Michael Schreiber calls his new company the biggest sports network “you’ve never heard of, and that’s right.”
Almost two years ago, a former Comcast Corp. executive launched the Cheshire-based sports ad company Playfly Sports LLC now reaches 83% of US sports fans, hitting 230 billion ad impressions per year through 8,500 professional and college televised games, streaming platforms, digital banners, radio shows and newsletters.
It is half a small boost from two sports technology companies in Berwyn that have links to Comcast. Playfly’s offices are in an old skating rink on the outside of SEPTA’s Paoli/Thorndale line. Epoxy.ai, also a startup founded by former Comcast executives, is leasing offices on inbound tracks within a stone’s throw of PlayFly. Epoxy.ai personalizes sports betting via mobile phones.
Monetizing sports fan engagement is what it’s all about here: Playfly through advertising and Epoxy.ai through betting. And former Comcast executives know all about the economics of big-money sports, the persistence of sports TV ratings, and squeezing value out of sports media rights.
“It was hard to work in the programming side of Comcast without being involved in sports,” said Chris Reynolds, co-founder of Epoxy.ai who knew and worked with Schreiber at the Philadelphia company.
Mining advertising revenue regionally
Mining advertising revenue regionally
Schreiber’s idea has been to create a sports platform for national brands such as TD Ameritrade or BMW to reach regional sports fans without those brands calling around to local sports teams. On the same subject : Drayson Ball appointed director of sports information. An alcoholic beverage company, for example, could advertise hard seltzer drinks in New York and low-calorie beer in Los Angeles “with one invoice,” Schreiber said.
The sports advertising market is huge and spread out. Some 800 brands collectively spent $6.2 billion on advertising during NFL telecasts during the 2020-21 season, according to one advertising research firm and reported by the Sports Business Journal. The NFL is just one league, and most of the advertising is national. Playfly mines the sports ads at the regional level.
Andrey Mikhailitchenko, a business professor at California State University in Sacramento, said sports fans are five times more likely to recall brands advertised during college or professional games than they are of brands advertised during movies or general entertainment.
To sprint out of the blocks, Playfly has acquired seven companies that support Schreiber’s vision for more than $100 million, giving it access to a technology platform and advertising inventory for baseball, basketball and professional hockey that he can sell to national advertisers. The most significant deals were the three Fox Corp companies. previous: Home Team Sports, Impression Sports, and FOX Sports College Properties. Other acquisitions allow Playfly to sell sponsorships to colleges, and sell naming rights to arenas.
Schreiber declined to provide revenue for the privately held company but said it is profitable. In addition to Schreiber, Sinclair Broadcast Group and Baltimore investment firm Access Holdings have invested in Playfly.
Sports fans are five times more likely to remember brands advertised during college or professional games than during movies or general entertainment.
Andrey Mikhailitchenko, California State University
The company employs 50 staff in Berwyn. On its website, Playfly has posted job openings in Berwyn or Philadelphia. Playfly employs 350 in other parts of the country, with openings posted in New York; El Segundo, Calif.; Atlanta; Chicago; and Detroit. In addition, Playfly hires approximately 300 contractors.
In July, the Orlando Sentinel reported that Playfly entered into a 13-year deal with the University of Central Florida, agreeing to pay the institution $125 million for its media rights.
“Playfly is betting they’ll make more than $125 million to reimburse Central Florida” for those rights, said Kirk Wakefield, a professor of retail marketing and an expert on sports advertising at Baylor University in Texas.
Playfly and UCF confirmed in news releases that they had reached an agreement. They did not disclose the financial terms.
In college sports, Playfly is taking on heavyweight Learfield, which is owned by investment fund Atairos Group Inc., Wakefield said. Atairos also has ties to Comcast — deep ones. Comcast’s former chief financial officer, Michael Angelakis, manages Atairos, which is based in Bryn Mawr and about nine miles from Playfly’s offices. Comcast agreed to fund Atairos with $4 billion.
Sports advertising used to be about a large audience. But Wakefield said brands now want to know that their advertising has “changed the minds and behaviors” of consumers, he said. “The organization that can go in with that kind of data will win the day.”
For some fans, sports games and arenas already feel saturated with advertising.
“Saturation can happen if you overload [teams] with easy money,” said Mikhailitchenko, the Sacramento professor, pointing to professional hockey jerseys in Europe patched over with multiple brand logos.
But he also believes there is an “endless market” for sports marketing because advertisers can segment the audience, targeting groups of fans by demographics, lifestyle, geography or behaviour.
The proximity of the Playfly and Epoxy.ai offices is no coincidence. Towns in the western suburbs are Comcast bedroom communities served by Regional Rail, which also carries commuters from Philadelphia to Berwyn.
Epoxy.ai “had a great team that mostly lived in Center City, and they had to be okay with reverse commuting,” Reynolds said. “And there’s nothing more manageable than getting off the train and walking to your office.”
Reynolds also said it was great to see a cluster of spin-offs and start-ups in the region, similar, albeit on a smaller scale, to Silicon Valley or other centers of innovation.
Passionate fans as advertising targets
Passionate fans as advertising targets
Schreiber, 46, a Baltimore native who worked at NBCUniversal, moved to the Philadelphia area when Comcast bought NBCUniversal in 2011. On the same subject : Center for Sports Broadcasting Courtesy Robin Roberts.
“The goal was to take everything on TV in your living room and make it available on digital platforms like the iPhone,” Schreiber said of his first Comcast project.
When negotiating content deals for Comcast, Schreiber said he realized that major advertisers could reach a general sports audience on ESPN and other national networks. But they couldn’t easily reach local sports fans who are most passionate and valuable to advertisers.
In 2016, Schreiber left Comcast for a new position as chief content officer at Altice USA, a cable television and broadband provider in New York. He did not want to relocate his family in Paoli, so he commuted to the Altice offices by train.
Schreiber left Altice in June 2020, and several months later, launched Playfly and began looking for a local headquarters. “I didn’t want to be in a strip plaza somewhere,” Schreiber said.
He was fascinated by Theatr y Berwyn, which opened in 1913 and brought Broadway plays to the suburbs. Later uses included an ice rink and then legal offices.
After a $2 million renovation, Schreiber opened Playfly offices in the building in May. An indoor basketball court was placed in the excavated basement, and employee desks ring the court above like a press box. Outdoor turf was laid on that main floor, simulating a football pitch. Professional and college team flags cover walls. There is a gym and areas to hang out.
Before the interview, Schreiber threw a basketball. “Take a dirty shot. One must be done before every meeting.”
Playfly Sports Properties is located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States of America.
What does Playfly Sports do?
Where sports marketing, media and technology converge. Read also : Trinity Thomas Among The Collegiate Women Sports Award Top 3. Playfly is a leading sports media and marketing company that brings an innovative, digitally enabled approach and turnkey solutions to the growing collegiate, high school and professional sports sectors.
Who bought home team sports? PHILADELPHIA , March 3, 2021 /PRNewswire/ — Playfly Sports, a fast-growing full-service sports marketing company, today acquired three of FOX Sports’ core businesses: Home Team Sports, Impression Sports, and FOX Sports College Properties.
