Andreas Heyden, "Football Gone Digital"

The Sports Entrepreneurs Podcast by Marcus Luer

Andreas Heyden, is a German web/digital native, learning from the tough times of the dotcom boom/bust days and the 2008/09 global financial crisis and now leading Digital Innovations at the Bundesliga (DFL - German Football League). Great insides into the Digital innovations and projects of one of the leading Football Leagues in the world, which also aims to be the most innovative Football League in the world. Plenty to learn for anyone in this space. Listen closely.

Key Highlights

1. Early days in Andreas’ career and how that leads to his roles in the digital space and the learning of cycles across the past 20 years
2. Crisis leaves clues and creates new opportunities Web 2.0 came after the dotcom crash, Social Media boom after the 2008 financial crisis, what will come after Covid?
3. RTL Interactive (part of RTL Bertelsmann, one of the biggest Broadcasting Groups in Europe) – video on demand, taking a traditional broadcaster into Web 2.0 world after the dotcom crash
4. “I am a customer guy first, focus on the fan and customer”
5. Sevenload – German version of YouTube – joining just before the 2008 crisis – tough road ahead in a start-up environment
6. ProSiebenSat 1 Games – (another Giant of German Broadcasting) & Maxdome– entering the Gaming world
7. His start as CEO of DFL Digital Sports (Bundesliga) – German Football League – his roles
8. How to create new revenue opportunities with content and data – three initiatives he is leading (using AI and machine learning)
   1. Local relevance – providing customized content
   2. Bundesliga Match Facts (Data driven stats) & Club data portal
   3. Smart media archive – 150,000 hours of media footage digitized
9. Treat “AI” like a colleague – create customized content for different clients and customers
10. AWS (Amazon Web Services) partnership and evolution of it – best in class in cloud services to integrated business partner now
11. Deltatre partnership – JV in Football data, VR, etc
12. Sports Innovation Trade Fair – every two years, setting up a real live environment(actual matches) to showcase new technology – next Spring 2022
13. DFL Digital innovations during Covid - on-screen innovation, augmented reality, additional match facts, new camera positions
14. Glass to Glass strategy – from the camera Lens to the screen – DFL owns the parts of the entire value chain
15. Betting space – DFL digital role – provide data to betting operators
16. NBA Shots – NFT discussion – real collectables vs digital versions – exploring, difference in market dynamics
17. OTT ready anytime if its needed – difficult question when will the switch to D2C happen vs the existing model
18. Bundesliga looking at PE partnerships and the process internally

About Andreas Heyden

Since June 2015, Andreas Heyden is serving as CEO of the DFL digital sports GmbH being responsible for digital platforms & production and distribution of national and international media content. Before Andreas was the Managing Director of Maxdome GmbH since July 1st, 2013. Previously, Andreas was COO as part the management of ProSiebenSat.1 Game GmbH from December 2011 on.

Before this Andreas was a managing director of the startup Sevenload, where his responsibilities included cooperation with content and distribution partners as well as internationalization of the portal. Before joining Sevenload, Heyden was head of the innovation and production unit at RTL Interactive, where he established new internet business models in the games industry and other segments.

Heyden began his career at Metronet AG in 1996, where he worked in the Subscriber Marketing Department. In 1997, Heyden became a key account manager for I-D Media AG. Following his professional work in Singapore in 1999, he began working with Microsoft GmbH as part of the Product Marketing team for MSN.de.

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