Three Things: Disruption meets sports business at the Super Bowl

Three Things I Learned in Saas, Sports, Tech & Live Events Disruption meets the sports business at the LA Super Bowl The business crowd at the Super Bowl is much different than at my first in the mid-00s and it is a harbinger of massive disruption headed the way of the team's business offices. Think of what Moneyball did to the baseball industry. Only this time, it's the quants of venture, banking, private equity and gaming playing the role of Billy Beane and Paul DePodesta. Three things we've learned, and seen, this Super Bowl week: 1) The fraternity will be over soon. The industry is full of those who 'paid their dues' in a sales office or internship to move up in the business office. That talent pool was limited back then to those who could 'survive' getting paid little money out of school while they got in the good graces of the fraternity above them. They moved up, many of them not bothering to stay up to speed with tech and disruption outside the industry. They're getting run over by disruption rapidly. We've been working with bankers and gaming for over a decade now. These are Harvard/Stanford/Etc MBAs and JDs, alongside wildly intelligent founders, operating at another level. They eat inefficiency, especially when driven by biased ego. They're here. And they're hungry. 2) Many in sports don't understand what 'early' really is. When we talk to those being displaced, or those trying to push the envelope, they often say they want to get into "new" businesses like health and wellness or gaming. They ask me all the time about StubHub, FanDuel or Hyperice, as examples. FanDuel is thirteen years old. I have a friend who was on the board through some rocky policy shifts in gaming. It ain't 'early' there. One of the leaders I admire most, Jim Heuther of Hyperice, has been there 8 years. The company is 12 years old. I joined StubHub in 04 - already the 4th year. Yes, that's 'early' to sports pros used to certainty, employment contracts and cash comp unrelated to stock, but not to the rest of the disruptive world. A lot happens before disruptive businesses cross over to our collective knowledge. 3) The conversion will be rocky. Most team execs don't understand terms like "KPI", "LTV" "CAC" or many common practice banking terms. It's not how they've valued and run their businesses. Scalable businesses use different metrics. They are much less likely to add headcount for revenue. There have been a number of acquisitions recently which didn't disclose valuations. Many categorized as "tech" firms which are really agencies selling at agency values. For more on how relationships are valued vs tech, check out Michael Ovitz's book.