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Speaker 1: Hello, I'm Michael barn and I'm Scott Sashnik. On this

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Speaker 1: weekly podcast, we explore the big money issues in the

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Speaker 1: world of sports and talk to some of the biggest

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Speaker 1: players in the industry. On this week's show, we talked

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Speaker 1: with Craft Analytics Group Chief executive officer Jessica Gelman. But first,

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Speaker 1: let's look at the top stories of the week. Joining

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Speaker 1: us is Bloomberg Business of Sports reporter Evan Nobdy Williams,

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Speaker 1: and let's start with the Mavericks. There are a lot

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Speaker 1: of topics to talk about. Let's take one of the

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Speaker 1: biggest ones. The Mavericks have hired an outside council to

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Speaker 1: investigate allegations of inappropriate conduct by former team presidents. So

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Speaker 1: let's talk about that. Well, people were wondering, when is

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Speaker 1: this going to really permeate the sports world? Well, here

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Speaker 1: we go. A Sports Illustrated investigation had found that tur

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Speaker 1: Deemo us three, the former president of the team UH,

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Speaker 1: did at least reportedly UH engaging behavior that warranted dismissal.

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Speaker 1: The question here is what did the owner of the

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Speaker 1: team know, When did he know it? If he didn't know,

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Speaker 1: why didn't he owe it? That's where this is all

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Speaker 1: centers now because Mark Cuban, he said he's made a

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Speaker 1: mistake and that he kept an abuser on the staff,

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Speaker 1: but he didn't know he separated the business side of

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Speaker 1: the operation from the basketball side of the operation. Is

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Speaker 1: that okay these days does the buck stop with the

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Speaker 1: owner of it? And that abuser is a is a

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Speaker 1: MAVs dot com beat writer I believe, who had a

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Speaker 1: few domestic violence issues. You can see it was like

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Speaker 1: a star player that you try to protect. I mean,

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Speaker 1: this is a MAVs dot com beat writers. So this

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Speaker 1: is not somebody who was so important to the organization.

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Speaker 1: We've seen a lot of a number of mayapas from Cuban.

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Speaker 1: There there may in fact be more. He told us

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Speaker 1: I that that he had as as this me Too

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Speaker 1: movement was taking hold across the country, had gone to

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Speaker 1: his director of HR and said, listen, are we is

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Speaker 1: there anything we need to be worried about in our past,

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Speaker 1: in our history? And and he and Cuban claims that

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Speaker 1: he was told no, we're fine. Uh So, there's obviously

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Speaker 1: something going on within the organization, some kind of cover up,

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Speaker 1: some kind of a lying, some kind of mistrust um.

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Speaker 1: But but yes, I mean as you and I have

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Speaker 1: talked about, there's every CEO, every team owner, every team president,

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Speaker 1: i imagine, is looking at this and and once again

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Speaker 1: maybe going to their own people and saying, what do

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Speaker 1: we have, What do we need to do? Do we

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Speaker 1: need an independent council? Do we need what what can

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Speaker 1: we do to make sure where was we have something

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Speaker 1: in our past? We get ahead of it and make

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Speaker 1: sure I know of it. Where was the failure from

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Speaker 1: Mark Cuban here? Was it not establishing a direct chain

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Speaker 1: to himself because he's the owner, he needs to know

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Speaker 1: what's going on. Was it separating himself from the business operation?

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Speaker 1: Was it just taking somebody? Even though it's your hr

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Speaker 1: head's word for it, we do know some franchises have

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Speaker 1: engaged in pre emptive investigations. When if this is so

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Speaker 1: important and you deem it important, why not engage a

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Speaker 1: firm to come in and look into it instead of

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Speaker 1: just relying on what's already been there. US three was

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Speaker 1: with the team from and there's another topic involving the

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Speaker 1: Dallas Mavericks. And this is for comments that Mark Cuban

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Speaker 1: made during a podcast with Hall of Famer Julius Herming. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: we don't get this that I feel very we don't

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Speaker 1: get this that that Mark Cuban goes out and talks about, well,

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Speaker 1: perhaps our best course of action right now is to

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Speaker 1: lose because we're not winning anything. We want to get

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Speaker 1: a better draft pick. We have had teams in this

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Speaker 1: league engage in this and I'm gonna use this word

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Speaker 1: on purpose process For some time, everybody knew what the

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Speaker 1: Philadelphia seventies sixers were doing. They actually ultimately had to

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Speaker 1: get rid of their general manager, the architect of the process,

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Speaker 1: Sam Hinky, because it was so blatant what they were doing.

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Speaker 1: But to find him for talking about what is clearly

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Speaker 1: done by other franchises is a little baffling. So Cuban

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Speaker 1: gets find six thousand dollars by the NBA for for

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Speaker 1: comments detrimental to the league. As Scott said, every fan

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Speaker 1: out there knows that there are teams that do this.

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Speaker 1: Adam Silver and the NBA haven't haven't admitted that. The

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Speaker 1: way the by laws are so, the way the system

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Speaker 1: is set up right now, it rewards teams to do this.

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Speaker 1: There is an incentive to do this. You could even

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Speaker 1: argue that it's smart business. Uh to then find someone

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Speaker 1: over half a million dollars because he admits to it

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Speaker 1: seems like a silly course of action. Well, part of

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Speaker 1: it too is that the podcast air the day of

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Speaker 1: the All Star Game in Los Angeles, so where they

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Speaker 1: try so hard for four quarters, taking lots of defense

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Speaker 1: and not a late game defense in this one. Finally,

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Speaker 1: another topic, Hey, the Olympics. Let's talk about Lindsay von

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Speaker 1: Let's talk about the the Canadian hockey team losing to

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Speaker 1: the US women's hockey team and all of that is

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Speaker 1: helping ratings. Well, good for NBC. They ought to send

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Speaker 1: a little thank you note to Lindsay Vaughan and the

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Speaker 1: US women for making some compelling programming that people names,

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Speaker 1: they recognize in sports, they show an interest in that.

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Speaker 1: They really wanted to see numbers ticked up there. Now

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Speaker 1: you wonder in the home stretch, can can that momentum

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Speaker 1: stay if what NBC really wants heading into the Olympics

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Speaker 1: is for the US delegation as a whole to do

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Speaker 1: really well at the Olympics. This has not been a

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Speaker 1: great games for that. I think the USA is underperformed

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Speaker 1: from a metal standpoint. But the US women's team very popular,

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Speaker 1: great story, They had a great game, gold medal game

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Speaker 1: against Canada. They went to went to a shootout starting

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Speaker 1: at eleven ten pm Eastern time, which I stayed up

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Speaker 1: and watched every single minute of which I tried to

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Speaker 1: stay up and failed miserably, curling fans out there, Michael Barr,

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Speaker 1: I know you're one of them. A big upset over

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Speaker 1: Canada in the semifinals. There's a lot that is shaping

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Speaker 1: up for NBC. Do you believe in ratings? Yes, Okay,

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Speaker 1: I'm sorry, I'm Michaels. Sorry, I'm sorry. I don't just

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Speaker 1: apologize to aw Michaels, apologize to every listener. Yes, thank you.

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Speaker 1: Thank the Bloomberg Business of Sports reporter Evan Nobody Williams

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Speaker 1: now for our interview with Craft Analytics Group Chief Executive

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Speaker 1: Officer Jessica Gelman. That name today Jessica Gelman. She is

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Speaker 1: the CEO of Kraft Analytics Group. She is also Michael

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Speaker 1: the co founder of the M I. T. Sloan Sports

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Speaker 1: Analytics Conference, going on this weekend in Boston. Jessica, thank

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Speaker 1: you very much for joining us. I'm thrilled to be

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Speaker 1: on the show. I'm also an avid listener. Tell your friends.

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Speaker 1: I'll announce it this week this week on stage of

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Speaker 1: the phone conference. How about that? Look at you so

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Speaker 1: you know how to promote to I told you she

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Speaker 1: was really good, Michael, I told you she was really good.

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Speaker 1: Let us start there. We're gonna get to kager Craft

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Speaker 1: Analytics in a minute, but I do want to start

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Speaker 1: with the Sloan Conference. This has been going on. What

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Speaker 1: we are twelve or thirteen years now. This is the

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Speaker 1: twelfth conference, but we've been running it for thirteen years. Okay,

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Speaker 1: tell me what it was then, And I know because

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Speaker 1: I was there, but I'd like to hear from York

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Speaker 1: because you have to do it all. What it was

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Speaker 1: then and what it has become. That's a great question.

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Speaker 1: What it was then, probably in September of two thousand

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Speaker 1: and six, Darrell Night Daryl Morey, who's the gem of

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Speaker 1: the Houston Rockets, we had been teaching a class at Sloan.

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Speaker 1: When he got the job at the Rockets, we kind

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Speaker 1: of pivoted. We said, let's make this a conference. So

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Speaker 1: the first year we have been talking about it for

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Speaker 1: maybe five months and then kind of went and go

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Speaker 1: in September of two thousand and six and pulled the

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Speaker 1: conference together in four months and we had about a

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Speaker 1: hundred and thirty people there. I kind of joke that

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Speaker 1: twenty or thirty of them were my friends, so um,

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Speaker 1: some of Darryll's friends too. Of course, straight together twenty friends,

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Speaker 1: I got about three and I owe them money. Not

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Speaker 1: with that voice, you don't. And we we had one

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Speaker 1: or two panels that would be going on simultaneously, but

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Speaker 1: we didn't have any of the extra other activities that

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Speaker 1: we have going on today um at the conference, and

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Speaker 1: so I mean it was really small. And of course

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Speaker 1: this year we'll have thirty folks at the conference, will

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Speaker 1: thirty seven panels, many of them running concurrently. We will

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Speaker 1: also have competitive advantage talks for people who are in

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Speaker 1: the industry doing the work, are sharing what they're doing

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Speaker 1: analytically and kind of how they're getting there. We have

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Speaker 1: research papers, We have six different competitions going on, everything

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Speaker 1: from a hackathon to fantasy challenge that DraftKings is presenting

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Speaker 1: to a startup competition. So the scope of what we're

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Speaker 1: doing is much broader, and I like one of the things,

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Speaker 1: I probably should stop saying this because we passed this

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Speaker 1: this threshold a few years ago, but we have obviously

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Speaker 1: many more speakers at the conference this year than we

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Speaker 1: had attendees. And let me jump in there. Don't ruin

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Speaker 1: the surprise here, because I'm always impressed with the speaker

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Speaker 1: list and it goes commissioners, it's CEOs. That's great, But

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Speaker 1: you managed to top yourself this year. You and Darryl

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Speaker 1: will be co interviewing. Go ahead, you say it, President

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Speaker 1: Barack Obama? Did you get that guy? I mean, to

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Speaker 1: be honest, Darryl and I have been working on trying

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Speaker 1: to have President Barack Obama come for for many years.

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Speaker 1: We know he's a huge sports fan. He's also very

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Speaker 1: analytically oriented. I've been doing a little reading to prep

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Speaker 1: for for the interview, and just you know, I read

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Speaker 1: The Consequential President, which came out not not too long ago,

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Speaker 1: but in there there's a bunch of stuff on how

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Speaker 1: he was using analytics to make decisions. So for us,

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Speaker 1: it really was a natural fit. Um, we had Reggie Love,

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Speaker 1: who was very close with the President. He's been coming

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Speaker 1: to Sloan for a while, so you know, we thought

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Speaker 1: we had a pretty good chance. We were hoping anyways,

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Speaker 1: and um, you know, he's now had a little bit

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Speaker 1: of a break from the craziness of the eight years

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Speaker 1: of being president. So we are just thrilled to have

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Speaker 1: him coming to the conference. And as you might imagine,

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Speaker 1: since we announced in January that he's coming, the demand

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Speaker 1: has been crazy. I'm just amazed how sports analytics has

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Speaker 1: developed from the old Moneyball film even then that was

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Speaker 1: like wow, look at all of this until today, why

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Speaker 1: has it grown so much? Well, I think, first and foremost,

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Speaker 1: the amount of data that is available is is astronomical.

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Speaker 1: I mean, they're here's just a couple of quick stats

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Speaker 1: for you, but the amount of data that's been created

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Speaker 1: in the past two years is equivalent to all data

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Speaker 1: that's ever been created. I think, first and foremost, there's

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Speaker 1: just a lot more information available, which means that there's

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Speaker 1: a lot more opportunity to do the analytics. And then

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Speaker 1: I think people are actually finding competitive advantage in in

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Speaker 1: the work that they're doing, both on the business and

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Speaker 1: on the team side, and so folks are doubling down

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Speaker 1: and investing even more in trying to become more analytically oriented.

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Speaker 1: I mean, you look at the folks who you know,

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Speaker 1: one titles this year. You have obviously the Eagles who

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Speaker 1: have have been have been very much at the forefront

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Speaker 1: on the football side for a long time with using analytics,

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Speaker 1: and they just won their first title in eighty five years.

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Speaker 1: The same as the case for the Houston Astros. They

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Speaker 1: had never won a title and they are It's well

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Speaker 1: known how much they do with analytics. So I think

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Speaker 1: you're seeing just this impact for especially teams that have

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Speaker 1: never won before investing in this space and then getting

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Speaker 1: the results. I was just gonna say, the old days

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Speaker 1: of well, I'm going by instinct and I'm going by

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Speaker 1: my nose, those days are going well. I think it's

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Speaker 1: actually a really it's a really great thing that we've seen,

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Speaker 1: especially at the conference over the past few years, because

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Speaker 1: the data can only tell you so much, and there

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Speaker 1: is a lot of value in the experience and gut

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Speaker 1: instinct is I mean, your brain and the ability of

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Speaker 1: your mind to take a bunch of information is among

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Speaker 1: the most powerful tools that we all have at our disposal.

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Speaker 1: When you say your brain, you're not specifically talking about

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Speaker 1: Michael Parr, Yeah, I gotta go by our nose, that's it.

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Speaker 1: I don't know him well enough to be able to

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Speaker 1: make the but no, I mean I think we have

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Speaker 1: we've definitely come to a reckoning where and actually a

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Speaker 1: big theme of the conference this year is around talk

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Speaker 1: data to me, which is, how do you take all

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Speaker 1: this information and distill it into something that people can

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Speaker 1: understand and is easily digestible. And that's and that's a

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Speaker 1: big challenge for folks, especially people who are trying to

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Speaker 1: understand analytics. And we have this young group of of

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Speaker 1: executives that are coming up who really have been exposed

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Speaker 1: to analytics their their entire career, and we're it's kind

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Speaker 1: of like a period of reckoning, I would say. Right

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Speaker 1: now we are chatting with Jessica Gilman and my god,

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Speaker 1: how many titles were the CEO of the Craft Analytics Group,

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Speaker 1: co founder m I T Sloan Sports Analytic Conference. Oh

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Speaker 1: by the way, congratulations. Also recently announced to the sixteen

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Speaker 1: member class of the Legends of IVY League Basketball. Congratulations,

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Speaker 1: Thank you very much. Go Harvard, Right, yeah, that go Harvard.

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Speaker 1: I'm I'm obviously incredibly honored to be selected. It's a

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Speaker 1: great It speaks as much about the great teams that

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Speaker 1: I played on as the level of involvement I've had

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Speaker 1: with Harvard since I ran the Friends group for for

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Speaker 1: six years and I just I love. I take my

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Speaker 1: my two sons to games still, um and they just

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Speaker 1: have so much fun. They don't really understand basketball, but

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Speaker 1: they enjoy it. So I'm really excited to go down

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Speaker 1: to to Philadelphia in a couple of weeks to watch

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Speaker 1: the IVY League tournament. It's only the second time they've

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Speaker 1: hosted this IVY League tournament, so it'll be a lot

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Speaker 1: of fun. And by the way, they're selling big time

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Speaker 1: sponsorships now in the IVY League, so it's interesting to

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Speaker 1: see they're catching up to the rest of the athletic world.

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Speaker 1: But Jessica, I always hear that collecting the data is easy,

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Speaker 1: deciding what to do with it is the hard part.

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Speaker 1: Do you find that to be true? Um, well, I'm

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Speaker 1: laughing because I would say collecting the data is the

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Speaker 1: hard part. That's not what Zuckerberg says, because everybody seems

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Speaker 1: to give it to him. Well, that that's true. I guess.

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Speaker 1: I would say collecting the data in terms of having

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Speaker 1: all of these disparate data sources and being able to

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Speaker 1: bring them into a really a data warehouse or any

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Speaker 1: data management tool to be able to do the analysis

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Speaker 1: is the hard part. So for Zuckerberg, he has kind

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Speaker 1: of one system, right, But for sports organizations, especially on

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Speaker 1: the team side, you have a ticketing system, you have

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Speaker 1: your marketing automation tool, you have your CRM, you have

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Speaker 1: you know, your point of sale systems in stadium. So

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Speaker 1: there's I mean, and those are just kind of big,

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Speaker 1: big ones. But generally you're going to have an organization

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Speaker 1: needing to pull information in from anywhere from ten to

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Speaker 1: thirty different systems, and that is complicated to ensure that

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Speaker 1: the data that was in your source system is the

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Speaker 1: same as the data that you're looking at once. It's

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Speaker 1: you have that kind of single view of your customer

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Speaker 1: and single view of your data operations. Tell me if

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Speaker 1: I'm getting too nerdy for you, excuse me? Didn't Bill

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Speaker 1: Simmons dubed this conference Geeka Pelooza. You cannot get nerdy enough.

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Speaker 1: I think our listeners like nerdy, We're good. That's much

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Speaker 1: better than there. It's like stick with nerdy and dorky.

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Speaker 1: We were all good. Dorkasa Still I still laugh at it. Um.

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Speaker 1: That was the second year of the conference there, I

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Speaker 1: think I was there. But should I feel badly for

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Speaker 1: the kid who was going to the sports management program?

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Speaker 1: Right now? Because everybody seems to be coming into pro

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Speaker 1: sports with Harvard NBA's these days. I mean, that's seemingly

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Speaker 1: where the world is headed. I mean, I don't. I

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Speaker 1: don't think that's true. Um. I appreciate that perspective, but

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Speaker 1: I don't. I don't think that's true. There's a lot

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Speaker 1: of different types of work that need to be done,

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Speaker 1: and at the end of the day, when you're when

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Speaker 1: you're coming to an event at a venue, it's about

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Speaker 1: the customer experience. And understanding the customers through data is

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Speaker 1: certainly one avenue. But having been on kind of the

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Speaker 1: other side during my time with the Craft Sports and

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Speaker 1: Entertainment Group, you know, there's it's very much about how

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Speaker 1: bad are the lines getting in, what is the traffic like,

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Speaker 1: how quickly are they getting their food? What is the

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Speaker 1: in game experience in terms of the music that's playing,

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Speaker 1: and so there's it's about creating an experience. Data can

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Speaker 1: help inform and provide perspective and direction on where you

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Speaker 1: might have pain points and where there might be opportunities,

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Speaker 1: but that's really only a part of the equation. You

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Speaker 1: still actually have to take that data and drive it

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Speaker 1: to improving that overall customer experience, and there's always going

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Speaker 1: to be a really significant need for creative people, for

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Speaker 1: people who are really good with customer customer service. I'm

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Speaker 1: not suggesting that analytic people are not good with customer service.

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Speaker 1: I'm just saying it might not be, you know, that

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Speaker 1: the focus that they have so I do. On the

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Speaker 1: sports management side, though, I would say that I think

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Speaker 1: there is a more analytic slant to it. And the

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Speaker 1: last thing I would just say on on this in

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Speaker 1: particular is that you need to kind of understand analytics

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Speaker 1: and the concepts around it. You don't necessarily have to

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Speaker 1: do it though, if that makes sense. What I don't

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Speaker 1: understand is this, M yeah, I'm coming in with an

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Speaker 1: advocus in a slide rule. A baseball game four more minutes.

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Speaker 1: I mean, a baseball game has always been a baseball game.

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Speaker 1: A basketball game has always been a basketball game. But

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Speaker 1: we have changed as a society. Without getting philosophical, I

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Speaker 1: guess why why have we changed? I mean again, I

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Speaker 1: think it's because the data is available and so well

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Speaker 1: this I mean, I would just say this in general,

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Speaker 1: there's always going to be progression and innovation. And again,

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Speaker 1: if you look at the SMP today of the of

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Speaker 1: the companies that are now in SMP five hundred, we're

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Speaker 1: not there in when it when it kind of launched.

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Speaker 1: And so the point is that today we have data

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Speaker 1: that's available. It helps inform and tell stories which which

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Speaker 1: are which customers like, and that is important. And I

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Speaker 1: think holistically, I think the ESPN, who has been along

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Speaker 1: sponsor of the Stone conference, you know, they were really

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Speaker 1: at the at the forefront. They have the Statson Information

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Speaker 1: Group that has hundreds of people. So when you tune

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Speaker 1: into ESPN or any of the channels, they are sharing

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Speaker 1: data about what you were seeing on the field and

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Speaker 1: that's informative. So even a couple of years ago, when

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Speaker 1: the Patriots came back and beat the Falcons, there was

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Speaker 1: that um analysis that had been done that it was chance,

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Speaker 1: but they wouldn't that that wouldn't happen. That piece of

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Speaker 1: information is a story that's compelling to the to the

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Speaker 1: fan watching or listening at home. Was it really n

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Speaker 1: I mean I don't know. I mean they won, so well,

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Speaker 1: you're seeing a lot of streaming services now use that

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Speaker 1: data to entice more customers to their service. Yeah, I

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Speaker 1: think that the director consumer obviously with O T T

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Speaker 1: it's been huge, but you're also seeing it with companies

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Speaker 1: like Fanatics and even with Ticketmaster once they launch launch presents.

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Speaker 1: Having that information specifically about your customer and what they're

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Speaker 1: buying to be able to tailor and communicate to them

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Speaker 1: is you know, really what where It's been a huge

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Speaker 1: focus of mine for a good ten or eleven years

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Speaker 1: at this point in time, And and I think, to

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Speaker 1: be honest, like it was something that I saw Facebook

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Speaker 1: was doing, obviously Amazon was doing and kind of trying

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Speaker 1: to bring that into the sports industry. And as those

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Speaker 1: organizations have continued to grow in their scale and in

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Speaker 1: their scope and in their impact, it's not surprising that

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Speaker 1: folks in sports would continue to try and emulate those capabilities.

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Speaker 1: Plus on the O T T side, I mean, I

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Speaker 1: think we all know that Amazon is coming and Josiah

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Speaker 1: is coming. It's I mean, the executives from these companies

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Speaker 1: are now investing in pro sports, which will only further

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Speaker 1: push the use of analytics in the medium or in

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Speaker 1: the entertainment world. Well, yeah, and I think that's true.

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Speaker 1: And even at the conference this year, we have ted Leonsis,

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Speaker 1: who obviously was very impactful during his time time at

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Speaker 1: a O l and he's been at the forefront with

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Speaker 1: Monumental sports in terms of what he's in terms of

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Speaker 1: creating the O T T network that they have, and so, yeah,

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Speaker 1: I think that sports is something that people relate to,

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Speaker 1: they have interest and passion for, and so it's not

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Speaker 1: at all surprising that folks are coming from other industries

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Speaker 1: and then driving impact and change in sports. We are

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Speaker 1: chatting with Jessica Gelman, the CEO of the Craft Analytics Group,

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Speaker 1: and Jessica, can you give us some concrete examples of

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Speaker 1: what the patriots the revolution, what you've done, what you've

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Speaker 1: gleaned from the data and the changes that have been

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Speaker 1: implemented with the teams. Yeah, sure, I mean it again,

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Speaker 1: this has been something the crafts are are as you know,

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Speaker 1: incredibly entrepreneurial UM and really innovators in the space, and

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Speaker 1: so this was an investment starting to think about data

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Speaker 1: and analytics that UM we undertook really in the in

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Speaker 1: the early two thousand's and so the kind of basic

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Speaker 1: stuff that everyone's doing today that we were really doing UM,

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Speaker 1: you know, ten or fifteen years ago around pricing and

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Speaker 1: customer segmentation and retention modeling UM. And then we've really

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Speaker 1: taken it too, I think to the next level when

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Speaker 1: it comes to inventory management. Looking at, for example, on

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Speaker 1: the sponsorship side of the business, how can you potentially

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Speaker 1: identify a sponsor UH through one one action in a

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Speaker 1: in a different part of the business. So, like the

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Speaker 1: example I like to give here is we have a

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Speaker 1: whole process of moving our customers through the business, and

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Speaker 1: we have someone who had purchased UM a rather large autographed,

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Speaker 1: large expensive autographed item in in our pro shop, and

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Speaker 1: that person, as part of their kind of onboarding and

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Speaker 1: trying to cross sell them across the organization, they received

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Speaker 1: a series of communications. One of them was to sign

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Speaker 1: up for the Patriots wait list. They signed up for

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Speaker 1: the Patriots wait list. As part of that communication for

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Speaker 1: the wait list, they're also asked if they're interested in

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Speaker 1: buying a premium product. This person indicated that they were

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Speaker 1: then that list UH and that contact was then shared

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Speaker 1: with our premium group and that person ultimately bought club

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Speaker 1: seats and then from there we identified that person was

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Speaker 1: actually the president of Samsunite, and they became a sponsor

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Speaker 1: of the organization. And so that's kind of like a

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Speaker 1: very good example of you're creating the right processes, You're

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Speaker 1: creating the right targeting of your customers to move them

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Speaker 1: around and identify them. So we didn't even have like

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Speaker 1: a first touch point of you know, where they're receiving

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Speaker 1: a phone call until five or six steps into the process.

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Speaker 1: So most franchises like to keep their proprietary stuff private.

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Speaker 1: You're doing better and everybody else, why don't we just

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Speaker 1: keep these secrets in house? However, the Crafts have chosen

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Speaker 1: to put you in charge of a unit that helps

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Speaker 1: everybody else out who else are you working with and

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Speaker 1: why are they sharing all of this? Yeah? I mean

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Speaker 1: obviously some of the most well known organizations that we're

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Speaker 1: working with are the Philadelphia seventy six ers, who, of

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Speaker 1: course are incredibly innovative. They're trusting your process. Yeah, and

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Speaker 1: then they've found great success already in terms of just

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Speaker 1: the ability to take take a process. So this is

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Speaker 1: a good example. They they had a process of collecting

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Speaker 1: names in venue and then to actually get that information

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Speaker 1: into their UM, into their data warehouse, and ultimately to

430
00:23:45,600 --> 00:23:48,080
Speaker 1: their sales reps to call those people. It was like

431
00:23:48,320 --> 00:23:51,400
Speaker 1: a four day process for them, and we have made

432
00:23:51,400 --> 00:23:53,639
Speaker 1: it a two to three hour process. For them, and

433
00:23:53,720 --> 00:23:57,400
Speaker 1: so from from from the sales rep perspective, obviously they're

434
00:23:57,440 --> 00:24:00,320
Speaker 1: getting a much warmer lead and from the customers variance,

435
00:24:00,359 --> 00:24:03,800
Speaker 1: it's much more top of mind. So UM, you know,

436
00:24:03,840 --> 00:24:07,680
Speaker 1: they're very innovative. We're also working with folks like Mississippi States,

437
00:24:07,680 --> 00:24:10,120
Speaker 1: so we have a presence in the college space and

438
00:24:10,119 --> 00:24:13,200
Speaker 1: and they've they've been very progressive too. And the college

439
00:24:13,240 --> 00:24:17,640
Speaker 1: space in general is actually behind the professional sports UM

440
00:24:17,880 --> 00:24:20,159
Speaker 1: world and a lot of that is because of the

441
00:24:20,280 --> 00:24:24,600
Speaker 1: lack of UM resources that they have and UM. But

442
00:24:24,720 --> 00:24:28,320
Speaker 1: so for example, for for Mississippi State, they we've provided

443
00:24:28,359 --> 00:24:32,320
Speaker 1: them with kind of stadium maps with pricing and they've

444
00:24:32,440 --> 00:24:36,800
Speaker 1: used that to actually they they they altered pricing whether

445
00:24:36,920 --> 00:24:41,560
Speaker 1: increasing or decreasing and like of their Bowl for football

446
00:24:41,600 --> 00:24:44,000
Speaker 1: this year. And the way that they were able to

447
00:24:44,040 --> 00:24:47,879
Speaker 1: get that kind of through through their director of athletics

448
00:24:48,160 --> 00:24:51,040
Speaker 1: is that they had this great visual to tell the story. Right,

449
00:24:51,080 --> 00:24:53,120
Speaker 1: So that's kind of that earlier topic that we were

450
00:24:53,119 --> 00:24:55,440
Speaker 1: talking about. And the end result for them is they're

451
00:24:55,440 --> 00:24:58,720
Speaker 1: expecting about you know, one point five million increase in

452
00:24:58,760 --> 00:25:01,640
Speaker 1: their their net revenue news, but more than that, they're

453
00:25:01,680 --> 00:25:04,800
Speaker 1: already seeing seeing there about fifteen days into their renewal period,

454
00:25:05,119 --> 00:25:07,640
Speaker 1: they're seeing that the renewal is happening at a higher

455
00:25:07,720 --> 00:25:10,080
Speaker 1: rate because the price, because the pricing is done correctly

456
00:25:10,359 --> 00:25:13,240
Speaker 1: for the value of what people are paying for. So

457
00:25:14,080 --> 00:25:15,800
Speaker 1: those are just a couple of examples. So I think

458
00:25:15,960 --> 00:25:20,320
Speaker 1: kind of your question about the secret sauce um. You know,

459
00:25:20,480 --> 00:25:23,120
Speaker 1: as as an industry, we need to continue to move

460
00:25:23,160 --> 00:25:27,040
Speaker 1: forward or we're gonna we're gonna lose the customer um. Overall,

461
00:25:27,080 --> 00:25:31,159
Speaker 1: I'm really concerned about the presence and growing nature of

462
00:25:31,200 --> 00:25:34,680
Speaker 1: the of the secondary market. And you know, for rights

463
00:25:34,680 --> 00:25:37,720
Speaker 1: holders to take ownership of of their fan and be

464
00:25:37,840 --> 00:25:41,479
Speaker 1: communicating and connecting directly with them is really important. And

465
00:25:41,520 --> 00:25:44,160
Speaker 1: a lot of that is about really understanding your customer

466
00:25:44,200 --> 00:25:48,240
Speaker 1: and and making sure you're for focusing on improving their experience.

467
00:25:48,440 --> 00:25:52,360
Speaker 1: We're talking with the CEO of Craft Analytics, Jessica Gilman,

468
00:25:52,560 --> 00:25:58,240
Speaker 1: and this world of sports analytics and gambling go together

469
00:25:58,560 --> 00:26:01,919
Speaker 1: and we and now it's really about ready to explode

470
00:26:01,960 --> 00:26:06,920
Speaker 1: because the Supreme Court is likely, according to experts, rule

471
00:26:07,080 --> 00:26:12,480
Speaker 1: that you can gamble on sports across the nation. There's

472
00:26:12,520 --> 00:26:14,840
Speaker 1: a lot of money involved in this, not only for

473
00:26:14,840 --> 00:26:18,920
Speaker 1: the analytics involved, for the gambler obviously looking for the data,

474
00:26:18,960 --> 00:26:22,600
Speaker 1: but the people that provide the data and the gambler

475
00:26:22,640 --> 00:26:27,120
Speaker 1: who wants to buy this, can you talk us through that? Sure? Well,

476
00:26:27,119 --> 00:26:30,640
Speaker 1: actually we have a great panel at Sloan this year

477
00:26:30,640 --> 00:26:35,119
Speaker 1: and we actually have Ted Olson uh coming to the conference. Uh,

478
00:26:35,520 --> 00:26:37,919
Speaker 1: I can explain who he is if if for folks,

479
00:26:37,680 --> 00:26:41,240
Speaker 1: he's the one who's leading the charge um for for

480
00:26:41,359 --> 00:26:45,040
Speaker 1: New Jersey, which is gonna you know, rule relatively soon.

481
00:26:45,960 --> 00:26:49,919
Speaker 1: And the kind of I read this article about Adam

482
00:26:50,000 --> 00:26:55,560
Speaker 1: Silver kind of alluding to um A one percent of

483
00:26:56,520 --> 00:27:00,679
Speaker 1: the total gambling. Everybody was on the same page until

484
00:27:00,800 --> 00:27:03,080
Speaker 1: that that came out that they wanted an integrity fee.

485
00:27:03,880 --> 00:27:06,159
Speaker 1: Yeah no, And I actually thought it was it was

486
00:27:06,240 --> 00:27:09,560
Speaker 1: a very interesting concept um because there is I P

487
00:27:10,000 --> 00:27:14,200
Speaker 1: surrounding what what the league's um you know have are

488
00:27:14,440 --> 00:27:18,320
Speaker 1: managing and trying to drive value in. That's going to

489
00:27:18,359 --> 00:27:20,119
Speaker 1: be really interesting to see how that plays out. But

490
00:27:20,200 --> 00:27:22,840
Speaker 1: I think as as someone who is very focused on

491
00:27:23,400 --> 00:27:25,920
Speaker 1: on the data and the consumer, it's to me it's

492
00:27:25,960 --> 00:27:31,200
Speaker 1: just another touch point of information to better understand, to

493
00:27:31,320 --> 00:27:33,560
Speaker 1: better understand the fans. And you know, you've see not

494
00:27:33,760 --> 00:27:37,399
Speaker 1: that Daily Fantasy is gambling, but you see the amount

495
00:27:37,400 --> 00:27:41,560
Speaker 1: of interest in Daily Fantasy and what that's driven in

496
00:27:41,800 --> 00:27:46,680
Speaker 1: terms of in terms of engagement, and you know, gambling

497
00:27:46,800 --> 00:27:48,520
Speaker 1: will just continue to do that. And not to mention,

498
00:27:48,560 --> 00:27:51,840
Speaker 1: I mean internationally, gambling is part of the sport, especially

499
00:27:51,920 --> 00:27:55,040
Speaker 1: with you know, with the Premier League. I'd be by

500
00:27:55,080 --> 00:27:58,280
Speaker 1: the way intellectual property. And I believe the Attorney General

501
00:27:58,359 --> 00:28:00,880
Speaker 1: of New York deemed Daily Fan to he was gambling.

502
00:28:02,359 --> 00:28:03,960
Speaker 1: Taman said and said it what I mean, that's what

503
00:28:04,160 --> 00:28:06,280
Speaker 1: kicked all this off, Jessica, let me ask you, this

504
00:28:06,520 --> 00:28:09,800
Speaker 1: is everything the teams do now and you had the Patriots,

505
00:28:09,840 --> 00:28:13,000
Speaker 1: for instance, had that seven network at the Super Bowl.

506
00:28:13,359 --> 00:28:16,400
Speaker 1: But people of course have to sign up. Every touch

507
00:28:16,480 --> 00:28:20,440
Speaker 1: point is an opportunity for you and your colleagues to

508
00:28:20,640 --> 00:28:24,760
Speaker 1: learn more about the customers. Absolutely, and I think you know,

509
00:28:24,880 --> 00:28:29,200
Speaker 1: as someone again within within the Craft group, in the

510
00:28:29,280 --> 00:28:32,239
Speaker 1: early days, there was a lot of there's a lot

511
00:28:32,280 --> 00:28:35,320
Speaker 1: of focus on any time we touch a customer, how

512
00:28:35,400 --> 00:28:38,040
Speaker 1: do we capture that information. It's it's obviously much more

513
00:28:38,120 --> 00:28:40,800
Speaker 1: pervasive today than it than it was in two thousand

514
00:28:40,840 --> 00:28:43,400
Speaker 1: and six or two thousand and seven, But that was

515
00:28:43,520 --> 00:28:45,320
Speaker 1: just you know, if you're if someone is coming to

516
00:28:45,440 --> 00:28:49,560
Speaker 1: training camp, how how can we capture their contact information?

517
00:28:49,800 --> 00:28:53,240
Speaker 1: So in some cases you have teams that do that

518
00:28:53,360 --> 00:28:56,040
Speaker 1: are ticketing training camp. They might not be charging people

519
00:28:56,480 --> 00:28:58,920
Speaker 1: to come to training camp, but they're providing a ticket

520
00:28:58,960 --> 00:29:03,160
Speaker 1: so that they can capture that that customer's name and um,

521
00:29:03,560 --> 00:29:05,680
Speaker 1: you know, there's tons of different loyalty programs. I think

522
00:29:05,720 --> 00:29:08,760
Speaker 1: the biggest thing where teams need to be focusing on

523
00:29:08,920 --> 00:29:12,400
Speaker 1: and has been a big focus for the Patriots and

524
00:29:12,480 --> 00:29:15,800
Speaker 1: the Revolution, is you have a finite number of people

525
00:29:15,840 --> 00:29:18,360
Speaker 1: who actually can come and see a game, how do

526
00:29:18,440 --> 00:29:22,480
Speaker 1: you capture all those other fans outside of you know,

527
00:29:22,600 --> 00:29:26,640
Speaker 1: outside outside of who are watching on TV or engaging

528
00:29:26,680 --> 00:29:29,960
Speaker 1: in other ways. And so the what what the Patriots

529
00:29:30,040 --> 00:29:33,560
Speaker 1: did and really led by Jonathan around the Super Bowl

530
00:29:33,640 --> 00:29:36,800
Speaker 1: was incredibly impressive. And you know, I was kind of

531
00:29:37,360 --> 00:29:39,800
Speaker 1: just saw it um obviously and was on the outside

532
00:29:39,840 --> 00:29:42,120
Speaker 1: looking in in that case, but it was it was brilliant.

533
00:29:42,200 --> 00:29:45,120
Speaker 1: The content was actually awesome as well. So I was

534
00:29:45,280 --> 00:29:48,200
Speaker 1: really impressed with what, um, what the organization was able

535
00:29:48,240 --> 00:29:53,520
Speaker 1: to put together. Well, I'm a Detroit Lions fan. Obviously

536
00:29:53,640 --> 00:29:56,520
Speaker 1: they need some more of these analytics, so they need

537
00:29:56,720 --> 00:29:58,400
Speaker 1: they need to go through this. I want to go

538
00:29:58,480 --> 00:30:01,600
Speaker 1: back to what you were saying earlier about other teams

539
00:30:02,360 --> 00:30:05,760
Speaker 1: buying this information that have you had any reluctance to

540
00:30:05,880 --> 00:30:10,040
Speaker 1: it from some teams. No, it's a great question. Um.

541
00:30:10,360 --> 00:30:12,680
Speaker 1: I think people are trying to, you know, make sure

542
00:30:13,040 --> 00:30:15,840
Speaker 1: at this point now that we have folks across we're

543
00:30:15,880 --> 00:30:19,480
Speaker 1: working with, you know, organizations in so many of the

544
00:30:19,520 --> 00:30:21,520
Speaker 1: other parts of the of the sports business. You know,

545
00:30:21,640 --> 00:30:25,200
Speaker 1: on location experience is also a big partner of ours.

546
00:30:25,800 --> 00:30:28,360
Speaker 1: We had John Collins was on the show before the

547
00:30:28,400 --> 00:30:32,000
Speaker 1: Super Bowl. Yeah, and and and John Collins has done

548
00:30:32,040 --> 00:30:36,080
Speaker 1: an unbelievable job growing on location and with the acquisitions

549
00:30:36,720 --> 00:30:38,680
Speaker 1: and just a great vision for what he's trying to

550
00:30:38,840 --> 00:30:41,160
Speaker 1: do with that business. And obviously he's been doing it

551
00:30:41,280 --> 00:30:43,160
Speaker 1: for a long time, even back to his day's creating

552
00:30:43,200 --> 00:30:46,400
Speaker 1: the Winter Classic. Um. But I think, you know, people

553
00:30:46,520 --> 00:30:50,560
Speaker 1: understand that we're we're bringing true and real value too

554
00:30:51,400 --> 00:30:55,280
Speaker 1: to data and strategy, using that data to to really

555
00:30:55,400 --> 00:30:58,719
Speaker 1: drive impact. Um. And I think you know, we've been

556
00:30:58,760 --> 00:31:01,320
Speaker 1: working closely with on location for quite some time, and

557
00:31:01,480 --> 00:31:04,920
Speaker 1: so I don't I don't see that anymore. I think

558
00:31:04,960 --> 00:31:07,040
Speaker 1: it was a concern at the beginning, but the reality

559
00:31:07,160 --> 00:31:10,000
Speaker 1: is is that you know, the patriots and the revolution,

560
00:31:10,080 --> 00:31:12,080
Speaker 1: they're they're one of our clients. But we have a

561
00:31:12,160 --> 00:31:15,360
Speaker 1: lot that that we're managing today and you know, we're

562
00:31:15,480 --> 00:31:18,640
Speaker 1: we're you know, a pretty big size group in terms

563
00:31:18,680 --> 00:31:21,080
Speaker 1: of growth that we've had in the past two years

564
00:31:21,120 --> 00:31:23,840
Speaker 1: since we spun out. And lastly, for you, Jessica, is

565
00:31:23,920 --> 00:31:27,960
Speaker 1: it easier to reach the fans of tomorrow? And everybody

566
00:31:28,080 --> 00:31:30,640
Speaker 1: is trying to figure out how to reach the millennials

567
00:31:30,960 --> 00:31:34,680
Speaker 1: because they're so attached to the phone, that digital piece,

568
00:31:34,760 --> 00:31:37,880
Speaker 1: that touch point that no problem, here's my credit card,

569
00:31:38,000 --> 00:31:41,880
Speaker 1: here's my birthday, here's my address. Is it easier to

570
00:31:42,040 --> 00:31:45,480
Speaker 1: reach the fans of tomorrow to understand who they are? Well,

571
00:31:45,560 --> 00:31:48,040
Speaker 1: this is really where the right solders, the teams in

572
00:31:48,120 --> 00:31:51,400
Speaker 1: the league's need to make a pretty big, pretty big

573
00:31:51,440 --> 00:31:55,240
Speaker 1: statement soon because if you look at what Facebook has

574
00:31:55,280 --> 00:31:59,040
Speaker 1: done or Twitter like, they're not actually allowing you to

575
00:31:59,320 --> 00:32:03,680
Speaker 1: communicate directly with that customer you buy advertising with with

576
00:32:03,880 --> 00:32:06,960
Speaker 1: those companies, And that's going to be the big challenge,

577
00:32:07,000 --> 00:32:11,000
Speaker 1: which is can teams and leagues continue to communicate directly

578
00:32:11,120 --> 00:32:15,400
Speaker 1: with those millennials if those millennials are not using email

579
00:32:16,000 --> 00:32:19,800
Speaker 1: and so email is still king today in terms of communication,

580
00:32:20,760 --> 00:32:25,760
Speaker 1: but millennials increasingly they're doing all their communication on Snapchat

581
00:32:26,040 --> 00:32:30,480
Speaker 1: and on you know, Facebook Messenger, and so there's there's

582
00:32:30,520 --> 00:32:33,280
Speaker 1: gonna be um kind of an inflection point I think

583
00:32:33,320 --> 00:32:34,840
Speaker 1: coming in the next two to three years on that

584
00:32:34,920 --> 00:32:37,800
Speaker 1: specific topic. All right, that's Jessica Gilman, the CEO of

585
00:32:37,840 --> 00:32:40,240
Speaker 1: the Craft Analytics Group and the co founder of the

586
00:32:40,360 --> 00:32:44,200
Speaker 1: m I T. Sloan Sports Analytics Conference this weekend. Jessica,

587
00:32:44,240 --> 00:32:47,240
Speaker 1: thank you very much, Thank you so much. Thank you guys.

588
00:32:47,320 --> 00:32:52,600
Speaker 1: It was it was funny. We'll take it. Takeaways from

589
00:32:52,720 --> 00:32:56,880
Speaker 1: Jessica Gilman. She talked about how they provide the analytics

590
00:32:57,000 --> 00:33:00,920
Speaker 1: for many companies and I wondered, well, you know what

591
00:33:01,040 --> 00:33:04,720
Speaker 1: do other people think about that? But there's the analysis

592
00:33:05,080 --> 00:33:09,320
Speaker 1: just like a NASCAR where they sell engines. One team

593
00:33:09,960 --> 00:33:14,400
Speaker 1: Megapowerhouse team will sell their engines to other teams, and

594
00:33:15,000 --> 00:33:17,120
Speaker 1: the other teams know you have a quality engine. So

595
00:33:17,160 --> 00:33:19,880
Speaker 1: I'm assuming the people that buy these analytics know that

596
00:33:20,040 --> 00:33:22,400
Speaker 1: this is quality data. We can't go one show without

597
00:33:22,400 --> 00:33:24,680
Speaker 1: you're bringing up a NASCAR. We can't even go one show,

598
00:33:24,800 --> 00:33:26,600
Speaker 1: not one al right. By the way, we never we

599
00:33:26,640 --> 00:33:30,600
Speaker 1: didn't discuss the day one you just wait. All right,

600
00:33:30,640 --> 00:33:34,640
Speaker 1: well hold on. My takeaway, I feel big brother, but

601
00:33:34,880 --> 00:33:37,000
Speaker 1: I understand it. They want all the data, they want

602
00:33:37,040 --> 00:33:41,040
Speaker 1: to know everything about the customer. Pretty soon, my phone

603
00:33:41,120 --> 00:33:43,600
Speaker 1: is going to vibrate and it's gonna say, Hey, Scott,

604
00:33:43,640 --> 00:33:46,080
Speaker 1: you're about to for a bathroom visit. You know, if

605
00:33:46,120 --> 00:33:48,880
Speaker 1: you go to uh section twenty two, there's no line

606
00:33:48,920 --> 00:33:50,280
Speaker 1: in the bathroom. Now is a good time for you

607
00:33:50,360 --> 00:33:52,800
Speaker 1: to go, because historically this is a time for you

608
00:33:52,920 --> 00:33:54,960
Speaker 1: to go when you're at the stadium. But that that's

609
00:33:55,000 --> 00:33:58,640
Speaker 1: where we're headed. But you're gonna see these guys capitalizing

610
00:33:58,920 --> 00:34:04,200
Speaker 1: in ways we haven't even dreamed of yet. Feels better

611
00:34:04,240 --> 00:34:05,840
Speaker 1: to be a number one than number five. I'll wear

612
00:34:05,920 --> 00:34:07,600
Speaker 1: a number because of Mike. We have a chance to

613
00:34:07,640 --> 00:34:09,640
Speaker 1: go for three in a row, numbers in a good time.

614
00:34:09,640 --> 00:34:12,080
Speaker 1: When I first started wearing their number, I would just happy.

615
00:34:12,120 --> 00:34:15,799
Speaker 1: In Floomberg Business of sports, the number of the week,

616
00:34:16,560 --> 00:34:20,280
Speaker 1: Number of the week. Three. No clue is that that NASCAR?

617
00:34:20,360 --> 00:34:26,800
Speaker 1: Is that like the driver? Hey, hey, come on, I

618
00:34:26,840 --> 00:34:30,320
Speaker 1: have no idea who won I know the diversity candidate

619
00:34:30,400 --> 00:34:32,000
Speaker 1: came in second, the one that that that's on the

620
00:34:32,040 --> 00:34:34,640
Speaker 1: Facebook show. I don't know his name. Oh, you're talking

621
00:34:34,640 --> 00:34:37,080
Speaker 1: about Bubba Wallace. Bubba wall he came in second. See

622
00:34:37,120 --> 00:34:39,520
Speaker 1: I know that that's great for NASCAR. That I know

623
00:34:40,160 --> 00:34:42,320
Speaker 1: that Bubba Wallace came in second because that's going to

624
00:34:42,360 --> 00:34:45,160
Speaker 1: reach new audiences. So that's good for a NASCAR. But

625
00:34:45,200 --> 00:34:47,680
Speaker 1: I don't know who won. Well, let's give a big

626
00:34:47,880 --> 00:34:52,239
Speaker 1: salute to Austin Dillon, who is the grandson. Look at that.

627
00:34:52,680 --> 00:34:54,600
Speaker 1: Not not only did I know who won, I've never

628
00:34:54,719 --> 00:34:58,080
Speaker 1: heard of Austin Austin Dillon. He's the grandson of Richard Children's,

629
00:34:58,160 --> 00:35:01,160
Speaker 1: the owner that I've heard of, Richard Children's Churchill just racing. Yeah.

630
00:35:01,360 --> 00:35:04,800
Speaker 1: And and the number three obviously was very big because

631
00:35:04,920 --> 00:35:07,880
Speaker 1: Dale Earnhardt made that number huge. I didn't want to

632
00:35:07,920 --> 00:35:09,480
Speaker 1: seem ignorant. I was going to say I thought that

633
00:35:09,520 --> 00:35:12,440
Speaker 1: was Dale Earnheart's number. You're right, maybe I know a

634
00:35:12,520 --> 00:35:15,919
Speaker 1: little something, bar you know a lot. You've been listening

635
00:35:15,960 --> 00:35:18,080
Speaker 1: to Bloomberg Business of Sports. We are here each and

636
00:35:18,120 --> 00:35:20,160
Speaker 1: every week at the same time, exploring the world of

637
00:35:20,200 --> 00:35:22,920
Speaker 1: money and sports. I'm Michael Barn and I'm Scott Sloshnik.

638
00:35:22,960 --> 00:35:24,759
Speaker 1: Thanks for joining us, and please tune in next week

639
00:35:24,800 --> 00:35:26,400
Speaker 1: when we speak with the biggest and brightest in the

640
00:35:26,440 --> 00:35:29,640
Speaker 1: sports business industry. You're listening to Bloomberg Business of Sports

641
00:35:29,800 --> 00:35:33,160
Speaker 1: from Bloomberg Radio around the world and online as an

642
00:35:33,160 --> 00:35:34,680
Speaker 1: Apple podcast on iTunes,