In 2017, GreenHunters Sports International hosted their annual MTE, Masterclass Talent Exhibition event at the Digital Bridge Private Stadium in Oshodi Lagos for one week in July. It was the most successful MTE they'd ever had, with well over 1,000 attendees, individual players, teams and two foreign scouts from the UK based Diamond Agency were present.
That is, until the fall of 2021 — when they hosted over 2,500 attendees in a virtual version of the same event at the Soccer Temple Agege Stadium also in Lagos. Over 25 scouts from the UK, Germany, Spain, Moldova, Malta watched the MTE through live streaming. They couldn't travel because of the COVID pandemic restrictions.
A few years back, Virtual Football scouting event wouldn't be heard of, every sports marketer hosted in-person Football trials and scouting event.. Virtual event is a new one on us now.
But, post-pandemic, we're seeing a major shift towards virtual or hybrid sports events. In fact, Sports Marketing RoundTable research found roughly 40% of marketers plan to increase their investments in virtual Sports events, webinar, conferences and Online courses in 2022, followed by 39% who plan to spend the same amount as they did in 2021. A mere 16% plan on decreasing their investment.
Benson Chukwueke, GreenHunters' President and coordinator of Global Events, is unsurprised by this shift towards virtual, and believes it was always destined to be the future of sports events.
"The pandemic is really just an accelerator of something that was going to be inevitable anyway, but probably would have taken five or six years instead of just two."
" For instance, football live streaming is not new. In Nigeria where I live, we connect to UEFA Champions League, Premier League via television and other Internet enabled devices. It is cheaper, thousands of fans can gather in a football viewing center for a patry sum, without paying subscriptions.
Here, I spoke with experts across industries to learn more about the surprising future of sports events — and whether in-person or virtual, will become the norm. Plus, what it could mean for football business.
The Case for Virtual Football Scouting Event
We all remember the challenges of in-person events: Shuffling from getting players and team to travel down to Lagos. And the more, the cost of flying down just one or two foreign scouts to the event, hotel accommodation, feeding, entertainment, security and other logistics..
Simply put, in-person Scouting events can be incredibly stressful and frustrating experiences for both the event organisers and attendees — particularly with larger gatherings.
As GreenHunters' Chukwueke puts it, "The dirty little secret of in-person Football Scouting events is you're competing for the biggest number — but the bigger the number of attendees, the worse the experience for everybody, the event organisers, players and the scouts alike."
"It doesn't pay at all, and you dare not try to bring in more than two to three scouts and agents to the event. It will only put more holes into your pocket, nothing more.
Nowadays, you'll be hard-pressed to find an event organiser who doesn't recognize the benefits of virtual events.
Among other things, virtual Football Scouting events can:
Lower the price of admission, which can increase players and teams attendee count and enable some great talents with little or no money to take part in your Scouting program.
Lower the general costs of on-hand staff, catering, security, and more.
Enable Scouts and club managers across the globe to see a large array of talents without needing to spend money on flights and hotels, but just sit back with their devices and watch from where ever they are.
Attract high-level agents and scouts who might not have the time to attend your scouting event in-person, but are happy to watch and interact with the event on real time via video or audio call.
Provide you with the opportunity to record the scouting proceedings and stats of participating players, that presurposes you can easily create promotional video clips for each or selected players that performed exceptionally well.
