October 03, 2017
Europe’s elite professional basketball league extends consulting agreement with G2 Strategic to advise BOCS
Euroleague Basketball (“EB”) and G2 Strategic (“G2”) today announced the launch of a new department, Euroleague Business Operations & Club Services (“BOCS”), the first club services division among all European professional sports leagues. BOCS is modeled after similar service departments that have been implemented by all major U.S. leagues, most famously the NBA’s Team Marketing & Business Operations (“TMBO”) division.
BOCS will assist its 16 clubs across all commercial areas, in an effort to improve the customer experience, optimize fan engagement, and achieve long-term economic growth.
In conjunction with the launch of BOCS, EB has extended its consulting agreement with G2, a U.S.-based consultancy whose CEO, Marshall Glickman, has been a senior advisor to the league since 2002. G2’s scope will expand to address a broad range of business topics, including sponsorship, premium seating, new customer acquisition, customer retention and spend, digital and social media, fan engagement, activation, merchandising, licensing, branding, arena leases terms, messaging and storytelling, organizational structure, executive recruitment, arena development, refurbishment and operations, and other business topics.
Euroleague Basketball’s competition format was restructured prior to the 2016-17 season, resulting in substantial growth across multiple metrics. With the launch of BOCS, the league and its clubs have made a clear statement about the importance of achieving long-term economic stability by boosting revenues, emphasizing a collective desire for more experience-sharing, stronger collective efforts, and strategic business planning. The new division was unanimously approved by the clubs at the league’s general assembly on July 3, following the endorsement of the club owners at a meeting with Euroleague CEO Jordi Bertomeu in late June.
Said Bertomeu, “We pride ourselves on being a brand that stands for innovation. With the launch of BOCS, we are communicating to our clubs, sponsors, business partners and fans that we will adapt our business practices to demographic shifts, and the expectations of customers.
By launching BOCS, we can coordinate and integrate the business strategies of the clubs and Euroleague Basketball in order to put ourselves in a strong position to not just create an economically sustainable future, but also put our league in a position where we can supplement our partnership with IMG, so our clubs can continue to enjoy the tremendous growth we have experienced in the last several years.”
Bertomeu added, “We are thrilled that our long association with Marshall Glickman will continue. His firm, G2 Strategic, brings us a deep knowledge of the global landscape, as well as wise counsel and veteran leadership.”
BOCS will catalog and provide its clubs with access to a digital library of best sports business practices, as well as fully transparent access to detailed club data that will be organized, categorized, analyzed, ranked and shared with the clubs, providing key metrics and benchmarks to assist the clubs in their quest to achieve consistently improving economic results.
Recognizing that all clubs face unique market-specific challenges, BOCS will also provide market-specific consultation to each Turkish Airlines EuroLeague club on a wide variety of business topics.
Said Glickman, “As BOCS evolves, our aim is to help our clubs innovate, and embrace new generations of customers, including Millennials, GenZ, women, families, and small business owners. We will work with Euroleague Basketball’s clubs to insist on a fan-first business culture, to compliment the world’s best basketball outside of the states. I am excited to be a part of this great leap forward.”
BOCS and G2 will also develop and lead annual workshops, which will act as a forum for clubs to voice their opinions, share experience and exchange information, with full transparency.
Euroleague Basketball’s extension with G2, as well as the launch of BOCS, follows the annual Euroleague Business Summit (July 5) and Ticketing Innovation Workshop (July 4), which were led by Glickman. The Summit featured keynote speakers from Major League Soccer, Arsenal, World Wrestling Entertainment, Facebook, Google, and Twitter.
G2’s European client portfolio includes LaLiga (the Spanish professional football league), and a consortium of nine French professional clubs from football (Paris Saint-Germain, Olympique Lyonnais, FC Metz, Chamois Niort, AS Nancy-Lorraine), rugby (Stade Rochelais, Stade Français), and basketball (Antibes Sharks, Limoges CSP).
Contacts
G2 Strategic Marshall Glickman
CEO, G2 Strategic
+1.857.991.9361
marshall@g2strategic.net
Euroleague Basketball Communication Department
+ 34 933278427
mediacommunication@euroleague.net