Sports Innovation Lab Releases Top 25 Most Innovative Teams Report for 2022

Sports Innovation Lab’s Top 25 Most Innovative Teams in the World Report

“The most innovative teams are setting the pace when it comes to capturing the interest of Fluid Fans, who vocally demand more across the board from their favorite sports properties.” – Josh Walker, Sports Innovation Lab

BOSTON (PRWEB)
May 25, 2022

Sports Innovation Lab, a data-driven fan intelligence company, announced today the public release of its Top 25 Most Innovative Teams in the World Report for 2022 (#25Innovative). The definitive global ranking of sports teams uses a proprietary methodology to score and rank properties based on their ability to win the future fan – the Fluid Fan. International soccer powerhouse and global sports brand FC Barcelona was crowned No. 1 Most Innovative for 2022, an honor achieved in part due to their continued investment into evolving fan-experience domains.

The full report is available for download at: mostinnovative.com. Sports business professionals, brands, local governing bodies, and fans alike are encouraged to dive into the report to consume valuable insights on what makes the modern sports team truly ‘innovative.’ Teams from the list, as well as other progressive leaders, creators, and visionaries will convene at the first-ever Most Innovative conference this fall; professionals interested in attending may request an invitation online at mostinnovative.com/events.

“Many industry leaders struggle with the definition of innovation. They say ‘we know it when we see it’ but for us, that wasn’t good enough,” said Sports Innovation Lab Co-Founder and CEO Angela Ruggiero, a four-time Olympic medalist who has held leadership roles in sport across the globe. “The Most Innovative Teams report is the answer to that ambiguity, providing a definitive ranking based on strict criteria that identify and score what it means to be innovative.”

Teams exclusively within the top 10 revenue-grossing leagues globally were evaluated for this report, but Sports Innovation Lab plans to expand its “Most Innovative” platform later this year with lists including additional leagues and teams.

For the 2022 ranking, teams were scored based on a proprietary algorithm that accounted for three categories:

• 
  Revenue Diversification (RD) – A statistical measure of how teams are broadening fan scope and driving revenue through alternative channels. FC Barcelona tied for first in this category with La Liga rival Real Madrid.
• Technology Enablement (TE) – A statistical measure of the strength of association between teams and fan-centric technologies that enable critical fan behaviors, such as Learn, Buy, Bet, and Create. The Golden State Warriors finished first in this category.
• Organization Agility (OA) – A statistical measure of how team front offices are organized and staffed, and how they incorporate data and business intelligence into the operations. The Philadelphia 76ers tied with several other franchises for first in this category.

North American market representation on the list came from across men’s sports leagues, including the NBA, NFL, MLB, and NHL. To see which team ranked first for each league, download the report at mostinnovative.com.

“Sports teams feel the pressures of competing in the attention economy,” said Josh Walker, Sports Innovation Lab’s president & co-founder. “The most innovative teams are setting the pace when it comes to capturing the interest of Fluid Fans, who vocally demand more across the board from their favorite sports properties.”

Women’s sports teams are noticeably missing from the report due to revenue criteria and a lack of publicly-available information to adequately assess them, which is a resolvable industry-wide issue according to Abe Stein, Sports Innovation Lab’s head of innovation.

“There is an immediate need for more publicly-available information (that we turn into data) about what women’s teams are doing in technology, how they’re diversifying their revenue, and the structure of their organizations,” Stein said. “To put it simply, you cannot evaluate what you cannot measure, and that’s why we’ve put so much energy over the past two years into defining what it means for a team to be innovative and setting up the research method for independently collecting the relevant data.”

Ruggiero and Stein are both bullish on seeing a Women’s Team Ranking in the coming 12 months, especially given the momentum behind the category following the release of Sports Innovation Lab’s groundbreaking report The Fan Project that revealed a multi-billion dollar opportunity being missed out on.

Sports Innovation Lab’s proprietary data capabilities have established the company as the marketplace’s only provider of insights on Fluid Fan behavior and how teams are catering to their demands. To follow the conversation around the Top 25 Innovative Teams report on social media, follow @sportsilab, @angelaruggiero, and #25Innovative.

About Sports Innovation Lab

Sports Innovation Lab is a fan intelligence and market research organization that helps the world’s leading sports organizations understand who their fans are, and how technology is changing their behavior. We do this by collecting and analyzing data on what fans do, watch, and buy, and offering our clients such as the NFL, NHL, FIFA, Google, Facebook, Coca-Cola, Visa, and Puma analysis and strategic interpretation of that data. Learn more at sportsilab.com.

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