Organizers of the world’s largest sports rights market launch a new event for decision-makers to discuss new issues.
New technology, law, marketing… all these areas will be the subject of high-level conferences during the Sportel Summit, a new Monaco Mediax event held in Miami on 15 and 16 May 2018. “Today, if I go to an NBA basketball game, I can stream it live on Facebook,” said Laurent Puons, Vice President of Monaco Mediax. A situation concerning broadcasting rights, which professionals pay high prices for; a problem that needs to be considered and resolved for example during this conference.
Only the cream of the crop
Some competitors have already launched similar events in other countries, but they were confined to one sport. Monaco Mediax will be great and broad: all disciplines will be included. “I am strongly convinced that the sports industry needs the Sportel Summit,” insists Laurent Puons. “The financial success of Sportel over the last three years has led us to consider this event. Today, the sports business is evolving very quickly. Market players need to know what will happen and what strategy to adopt in one year or even in six months. If we can get the answer to their concerns within six months, we will have taken a step forward.”
To this end, it intends to bring the 350 most important decision makers of the industry. “We reserve the right to refuse accreditation if we learn that the company is not sufficiently significant,” said the person who is also President of the Monegasque Boxing Federation (he only wants heavyweights). Monaco Mediax already has a full address book, thanks to the Sportel market. “It is an internationally known event, attracting 200 exhibitors and 500 companies that will come as visitors. All of these companies have managers; they are the ones we are interested in.”
And since Monaco Mediax does not put all its eggs in one basket, Sportel Monaco also has little brothers: the “spring markets” with Sportel America in Miami and Sportel Asia in Singapore. So many additional contacts in television channels and the big names of sport like the NBA, ESPN and Liga. But Laurent Puons is not one to take naps at half-time. He has intrigued the interest of enormous players to catapult the first edition: “Without being pretentious, one aims very high. We’re trying to bring in people of the highest caliber. If we could have Mark Zuckerberg, the boss of Facebook, that would be fabulous. I know that we will have all the difficulties of the world to achieve it, but it is that kind of character we need.” And the panel does not stop there: “We also need politicians, ministers. If MMA (mixed martial arts) is banned in France, it is a matter of politics. They will be able to answer these questions, to intervene on these subjects.”
Other Events
- Sportel America: The 2017 edition about the sports rights market in the US was a large success with more than 640 participants from 331 companies, a 20% increase compared with 2016. “There were new participants, who represented new business opportunities for everyone,” said Laurent Puons, Vice-President of Monaco Mediax, the organizer. “We really want to attract more buyers, especially from South America, which is a market with very high potential.” In this regard, he has an unstoppable strategy: “For our next edition, we will invite thirty or forty of the most important buyers, free of charge. There is only one condition: that they accept all the appointments requested by the exhibitors.” That’s one way to attract new exhibitors, as they will be guaranteed to meet with decision makers.
- Sportel Awards: According to Laurent Puons, there is nothing more moving than the images of sport. That’s why the Sportel Awards were born, “These are such beautiful images that it is a pity that this event, open to the public, is not at the caliber of Sportel Monaco.” Never mind! He will hoist them up to the level of his flagship event with a lot of promotion, to attract an audience worthy of the biggest rights market on the planet.
