MONACO: The sports industry’s deal-makers have flooded into Monaco this week, and the energy is electric. Nearly 70 countries have sent their sharpest minds to Sportel 2025, a three-day collision between legacy sports titans and maverick tech disruptors that kicks off today and runs through 22 October. This is where real money gets moved and genuine innovation gets showcased.
The Grimaldi Forum is heaving with some of sport’s biggest names exhibiting: Fifa, La Liga, the World Cup of Hockey 2028, alongside a glittering roster of tech firms like Qualcomm, AWS, and Wasabi. But Sportel is no mere trade show—it’s a strategic summit where the next generation of sports media gets hammered out.
The conference programme cuts straight to the chase. Javier Tebas, La Liga’s president, will deliver a keynote spelling out how the world’s most compelling league is monetising itself. But the real fireworks come in a masterly panel on investment: “Where is the next $1bn coming from?” features the CEOs of Surj Sports Investment, Kings League, and the Professional Fighters League, all circling the same question—which markets are still hungry, and where will private equity and sovereign wealth funds actually deploy capital?
There’s more. A panel on Formula 1’s storytelling prowess asks whether authentic sport crossed with entertainment star power can turbocharge sponsorship and rights values. Then comes the tech avalanche: sessions on generative AI reshaping everything from content creation to the fan experience; on new live-streaming tools that personalise what viewers see; on how Liverpool FC is harnessing AI and cloud infrastructure to deepen loyalty across the globe.
The Ligue 1+ case study is particularly clever—a league building its own direct-to-consumer platform, hoarding first-party data, and cutting out the middleman to capture fresh revenue. That model is spreading. So too is the adoption of ad-supported streaming as the default for OTT platforms. World Rugby, via the platform WURL, is showcasing exactly how.
The conference even has a competition worth caring about: “Pitch Perfect Innovation Contest” will see start-ups including Pendular, FalconHQ, and Camb.ai each get three minutes to convince industry heavyweights that their solution deserves backing. And a Women’s Lunch (by invitation) will celebrate female leaders redefining the sport-media nexus—expect Alexis Ohanian from Seven Seven Six, Lauren Pedersen from SportAI, Fiona Wong from the NBA, and marathon world record holder Paula Radcliffe to set the room ablaze.
The message from all sides is unambiguous: artificial intelligence, cloud technology, and direct fan relationships aren’t the future anymore. They’re the present—and if you’re not moving now, you’re already behind.
