Turkish Airlines EuroLeague Final Four weekend traditionally brings together the who's who of the basketball world and even with the limitations in 2021, that would be the case. The first edition of the Basketball Innovation Summit aired as a Zoom meeting and gave space to tech companies and partners such as SAP Sports, 4YFN and YBVR to showcase their projects and solutions within the sports tech ecosystem.

The two-hour event included the annual FanXP Innovation Challenge, which was a huge moment for the nine start-up companies that were announced as finalists. ImagineAR, LivXp AG, Fanprime: MyEB+, Seyu Solutions Ltd., Sceenic, Slate, LiveDuel, FanDome FRM and Clupik are shooting to be the winner of the week-long mentorship program with Euroleague Basketball staff for instruction and insight.

"We didn’t lose our fans, the content of the team. There is no quarantine on the internet." - Marija Jurkstaite

Innovation is not just something for start-ups as EuroLeague clubs FC Bayern Munich and Zalgiris Kaunas exhibited during the summit. Une Marija Jurkstaite, the Chief Business Officer at Zalgiris, talked about the Lithuanian club's innovation strategy for the next five years - aimed at best understanding what the teams' fans and ultimately end-users want and how to keep the business moving forward. One of the main components for the club is the online Insider platform, which was built up during the pandemic to help improve the fan experience and engagement with the club.

"The idea came a year ago, when we lost all of our normal revenue streams, the biggest from ticketing. But we didn’t lose our fans, the content of the team. There is no quarantine on the internet," said Jurkstaite, who is responsible for sports business strategy, sports innovations and experience marketing at Zalgiris.

The Insider platform, which has users buy virtual tickets, features games and quizzes as well as podcasts, videos and Zalgiris-based TV shows.

"The idea is to let the fans be even closer to their team," Jurkstaite said. "We saw that we have 1 million 'passive' fans that we do not monetize at the moment. So this is the potential we see, and we want to engage better at least a part of this target group."

Bayern has a similar online platform - called Virtual Audi Dome - and Sebastian Ferschl said innovation is one of the core values of the club. And the pandemic pushed forward the club’s plans - just like it did with Zalgiris."

"The pandemic accelerated the need for innovations, maybe innovations which we did not focus that much on before," said Ferschl, Bayern's Head of Corporate Partnerships. "I do not think current projects were permanently closed, but more adapted to the 'new normal', which maybe will lead to an even better output when they are finished."

Part of Bayern’s three-year plan started in 2020 was to find start-up companies to integrate the latest innovation to the SAP Garden, the team’s future home arena for games. Bayern has already opened the doors to the Virtual Audi Dome for some home games, including the EuroLeague Playoffs.

"We wanted to create an authentic home game atmosphere. One person in the club said it was even better than the real arena," Ferschl said.

The platform includes a shootout challenge where fans can win prizes and a fan shop with even better deals than the existing fan shop. So far, more than 7,000 spectators from 21 different companies have used the Virtual Audi Dome platform.

"We were forced to create this, but we can also use it as a benefit for the future," Ferschel said.

The summit also showed that not only start-ups and EuroLeague clubs are interested in investing in the future of sports but also current players. Sinan Guler, who played for Efes from 2008 to 2013, talked to attendees about his perspective on how athletes can prepare for their retirement by investing in the game - whether that is on the tech and innovation side or not.

Guler, who played at two EuroLeague Final Fours and won the 2016 7DAYS EuroCup with Galatasaray, has invested in more than 30 start-up companies. And he places a high value on the community of networks he has built.

"We were forced to create this, but we can also use it as a benefit for the future." - Sebastian Ferschl

"From the financial side, the main purpose of today's system is to gain more capital and gain more investment. With my network, I understand that community is wealthier than the money you can accumulate," said Guler, who has been an owner of start-ups in the past.

"The more people who can put more value into something, if they know one or two more people, it can be that much bigger. There is a lot of value to be created. Innovation has an exponential value you cannot imagine right now."

Guler explained that Europe consisting of numerous countries with varying legal systems and regulations in terms of business creates more obstacles for ideas planned for multiple countries. But he added: "The potential is for sure endless."

The first edition of the Basketball Innovation Summit took place in collaboration with 4YFN, LaSource, SportstechX and N3xtSports.

Technology, innovation come to forefront at Summit

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Google Cloud, SAP Sports, 4YFN and YBVR amongst speakers to discuss innovation in sports
Summit to be held on Saturday, May 29 at 10 AM. Registration is open and free here
The growing role of technology within the sports industry will be showcased and examined at a special online event on Saturday, May 29.

The Basketball Innovation Summit will be presented by Euroleague Basketball, in collaboration with N3XT Sports, 4YFN, LeSource, ThinkSport and SportsTechX as part of the 2021 FanXP Innovation Challenge program.

The two-hour event, staged in the middle of the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague Final Four, will give space to tech companies and partners to showcase their projects and solutions, as well as hearing from professional basketball players Sinan Guler and Niels Giffey about their experience within the sports tech ecosystem.

Participants will be able to dive into specific cases with a selection of Euroleague Basketball clubs sharing their innovation initiatives, and the ten finalists for the FanXP Innovation Challenge will also be announced.

The Summit will take place between 10:00 and 12:00 CET on Saturday, and free registration is open to anyone interested in discovering more about this fast-moving and exciting industry:

https://zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_0FldVz8fR0SAwxS_8BbfGA


Basketball Innovation Summit to showcase technology in sport

Euroleague Basketball and Winline, one of Russia's leaders in online gaming, are celebrating the success of their partnership by extending it for three more years. Winline already had a year remaining on its current contract for online gaming rights in Russia, and so with the new deal will be a Euroleague Basketball partner through the end of the 2024-25 season.

The renewal will lengthen the relationship with Winline to six years as the company expands Euroleague Basketball's list of long-term partners. As such, Winline will continue to enjoy high visibility at Turkish Airlines EuroLeague and 7DAY EuroCup games and across the digital ecosystem of the competitions.

"We are very proud to announce this renewal agreement as it shows once again the commitment and confidence of our partners," Roser Queralto, Euroleague Basketball's Chief Business Officer, said. "Winline is a key player in the Russian market as they have experienced an outstanding growth in a very short period, positively impacting the popularity of basketball and the expansion of the Russian fanbase."

"We are proud and happy to support Europe's top basketball competitions," Timur Dzhumaniyazov, Winline's vice president of marketing and strategy, said, "and we are really excited and looking forward to the new chapter of our partnership with Euroleague Basketball."

Winline's commitment to basketball goes beyond Euroleague Basketball to a widespread presence in the Russian market that also features a select number of teams, including current EuroLeague participants CSKA Moscow, Khimki Moscow Region and Zenit St Petersburg. The cooperation between Euroleague Basketball and the top basketball brands in Russia is expected to help increase the popularity of basketball and grow the sport's fanbase in the country. Winline has experienced a 71% increase in awareness as a Euroleague Basketball sponsor during 2020.

Russia is one of Euroleague Basketball's traditional markets, with a long list of participating teams that includes reigning EuroLeague champion CSKA Moscow. Interest in Euroleague Basketball competitions has experienced a remarkable 17% growth rate in Russia since 2019.



Winline, Euroleague Basketball renew partnership until 2025

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Euroleague Basketball expresses its deepest condolences to the Olympiacos Piraeus basketball family on the passing on Monday of Konstantinos Angelopoulos after a long illness.

Mr. Angelopoulos is the father of the club's owners, Panagiotis and Georgios Angelopoulos. The deceased was one of the leading industrialists in the history of Greece.

"The Euroleague Basketball family is saddened by the passing of Mr. Angelopoulos, a leading businessman and the one who started a very successful journey for Olympiacos," Jordi Bertomeu, Euroleague Basketball President and CEO, said. "My heartfelt condolence to his family and friends, and especially to his sons Panagiotis and Georgios."

Euroleague Basketball mourns Konstantinos Angelopoulos

Euroleague Basketball joins the family of French and European basketball in remembering with fondness Jean Bayle-Lespitau, the founding president of France's domestic league, the Ligue Nationale de Basket, who passed away on Wednesday at age 92.

Mr. Bayle-Lespitau, who helped create the LNB on May 6, 1987, went on to become a founded member of ULEB, the Union of European Leagues of Basketball, along with his counterparts in the Italian and Spanish domestic leagues, in 1991.

Mr. Bayle-Lespitau will be remember as a main protagonist in the professionalization and modernization of French professional basketball.

"Jean was an instrumental piece in the development of French and international basketball," Jordi Bertomeu, Euroleague Basketball President and CEO, said. "He was one of the founders of ULEB, a very charming person, loved by all, and had an art for dialoguing and bringing people together. My thoughts are with his family and friends. He will be missed."

Euroleague Basketball mourns Jean Bayle-Lespitau

Euroleague Basketball is proud to support the One Tree Planted Amazon Rainforest initiative by donating to plant 4,000 trees to help relieve Amazon Rainforest deforestation.

This is the first direct action in Euroleague Basketball's new sustainability plan for the next 10 years (2021-2030), which will see the competition and its clubs continue to work together as a purpose-driven and socially responsible entity to expand their capacity to create positive sustainability impact in the communities where they operate.

With the aim of achieving over 6,000 trees planted before June 5, which is World Environment Day, Euroleague Basketball has joined forces with One Tree Planted, a non-profit environmental charity dedicated to making it easier for individuals and businesses to give back to the environment, create a healthier climate, protect biodiversity and help reforestation efforts around the world by planting trees.

Everyone willing to participate in this project to help the reforestation of the Amazon Rainforest can donate at https://euroleague.raisely.com – it works as simply as €1 = 1 tree.

With the initial donation of 4,000 trees, Euroleague Basketball and One Tree Planted will:
Create approximately 444 direct jobs on reforestation days.
Help 11 families of small farmers recover 11 hectares of degraded areas, 1 hectare per family.
Contribute to the increase of 11 hectares of habitats for endemic fauna, 11 hectares under protection against erosion, 4,800 trees and tree canopies for bird nests and for the production of nectar for bees.
Allow an estimated 6.9 tonnes of CO2 to be sequestered by the end of the first year, in the second year, sequester 110 tonnes of CO2, in the third year sequester 304 tonnes of CO2, in the fourth year sequester 857 tonnes of CO2, in the fifth year sequester 1,078 tonnes of CO2, in the sixth year sequester 1,382 tonnes of CO2.
Help reduce wildfires in the Amazon, by reducing the niches or breeding ground for forest fires that make up our reforestation areas.
Euroleague Basketball Chief Business Officer Roser Queralto said: "We are very proud to officially launch our sustainability strategic plan with this reforestation initiative as it is a tangible sign of our commitment to keep on driving positive change towards our communities. This strategic plan represents an evolution of the social responsibility commitment made by Euroleague Basketball, underlining our efforts to help restore the environment by expanding our sustainability scope."

More projects will follow this first action in the coming years as part of a bigger, integral plan aimed at making Euroleague Basketball an even more socially committed organization. This will lead our clubs on a joint business sustainability approach by which the impacts will be measured and challenges such as zero-waste operations and sustainable mobility around arenas will be tackled to bring direct improvement to our communities.

The mission of World Environment Day is to diversify, educate and activate the environmental movement worldwide to help restore the planet.

Euroleague Basketball supports One Tree Planted

Entries have now closed for the 2021 version of the FanXP Innovation Challenge, and 38 applicants have thrown their hats into the ring to take part in the biggest basketball startup competition in the world.

Those entries will now enter a review period by the jury panel, and the top ten will be selected to join a virtual final event in June. The identity of the finalists will be revealed on Saturday 29th May during the Basketball Innovation Summit, an online event coinciding with the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague Final Four.

The members of the jury are Mathieu Lacome (Head of Research and Innovation at Paris Saint-Germain); Didac Lee (Galdana Ventures Co-Founder and former Board Member and Head of Digital at FC Barcelona); Jasmine Robinson (General Partner at Causeway Media Operations); Susanne Timosci (Global Lead Key Account at Bundesliga); Sree Varma (iSportconnect Founder & CEO); Luis Vicente (Group CEO at Eleven Sports).

With the aim of offering fans the best experience possible, the FanXP Innovation Challenge – staged in collaboration with N3XT Sports – challenges the latest generation of tech startups to join the sports fan revolution with creative and unique ideas.

N3XT Sports, a strategic consulting firm specialized in digital transformation, innovation, data, and investment strategy, will provide continuous advisory support throughout the FanXP Innovation Challenge.

Three more partners are supporting the competition. LaSource is a B2B agency based in Paris, focused on sport, digital and technology, helping startups expand their business. As sports organisations undergo a digital transformation, LaSource has created a model giving access to new innovative and digital solutions to meet with strategic objectives. LaSource puts its market understanding, experience and passion to bridge the gap between innovative startups and the reality of the sport industry.

SportsTechX is the number one source for data and insights about startups and innovation in sports. Its mission is to promote and grow the international sports technology ecosystem, working with investors and organisations in various industries, helping them with market analysis and connecting them with startups.

ThinkSport brings together a variety of sports-related expertise and excellence across Switzerland and beyond: from sport organisations, research and development institutes, educational bodies, businesses, health institutions and the public sector to international organisations and NGOs.



Entries closed for 2021 FanXP Innovation Challenge

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Meeting in Barcelona on Monday, April 26, the members of the ECA Shareholders Executive Board agreed on the following points:

- All 11 clubs are fully committed to their unity as the founding pillar of their collective property and are convinced that such unity has delivered success over the last 20 years.

- All 11 clubs remain committed in their vision of taking the necessary joint steps to continue building on that success, bringing the competitions to new heights.

- Euroleague Basketball will propose measures to further integrate all 11 clubs into the governance structure of all collective properties at the upcoming ECA Shareholders Meeting.

ECA Shareholders Executive Board meets in Barcelona (Apr 26, 2021)

A selection of 13 clubs of this season’s 7DAYS EuroCup met remotely to discuss and agree on a proposed new competition model which had been previously reviewed by the ECA Shareholders Executive Board.

The proposal includes:

- Participating teams: 20

A maximum of 16 teams will be awarded three-year licenses to promote stability and long-term planning.
A minimum of four one-year wild cards and/or rankings-based domestic league spots.
- Competition format: divided into two phases that aim at providing clubs with more guaranteed home games – maximizing their revenue opportunities and the excitement of the fan experience – while introducing knock-out phases that will deliver increased thrills:

Regular Season: two groups of 10 teams each in a round-robin format. First eight teams in each group to qualify for next phase.
Knock-out elimination rounds: eighthfinals, quarterfinals, semifinals and final, all played under a single-game format.
Champion and runner-up to qualify to the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague as per current regulations.
- Calendar: 2021-22 season to start by end of October 2021 and finish by mid/end of May 2022

-Governance and club operations:

EuroCup Board to continue to discuss and agree on competition strategies and policies.
Clubs to be integrated within Euroleague Basketball’s Business Operations and Club Services unit.
Euroleague Basketball to create a collaborative framework including all participating teams from the EuroLeague and the EuroCup.
The proposal will be presented at the upcoming ECA Shareholders Meeting for discussion and approval.