Sportel Monaco: how to turn watching sports into a spectacle
From 23-26 October, Monaco hosted one of the biggest sports marketing and media B2B events in the world – Sportel Monaco 2017 that was held in Grimaldi Forum. Hundreds of the best international companies were gathered in one place in order to demonstrate how sports marketing was carried out and how it was seen in media in 2017. The convention in Monaco was organised by Monaco MEDIAX with the support of Prince Albert II. Moreover, one of the presentations included the innovative football-based sport, TEQBALL, which was demonstrated by such football stars as Luis Figo, Simão Sabrosa, William Gallas and Christian Karembeu on Tuesday 24th October. HelloMonaco met with the project manager and official TEQBALL player Bench Varga, to find out a little more about this new sport.
Fiteq/Teqball
We have been presenting our innovative new sport in Monaco. We invented this special curved table, which is very different from a basic tennis table. Due to its shape, the ball bounces to you, instead of bouncing up. In this game we use a simple football, passing it to another player through the net. You cannot touch the ball with your hands, only your feet, body, or head. Also you cannot accept the ball with the same move, so here a fast decision making process takes place. FITEQ is an international federation, just like FIFA for football. We developed 5 types of games that you can play on this table: from TEQvolley and TEQpong to catch, which is the game for kids or senior citizens.
This sport came to the public 3 years ago. The first TEQBALL All Stars Cup was held in Luxembourg. There were football stars such as Puyol, Figo, Gomez, Ronaldinho. We see that this sport is spreading all over the world quite quickly. TEQBALL develops your skills on the very high level, for example in your reaction and quick decision-making process. Football players can easily use this game as training. Teqball is also perfect for rehabilitation after injuries, as you don’t have any contact either with the table or with the other player.
To discover some recent trends in the sector of sports marketing and media, HelloMonaco has selected a few companies with the most innovative approach.
Tata communications (India)
We are the owners of the biggest fibre network in the world, which is more than 700,000 km in total. We are connected to 44 data centres all over the world. Consequently, we are in content distribution all around the globe. Our biggest clients in broadcasting are Moto Grand-Prix, Formula 1(complete distribution-web management, etc.) and the European Golf Tour.
We propose an ultra-live video distribution network, which has the lowest latency in terms of content delivery. For instance, at home the family is watching the Moto Grand Prix. Everybody is watching the broadcasting on different devices, on the TV, tablet and phone at the same time. Normally, it doesn’t show exactly the same thing, there is always a delay. In our case, we developed a network that doesn’t experience that latency, so all the screens will show exactly the same thing at the same time! So from the moment when the sport event was filmed till it’s on the screen – we are the fastest!
First vision/Bodycamera (Spain)
This product has existed for 3 years and it’s our second time exhibiting at Sportel. What we created is an integration of the camera in the player’s compression shirt; it is small and comfortable for the athlete. Fans can see what it is like to be right in the middle of the action and how it feels to be the player.
We hire out this camera to the broadcasters for a game or for an entire season. We have live-units and also a recording option. We have it for many sports: basketball, football, rugby, athletics, and hockey. In terms of content, hockey offers the chance to make the best video, as players are normally sliding and the video looks more stable. In football we are trying to put this camera mostly on the goalkeepers, as the key activity of the game is going on in the goalkeeper area.
Vizrt (Norway)
Vizrt delivers digital solutions for broadcasters. We offer analysis tool that the broadcaster (expert or TV host) can use in his studio to highlight the key moments during the game, using digital graphics that can be applied directly to the video. We also demonstrate virtual advertising that can appear on the broadcasted game on the field, for example. Additionally, we have developed an innovative method of putting virtual ads on the banners that surround the field, which nobody else can do.
Last but not least, in the classical traditions of the convention, on 24 October there was the annual awards ceremony of the winners of the Sportel Prize divided into 3 different categories, such as the Golden Podiums, Special Prize and Sports Book Prize. In the first category, Golden Podiums, Piero Pontico was awarded for the best slow motion; Tim Ahlfred from Red Bull Media House for the best promotion programme; Antoine Frioux was awarded the Discovery Prize; Hervé Borde received the Innovation Prize; Christian Blachas Advertising Prize received Unlimited youth Nike – WIEDEN+KENNEDY USA / USA; CANAL+ received the Second Screen Prize.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hTqaiThb2fU
Special Prize was taken by the Olympic Channel, Maria Toorpakai and Jack Weatherley –UEFA. In the last, but very important, category of Sports Book Prize, nominated the book by Francois Carrel “A cordetendue” and “So Foot – Les années 70: Football total, napalm et poteaux carrés” by SO PRESS. Let’s hope that next year SPORTEL Monaco will be held in the same way, or, who knows, maybe it will be even more exciting! Sportel Monaco 2017 was fantastic and we will be looking forward to its “bon retour” in 2018!
