By Genius Sports 
Article originally published by the European Sponsorship Association.
By 2030, 54% of fans expect sports consumption to be more immersive than it is today (Deloitte). This is already playing out in the world of sports sponsorship, where the emergence of new AI-driven digital assets is delivering increased value for sports teams, their partners and fans alike.
Last month, Brentford FC and Genius Sports joined forces to create a new way for sponsors to own key game moments.
Through real-time augmentation technology that combines artificial intelligence with rich tracking data, the Premier League club is delivering automated, sponsorable data-driven highlights clips for social media and the big screens inside the GTech Community Stadium.
Genius Sports – Brentford x GTech Augmented Sponsorship from Genius Sports on Vimeo.
Years ago, sponsors relied heavily on pitchside branding or a logo on the front of a jersey for in-game exposure. But with advertising costs rising, brands today crave more measurable and contextual activations. With a direct and engaged audience, teams’ owned digital assets present lucrative opportunity.
Brentford FC’s new club-owned video highlight assets allow GTech to “own” an enhanced matchday experience both in the stadium and on social channels.
By augmenting data overlays highlighting key stats like shot power within instant replays, Brentford FC is simultaneously deepening engagement and giving its sponsor great reach. GTech, meanwhile, is contextually aligning with key moments like each goal, through timely logo placements for maximum exposure, brand recall and better CPMs.
A win-win strategy
Digital, data and video dominate today’s sports content landscape. According to YouGov, 34% of fans aged 18-24 prefer highlight clips to watching the full game. 46% of Gen Z want real-time stats and analytics within the viewing experience and 51% consume player stats while watching sports at home (Deloitte).
For clubs and sponsors, augmented data-driven digital content – like highlight videos and social media graphics – is ideal for increasing engagement. While Brentford FC is focusing on real-time augmentation involving shot speed and player names within highlight clips, the possibilities are endless.
Imagine a real-time sponsorable xG metric placed above the goal within an instant replay video or an automated highlight reel including passing distance and a touch map, minutes after a central midfielder’s player-of-the-match performance.
Teams can even create a virtual 3D recreation of a full game that includes different sponsorable assets based on different fan segments’ preferences, or automatically deliver team and player statistical graphics on X, TikTok, or Instagram.
Richer data, infinite potential
This new world of augmented, authentic digital content is enabled by AI. Installed in Premier League and EFL Championship stadiums, Genius Sports’ computer vision technology captures around 10,000 surface points on the body of every player, over 200 times per second.
Today’s manually-intensive data systems generate thousands of data points per match but Dragon, through its application of computer vision, delivers billions – monitoring every bodily movement and action of each player to unlock new data and analytics.
While Dragon’s AI engine computes tracking data to understand every nuance of the game, real-time augmentation technology simultaneously augments live broadcasts, highlights, replays and other digital assets with relevant data points and sponsorable inventory relating to the live game events.
Adding relatability and relevance is key
For teams, owning more of the fan journey and building engagement on their properties is key to unlocking new sponsorship revenues. It has to start with great content.
Whether it’s a data-driven replay inside the stadium, exclusive member-only augmented highlights content behind a paywall within a club’s official app or a full virtual 3D match render, this new wave of AI-generated sports storytelling allows teams to wrestle screen-time away from third-party media and create new highly-contextual sponsorable assets.
Unlike other online and offline inventory, augmented video and social media content gives sponsors unmatched visibility and attractive display times at moments of maximum impact. Brands get to contextually align with genuinely innovative statistical insights and key highlights, like a winning goal or POTM performance to authentically integrate within the fan experience.
Teams and sponsors can even tailor augmented data-driven content that aligns with individual fan segments’ preferences. For example, fans in overseas markets can see a local brand’s logo placed within goal replays when logging into the official team mobile app.
Meanwhile, a segment of “super fans” can be met with unique statistics integrated within a longer-form highlight clips showcasing a new signing’s debut.
