World Football Summit kicked off in Madrid
Madrid once again the center of the Football world
After hosting the final of the Champions League only a few months ago the Spanish capital once again welcomed industry leaders and enthusiasts from all over the football world for the fourth edition of the World Football Summit (WFS) September 24–25 held at Teatro Goya. The event is an important highlight in the football calendar with 150+ speakers and 2,000+ attendees from over 100 countries coming together to share ideas and discuss topics surrounding the football industry. And of course, do some business while they are at it.
The Summit has only grown stronger each year and next year will take place in 3 continents, having added Durban, South Africa to the calendar for February 2020 while Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia will host it’s second edition in April 2020. The event is driven by the WFS team led by Jan Alessie and Marian Otamendi.
WFS is known for bringing together top caliber speakers and this year was no exception with a long list of high profile executives which included President of La Liga Javier Tebas, CEO of Liverpool FC Peter Moore and even “El Fenomeno” Ronaldo who seems to be enjoying his new role as President and part owner of Real Valladolid CF.
Awards Gala
Another highlight from the event was the 3rd edition of the prestigious WFS Industry Awards which celebrate top contributions to the world of football over the last year. SportsTechX had the honour of presenting the award for Best Supplier to Eleven Sports Media.
Here’s a look at all the categories including the nominees, winners are highlighted in bold:
Best Executive: Darren Eales (Atlanta United FC), Shaun Harvey (English Football League), Victor Blanco Rodriguez (Racing Club)
Best Supplier: Eleven Sports Media, StatsBomb, Thermo Human
Football for Good: Tackle Africa, Soccer in the Streets, Football United (FUN)
Best Venue: Mercedes Benz Stadium (Atlanta), Levi’s Stadium (San Francisco), National Soccer Hall of Fame (Frisco)
Best Commercial Initiative: Racing Club, Borussia Dortmund, CD Leganes
Best Women’s Football Initiative: Afghanistan Women’s Football National Team, Atletico de Madrid, Argentina Women’s Football Association
Most Creative Campaign: Coca Cola-Mercado McCann, Uber-Shackleton, ADFA-Havas Tribu
Best Internationalisation Strategy: La Liga, CONCACAF, DAZN
Startup Competition
Bringing the focus back to startups and SportsTech, Wednesday afternoon saw the announcement of the 10 finalists of the Startup Competition 2019 conducted by LaLiga and GSIC. The startups had the opportunity to present themselves to attendees at WFS and will soon get to participate in pilot programs and projects with LaLiga.
Winners were chosen out of 279 applicants from over 50 countries. The competition was established to create a gateway to the sports and entertainment industry for new companies around the world. Solutions presented were organized based on four areas of the industry: Media, Fan Engagement, Smart Venues and Sports Performance.
Here are the 10 finalists:
Cinfo: Cloud based automated real time broadcast feed recording and production.
Fanwide: Fan club network to help find the closest fan club or game-watch-party in any city.
Instituto de Biomecánica (IBV): Technological center aiming to improve the quality of life, as well as competitiveness among businesses, by generating and transferring tech and knowledge.
JUMP: Business toolkit for video service providers to increase retention, personalization, engagement and marketing effectiveness.
Sceenic: Watch Together cloud technology allowing fans to simultaneously enjoy content the same content from different places.
Snaptivity: Automated fan capture at the stadium to drive sponsorship activation.
Solos: ‘Smart Wearable’ merchandise for Fans.
Spalk: Virtual Sportscasting Studio facilitating commentary in multiple languages for live games.
ThermoHuman: Infrared thermography and thermal analytics for injury prevention in sports science, medicine and physiotherapy.
Watafan: Exclusive and limited autographed digital cards that protect intellectual property of content creators.
Full Time
That’s a wrap on WFS Madrid as another excellent event came to a close. We look forward to the upcoming summits in Durban and Kuala Lumpur in 2020 as WFS continues to provide a platform for stakeholders in the industry to come together and discuss important developments in football and we were glad to be involved.
Kudos to Jan, Marian and the whole team!
Want to learn more about SportsTech startups? Checkout our global database, SportsTechDB. Why stop there? Read up on SportsTech in Europe in our European SportsTech Report.
Rohn Malhotra is a Co-Founder at Berlin based SportsTechX — Data & insights about SportsTech startups and the surrounding ecosystem. You can get in touch via LinkedIn, Twitter or email.
