The FIFA World Cup is not only one of the largest sporting events in the world, it is also a huge business. Mainly thanks to the sale of broadcasting and marketing rights, FIFA generates billions in revenue every four years and, as the following chart illustrates, enjoys a sizeable surplus after accounting for all costs.
Looking at the 2014 World Cup in Brazil for example, FIFA’s revenue amounted to $4.83 billion compared to just $2.22 billion in expenses. While TV rights ($2.43 billion) and marketing rights ($1.58b) were the biggest items on the plus side for FIFA, contributions to the local organizing committee ($453 million), TV production costs ($370m) and prize money ($358m) were FIFA’s biggest expenses for the 2014 tournament.
Interestingly FIFA set aside just $100 million for the FIFA World Cup Legacy Fund, which is meant to sustain the long-term impact of the tournament by financing infrastructure projects and other initiatives in the host country. Considering FIFA’s surplus of $2.6 billion, it seems like football’s global governing body could do even more to leave a meaningful legacy in the countries that set the stage for its biggest show.
New white label offering provides a single platform to manage fan communication, brand protection and marketing while increasing content reach and opening new revenue channels and markets
Wappingers Falls, NY (June 26th, 2018) Follr, Inc., a SaaS (Service as a software) company today announced the release of “Follr Global”, a white label software platform that provides sports franchises, media companies and organizations in the entertainment industry with a broad suite of services to help fan management, engagement and monetization. The news follows the companies recent announcement about record growth.
The Follr platform is centered on Follr Communities, highly customizable Websites that enable fans and supporters clubs to create an online community around a common team, person or shared interest and passion. Each Follr Community provides a single point of entry that provides fans with a broad suite of features that include:
An ecommerce platform
Marketing tools
Communication channels
Content and social media aggregation
Event management
Free and paid memberships
Automated social media distribution
Mark Wayman
“We are very excited to release Follr Global primarily because it enables large organizations to control every aspect of fan management while concurrently opening up new revenue from latent sources,” stated Follr Product Lead Mark Wayman adding “The fact that we can also integrate Follr Global into existing technologies and provide a complex suite of management tools through one interface is something we expect will save our clients enormous amounts of time and money.”
Follr Global opens up the Follr software to sports franchises and teams looking to manage a distributed fan base while protecting their brand, controlling and owning fan data and leveraging official supporters clubs to increase market share. This is achieved in part by a security hierarchy that enables global design changes, content updates and sharing. Simplification of supporters club administration, coupled with the ability to work with existing sales and marketing software, allows the platform to seamlessly integrate into an organization’s operations. Available as a white label product, it can additionally be customized to match the existing brand of any organization using it.
The Follr platform also provides rich fan demographics through member profiles which detail personal and professional interests and experience.
Stephen Fells
“The growth of online sports marketing, especially fan driven conversation and content creation, has created new problems for brands and is compounded by the efforts of many, especially in sports, to reach a global audience,” stated Follr CEO Stephen Fells adding “We have seen this manifest in our own record growth making the timing of the release of Follr Global ideal; this is the perfect time for a centralised solution that solves busines problems for fan based organizations while additionally helping fans to connect with the teams, players and artists they love.”
Follr Global can be licensed. Its release is one of several announcements the company expect to make during 2018.
About Follr, Inc.:
Follr, Inc. (www.follr.com) is a software company founded in 2011. Located in California and New York, Follr provides Web-based business and personal marketing products.
Follr Communities provide vibrant, social communities and groups to engage individuals around a membership, club, group, shared passion or interest.
Follr Profile Websites enable individuals, companies and brands to tell their story using a combination of personal or corporate history, social media profiles (Facebook, LinkedIn, Foursquare etc.) and content. They are personally branded Websites used as an initial point of contact and represent an aggregation of all online and offline information. Accessed by an enduring, easy to remember URL they represent a more complete picture and story in an increasingly digital world.
The Follr network provides users with the ability to create and edit their Follr Profile Website and Follr Community. It additionally facilitates improved networking while providing access to millions of jobs.
