behind years ago. Olek Loewenstein, Global President of Sports at TelevisaUnivision, has spent his career serving audiences that live between worlds. His read on global fandom isn't theoretical - it's operational. And his argument cuts through a lot of the noise around global expansion: distribution creates reach, but reach is not fandom. Fandom is identity. It's ritual. It's the fans crossing the San Diego-Tijuana border every week not because the stream is unavailable, but because being there means something. In this episode of Future of Fandom, Alex Hay, VP of Business Development and Strategy at LiveLike, sits down with Olek to unpack what the bicultural fan actually means for media companies, rights holders, and anyone trying to build lasting audience relationships in a world without borders. What you'll learn in this episode - Why the demographic frameworks most media companies still operate within were built for a world that no longer exists - and what replacing them actually looks like in practice - The difference between global reach and global fandom - and why selling rights into a market and building genuine fan attachment there are two entirely different commercial propositions - How the fan loyalty shift from league to team to player is forcing broadcasters and rights holders to rethink storytelling, content rights, and athlete relationships - Why accessibility - distribution, language, and education - are the three layers leagues need to fulfill to build fandom in new markets, and where AI is changing the equation - What "secondhand fandom" means for platform and audience development strategy - and whether fandom is increasingly discovered rather than inherited - How TelevisaUnivision thinks about serving audiences that exist at the intersection of multiple cultures, languages, and sports simultaneously What’s next? If Olek's argument reframed how you think about the audiences you're building for, share it with someone working on the same problem. And be sure to subscribe wherever you get your podcasts so you don’t miss what’s next. Useful resources - Connect with Alex Hay: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexhayaus/ - Connect with Olek Loewenstein: https://www.linkedin.com/in/olek-loewenstein-708326/ - Visit https://www.livelike.com/ - Visit https://www.envisionsportgp.com/

Jun 24

First-Party Data, Bigger Sponsorship: The Fan Intelligence Stack Sport Is Still Missing

Sport's sponsorship model hasn't fundamentally changed since the 1960s. The data most organisations hold about their fans isn't connected to the products those fans actually use. And the opportunity sitting inside every rights holder's fan base - worth more than most balance sheets currently reflect - is still largely untouched. Aidan Cooney has spent 25 years trying to fix that. He co-founded Opta, the data business that transformed how sport is analysed and broadcast. He built InCrowd, a data-driven marketing services business helping sports organisations adapt for digital audiences. He created Cortex, a fan data platform built around a single, unified view of the fan. And he now leads Envision Sport Group, the holding company behind all of it. In this episode of Future of Fandom, Miheer Walavalkar sits down with Aidan at Envision's London office for one of the most candid conversations the show has produced - two founders who have been building in this space for decades, sharing a frank, unfiltered view of where the industry is, where it's failing, and what becomes possible when the data foundation is finally in place. What you'll learn in this episode - Why you can't activate until you unify - and what a genuinely unified fan data platform actually looks like in practice, versus the siloed reality most organisations are living with - The difference between a customer data platform and a fan data platform - and why treating fans like rational, price-sensitive consumers is one of the most expensive mistakes in sport - Why the sponsorship model has barely evolved since Mark McCormack and Arnold Palmer in the 1960s - and what the hybrid of content assets and advertising attribution could unlock - Why sports organisations are B2B businesses today but will inevitably become B2C businesses - and what that shift actually demands from the technology stack - Where European sport is still leaving the fan experience on the table compared to the US - and whether the digital layer is closing that gap or opening new ones - What AI actually makes possible once the data foundation is in place - and why Miheer and Aidan both believe most organisations are getting ahead of themselves Question Aidan's argument is that the fan base is the most important balance sheet item a sports organisation owns - and most organisations haven't started treating it that way. Do you agree? And what would it actually take for your organisation to build the data foundation to unlock it? Drop your thoughts in the comments. What’s next? Subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. If Aidan's point about the fan balance sheet made you think differently about how your organisation values its audience - share this episode with someone who needs to hear it. Useful resources - Connect with Miheer: https://www.linkedin.com/in/miheerwalavalkar/ - Connect with Aidan: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aidan-cooney-4a284a4/ - Visit https://www.livelike.com/ - Visit https://www.envisionsportgp.com/

Jun 10

From Wimbledon to Wembley: Alexandra Willis on Rewriting the FA's Digital Playbook

The Football Association wrote the laws of the modern game. It has governed English football for 160 years. And until this year, it had never had a Chief Digital Officer. Alexandra Willis is the person who has taken on that role - and we joined her at Wembley Stadium, with the World Cup imminent and one of the most ambitious digital briefs in sport sitting in front of her. That brief spans the England men's and women's national teams, the FA Cup, grassroots football, and Wembley itself as a year-round venue. This conversation covers what to consider when building a digital strategy for an institution of the FA's complexity - how you create meaningful fan engagement around a national team when there's no weekly game to anchor it, how the squad selector and the England app going #1 on the App Store on announcement day signals a fundamental shift from broadcaster-led to FA-led moments, and why the future of fandom might be less about reach and more about a genuinely personal, direct relationship with the fan. Alexandra has spent 20 years moving through some of sport's most distinctive digital environments - Wimbledon, the Premier League, and now the FA - and her perspective on what each of those models taught her about fan engagement is one of the most considered you'll hear. If you work in sport, media, digital strategy or fan engagement, this one is essential listening. What you'll learn in this episode - What to consider when your digital strategy has to serve a national team, a grassroots game, a cup competition and an iconic stadium - all at once. - How the FA is approaching its fan relationships - building experiences like a squad selector and live blog that bring fans inside moments that once belonged entirely to broadcasters. On announcement day, the England app hit #1 on the App Store in the UK. - Why fandom is fluid, not fixed - and what it means to move beyond direct-to-consumer to something genuinely direct-to-individual. - Women's football is the fastest-growing sport in the world, but the commercial infrastructure is still growing. Alex draws on Wimbledon - one of the few properties with a genuinely even gender split across every platform - to explain what building properly for that audience actually requires. - Why AI readiness starts with your data, not your tools - and why to consider not rushing in before the foundations are right. Sport's greatest asset in an AI-saturated world is its unpredictability. Alexandra makes the case for protecting it. Question The FA is making a deliberate shift from broadcaster-led moments to FA-led ones - owning the squad announcement, the live blog, the app experience. Is that the right move for governing bodies? And what would it take for your organisation to make the same shift? Drop your thoughts in the comments. What’s next? Subscribe wherever you get your podcasts - and if this episode made you think differently about AI in sport, share it with someone who needs to hear it. Useful resources - Download the England App on: The App Store: https://apps.apple.com/app/the-official-england-app/id6759335403 Google Play: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.thefa.fanapp - Connect with Miheer: https://www.linkedin.com/in/miheerwalavalkar/ - Connect with Alexandra: https://www.linkedin.com/in/willisalexandra/ - Visit https://www.livelike.com/ - Visit https://www.thefa.com/

May 27

The Club That's Building Football's AI Blueprint - and It's Not in the Premier League

Most football clubs are talking about AI. Almost none of them are doing it properly. Stuart Fenton is the first-ever Head of AI at a professional English football club - and he's building something at Reading FC that the rest of the sport hasn't caught up with yet. This isn't a conversation about hype. It's about what an AI strategy actually looks like inside a football club - the data foundations, the cultural resistance, the fan experience vision, and why a League One side is leading where Premier League clubs haven't yet been willing to go. Stuart's philosophy is simple: AI should be invisible. It should empower people, not replace them. And if you build on the wrong foundations, the whole thing falls apart. If you work in sport, media, fan engagement, or digital strategy, this episode will change how you think about what AI can - and can't - do. What you'll learn in this episode >> Most clubs jump straight to AI strategy before the data foundations are in place - Stuart explains why that's like building a house on quicksand, and what getting it right actually requires. >> AI adoption inside a club is a culture change challenge as much as a technology challenge - and getting buy-in from the groundsman to the exec board matters more than the tools you choose. >> The fan experience of the future isn't about technology for its own sake - it's about making AI invisible, seamless, and genuinely useful, the way good connectivity works. >> Reading FC are pioneering a tech partnership model that goes well beyond shirt sponsorships - acting as a strategic go-to-market partner for innovative tech companies rather than a transactional sponsor relationship. >> Building a real AI edge takes 12 to 18 months - and clubs that expect a quick return are setting themselves up to fail. Timestamps 00:00 The AI-powered fan experience - Stuart's vision for Reading FC 00:42 Welcome to Future of Fandom 01:24 Introduction - Stuart Fenton, Head of AI at Reading FC 01:51 Stuart's background - from telecoms to UK government AI to football 04:50 How a DM on X led to the first Head of AI role in English football 05:20 Reading's ambition: the most innovative club using AI in world football 06:39 Horizontal vs vertical AI - how Reading approaches deployment 07:30 AI as a club-wide capability - culture change from the top down 12:36 The human-centric approach - augmenting people, not replacing them 14:00 AI in recruitment - how Reading rebuilt the squad with data 16:41 Building trust with coaches and translating data into football terms 17:46 AI for competitive advantage - computer vision and tactical analysis 20:25 Managing manager changes and building club-level AI (not individual tools) 21:16 Handling manager changes and tool preferences 23:24 Fan engagement - the single view of the fan 25:17 Building the data infrastructure behind fan personalisation 28:00 Hyper-personalised matchday experiences and the AI-native generation 30:09 Tech partnerships - from shirt sponsors to strategic growth partners 34:31 Why AI is not a light switch - and the importance of timing 36:50 How long does it take to build a real AI edge? 12 to 18 months 40:35 Revenue, fan experience and the bigger picture 42:05 One piece of advice for any club starting on AI 43:25 What success looks like in three years - becoming the blueprint Useful resources Connect with Samuel Westberg: https://fr.linkedin.com/in/samuel-westberg-a836713a Connect with Stuart Fenton: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stuartcmfenton/ Visit LiveLike’s website: https://www.livelike.com/ Visit Reading FC’s website: https://www.readingfc.co.uk/ Connect with the show Follow LiveLike on LinkedIn for more conversations with the people shaping sports, media, and fan engagement: https://www.linkedin.com/company/livelike/ Question What's the biggest lesson your organisation has taken from trying to implement AI? Drop your thoughts in the comments - especially if you work in sport or fan engagement and are navigating this in real time. What’s next? Subscribe wherever you get your podcasts - and if this episode made you think differently about AI in sport, share it with someone who needs to hear it.

May 15

How to Build a Sports League, a Brand and a Fan Base All at Once

Most women's sports leagues copy the men's playbook. The Netball Super League is writing its own, and it's working. What happens when you have 3 million people playing a sport, but almost none of them are paying fans? How do you convert participation into fandom when your audience has never been taught to be sports fans in the first place? Claire Nelson is the first-ever Managing Director of the Netball Super League. She's spent nearly two decades building commercial cases for women's sport, from rebranding Netball Scotland to filling the O2 Arena with 10,000 fans for a grand final on Sky Sports. This conversation breaks down exactly how you build a league, a brand, and a fan base simultaneously, with no legacy infrastructure, no private equity shortcuts, and an audience that consumes sport on completely different terms. You'll walk away rethinking how fan engagement works when your audience is 80% female, 50% under 35, and overwhelmingly watches on catch-up. If you work in sports business, fan engagement strategy, or digital fandom, this one's worth your time, especially if you're building for audiences the traditional sports model was never designed to serve. What you'll learn in this episode >> Playing a sport and being a fan of it are driven by completely different motivations, and assuming one converts to the other is the mistake most women's sports leagues make when building their fan base. >> The Netball Super League deliberately avoided private equity investment to retain control of a ten-year professionalization journey, betting that building value first would put them in a stronger position later. >> Traditional sports metrics like live viewership and stadium capacity may be the wrong yardstick for women's sport. The real commercial power lies in understanding the depth and influence of an engaged female audience, not just its size. >> Nottingham Forest's decision to integrate a netball team into their football club ecosystem is quietly shifting culture, bringing new demographics into arenas and changing how men's sport fans engage with women's sport. Timestamps 00:00 Claire Nelson on building a sport loved by everybody 00:32 Welcome to the Future of Fandom 01:15 Claire introduces the Netball Super League 03:08 From hospitality and PR to women's sport 08:40 Starting the league with almost nothing 15:06 Why women aren't used to being sports fans 16:15 Building a brand that's more than a logo 16:49 League structure: eight clubs, different ownership models 21:50 Converting 3 million players into paying fans 27:12 The entertainment product beyond the court 31:21 How league and federation fuel each other 33:35 Digital strategy, data, and understanding female consumption 38:05 Why catch-up viewing might matter more than live 41:24 Where younger audiences actually watch sport 43:08 What success looks like in five years 45:24 Why every man who watches netball loves it Useful resources Connect with Samuel Westberg and Claire Nelson on LinkedIn. Visit the LiveLike and Netball Super League websites Connect with the show Follow LiveLike on LinkedIn for more conversations with the people shap

The Future of Fandom

How College Sports Programs Turn Casual Fans Into Daily App Users

3 Trends to Watch at IBC 2026

ITV's Head of Generative AI: Why the Best Ideas Come From Bench Conversations, Not Board Meetings

Fan Engagement Beyond Borders: Why Demographics Are the Wrong Starting Point

First-Party Data, Bigger Sponsorship: The Fan Intelligence Stack Sport Is Still Missing

From Wimbledon to Wembley: Alexandra Willis on Rewriting the FA's Digital Playbook

The Club That's Building Football's AI Blueprint - and It's Not in the Premier League

How to Build a Sports League, a Brand and a Fan Base All at Once

Ratings & Reviews

About

Information

The Future of Fandom

Episodes

How College Sports Programs Turn Casual Fans Into Daily App Users

3 Trends to Watch at IBC 2026

ITV's Head of Generative AI: Why the Best Ideas Come From Bench Conversations, Not Board Meetings

Fan Engagement Beyond Borders: Why Demographics Are the Wrong Starting Point

First-Party Data, Bigger Sponsorship: The Fan Intelligence Stack Sport Is Still Missing

From Wimbledon to Wembley: Alexandra Willis on Rewriting the FA's Digital Playbook

The Club That's Building Football's AI Blueprint - and It's Not in the Premier League

How to Build a Sports League, a Brand and a Fan Base All at Once

Ratings & Reviews

About

Information