Arsenal FC begins repackaging assets for the gaming audience

Arsenal FC is one of the first sports clubs on Twitch with a dedicated channel for their content. Their approach is an interesting one with most of the content related to the under23 team.

Twitch is a place where a youth audience congregates to watch and chat about content. Leveraging the under23 team makes sense as it sits within the demographic on Twitch. It is also likely more accessible compared with other content signed to broadcasters.

I learned about their approach at a breakout session at the LeadersWeek.Abu Dhabi digital event where I shared a session with an Arsenal representative.

The nature of the breakout session was a general discussion around how clubs had been adopting digital channels to engage a younger audience. The Arsenal channel on Twitch doesn’t  only broadcast the under23 matches. Today it also had a fan providing commentary around the Europe League draw.

Broadcasting content is not all they are doing with their Twitch channel. As a sports club on Twitch they’ve repackaged real world assets to give relevance to the audience. Twitch enables viewers to subscribe to a channel with a paid subscription. These paid subscriptions give the subscriber added benefits on the channel such as no adverts. Other benefits include extra items in the chat room such as emotes/emojis/icons.

Sports clubs on Twitch and connecting with the audience

Arsenal have created emojis using key real-world players so that fans who subscribe can use the emojis in the chat. There are 3 levels of subscription on Twitch and each level has a different selection of emojis from squad players including Aubameyang, Saka and Partey. Real world assets are also included into the broadcasts. When someone follows the channel you see a small image of Saka wearing an Arsenal jersey and holding the club badge on the jersey. There’s also a thank you message with the name of the user who followed the channel.

These are great ways to boost relevance and engagement with the youth audience. In our Executive Briefing for sports clubs and rights holders we highlighted that esports viewers are buying digital assets related to esports teams. The briefing also references that Gen-Z are watching less live sport so working to combine real world sporting assets into the gaming and digital space is the perfect way to connect with this youth audience.

During the LeadersWeek breakout session I suggested a few other mechanisms that Arsenal could investigate. This included Twitch Extensions to further build engagement. Extensions are things you can connect to a channel like pop-up windows for quizzes. EA SPORTS use an Extension on their official FIFA game broadcasts to boost engagement.

These are a few examples of how sports clubs on Twitch can connect with a younger audience in an authentic and relevant way. The key point is that clubs need to think wider. Traditional linear broadcast provided a limited set of opportunities. Second-screening, social media and digital streaming channels and gaming present a whole new set of opportunities.

Source: https://www.cheesecakedigital.com/arsenal-fc-begins-repackaging-assets-for-the-gaming-audience/