Overview
L.E.K. Consulting advises sports and live entertainment business leaders on how to profitably grow their businesses and resolve pressing strategic questions. We have worked with clients across the spectrum, including sports leagues, sports teams, media partners, content distributors, promoters, venue operators, service providers and investors.
Key questions and challenges
Participants in the sports and live entertainment business have myriad challenges and opportunities to address in growing their businesses:
- Fan segmentation and lifecycle management: How do we maximize the engagement and spending of our current fan base and cultivate the next generation of fans?
- Direct-to-consumer digital strategies: How do we build meaningful direct digital, social and mobile relationships with our fans alongside traditional linear rights relationships? How do we optimize the pricing and packaging of our digital DTC services?
- International go-to-market strategy: How do we reach, engage and monetize fan bases outside of our home market(s)?
- Live event revenue and fan experience maximization: How do we drive attendance, per-caps, and overall fan experience at our games, events and facilities?
- Rights value maximization: What are our live game, digital and other rights worth? Who are our potential bidders, and what is their relative willingness to pay? How do we prioritize potential rights-holding partners? How do we maximize the strength of our bargaining position?
Examples of our work
L.E.K.’s work has had a meaningful impact on our sports and live entertainment clients. For example, with our support:
- A sports entertainment company launched a subscription over-the-top that quickly reached more than 1 million paying subscribers globally
- A professional sports league nearly doubled revenue of its digital subscription service
- A Power Five athletic department gained a deep understanding of where to invest sales and marketing to drive a 25% increase in football attendance
- A major promoter and venue owner launched a self-ticketing service that led to a $2.5 billion merger that reshaped the ticketing business
- A major sports-related company nearly doubled revenue from a series of TV rights deals renewed over a six-month period across several international markets
- A major promoter of touring shows (300-plus global shows each year) grew its live events revenue by 15% annually after a period of stagnation
