Introduction

Authentic Partnerships
Can Open Doors
to a Whole Different Ball Game

Authored by

Capgemini is a global business and technology transformation partner, helping organizations to accelerate their dual transition to a digital and sustainable world, while creating tangible impact for enterprises and society.

It is a responsible and diverse group of 340,000 team members in more than 50 countries. With its strong over 55-year heritage, Capgemini is trusted by its clients to unlock the value of technology to address the entire breadth of their business needs. It delivers end-to-end services and solutions leveraging strengths from strategy and design to engineering, all fuelled by its market leading capabilities in AI, cloud and data, combined with its deep industry expertise and partner ecosystem.

Through global partnerships with sports organizations, including World Rugby, The America’s Cup, Ryder Cup and Peugeot Sport, Capgemini helps transform sport through technology and innovation.

For example, its partnership with World Rugby introduces new technological solutions to the sport, creating a more inclusive pathway for female leaders in rugby and helping World Rugby embed sustainability into its operations.

Likewise, Capgemini’s partnership with Ryder Cup aligns perfectly with its expertise in using strategic insights to transform businesses. And the partnership with Peugeot Sport plays a key role at the heart of the FIA World Endurance Championship program, driving transformation with advanced digital tools and analytics to enhance the performance of the team and the Peugeot 9X8.

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Once upon a time, technology sponsorships were sold mostly on the promise of brand awareness. In fact, very often that was the sole basis of the deal.

But over recent years, sponsorships are delivering so much more. Now, the right agreement between technology partner and rights-holder opens a different kind of conversation. A conversation that provides the technology partner an opportunity to demonstrate their services in new and interesting ways and provides a value exchange. One that kicks off idea sharing and mutual innovation, and gets both partners excited about the positive impact they can bring to further the sport together.

Increasingly, that positive impact centres on improving the viewing experience – a demand driven by the fans themselves as more and more use technology to boost their viewing experience, both inside and outside the venue. According to a report from Capgemini Research Institute, as many as 84% fans say their overall viewing experience has been enhanced by technology. This figure climbs to almost 90% for Gen Z and millennial fans.

Sports partnerships at the top of their game

The most impactful sports technology partnerships today are those that build the sport by adding a new element.

Take yacht sailing, for example. Because of its complexity, a key challenge for rights-holders is engagement. How do you keep a program interesting for a hardcore sailing audience while still making it understandable and accessible to new audiences who are younger or have less exposure to the sport?

In 2024, Capgemini partnered with America’s Cup Media to develop WindSight IQ™ – the answer to that very challenge. This breakthrough innovation uses light detection and ranging (LiDAR), sensor fusion, and scientific computation to reveal wind patterns in augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) graphics live on screen.

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The precision of the data analytics and visuals is so elaborate that fans can watch the wind particles move and see how wind gusts and lulls are influencing the race in real time. A live ‘ghost boat’ simulation then shows the optimal routes that crews can take, allowing commentators and viewers to better understand team tactics and compare different scenarios for winning the competition.

Combining cutting-edge technology and engineering with stunning design, with WindSight IQ™ the partners are leading the way to a new era of fan experience. Bringing the physical and digital worlds together, together they are enabling millions of viewers to see and understand the invisible forces shaping the race live in the moment; a first in the history of sailing and broadcast television. In fact, they have more information about the racecourse than the sailors themselves.

Capgemini’s innovation-led approach to sports sponsorships

Capgemini is an organization driven by the belief that all technologies can enable progress for everyone if, first and foremost, they are designed by and for humans. Leading in business and technology transformation, the company helps clients address a range of challenges – for both their businesses and their customers – through the innovative application of technologies like generative AI, cloud, and data.

Not only does sport align closely to Capgemini’s core values and inspire clients and employees alike, but it also provides a unique platform to highlight Capgemini’s expertise in digital innovation and offers the opportunity to make a real difference.

Through global partnerships with sports organizations, including World Rugby, the Ryder Cup, and Peugeot Sport, Capgemini is helping transform sport through bespoke technology solutions, tailored to the unique needs of each arena.

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Redefining the fan experience for World Rugby

Across a multi-year partnership as Global Innovation Partner for the HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series, Capgemini took World Rugby on an innovation journey, to discover, devise, and build digital technologies that enabled fans to interact with, engage with, and be ahead of the game.

An interactive Match Predictor app allowed players to select the expected winners and margin of victory for every game as part of a simple league. Users could test their knowledge of the matchups and compare teams head-to head to see how they had performed relative to each other in previous matches.

Meanwhile, a Digital Stats Hub brought more digitalisation and greater organization of the existing database maintained by World Rugby. Previously, game commentators would receive paper print outs of relevant statistics and match up details. But with the Digital Stats Hub, they began to receive a digital output in real time to quickly compare the history of each match up, pull the most relevant data to the forefront, and enhance fan conversation around the event.

Capgemini also played a central role at Rugby World Cup France 2023 as World Rugby’s Digital Transformation Partner – innovating across multiple areas to support and deliver the best possible experience for players, coaches, volunteers, partners, suppliers, and fans.

Drawing on its market-leading data, insights, and analytics capabilities, Capgemini powered three new broadcast insights, aimed at enhancing both professional and casual conversation around team analysis and enriching the fan viewing experience. The insights provided pitch position analysis, metrics that quantified expected point and try performance, and an AI-powered momentum tracker that provided valuable information on which team held the momentum advantage. All of which helped tell the story of the game during live fixtures and post-match.

Further demonstrating its AI prowess, Capgemini’s innovation team developed a virtual reality game that transported fans into a virtual rugby stadium for a penalty kick contest. Their performance was even analyzed and compared to some of the top players in the world.

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Taking the perfect approach to golf’s Ryder Cup

Over on the golf course, as Worldwide Partner of the 2023 Ryder Cup, Capgemini helped transform the game and fan experience through the power of technology – bringing a data-first vision to the event.
Drawing again on its extensive history of creating digital assets to enhance the event experience, and its deep data and analytics expertise, Capgemini developed Outcome IQ, powered by Capgemini. This innovative, proprietary tool harnessed the precision of multiple datapoints – from player performance to hole-specific characteristics and player pairings – to track shot, hole, and match probabilities in the competition.

Fans could follow probabilities from Outcome IQ, powered by Capgemini on the Ryder Cup app, on screen on-site on the Marco Simone Gold Course, and during live Ryder Cup broadcasts.

Shared Objectives from the First Whistle

For sponsorship deals to deliver this tangible value to both partners, they need an established set of shared objectives from the get-go. For Capgemini, this set comprises showcasing technology, driving brand awareness, and client and employee engagement.

But as these deals evolve over the years, the most value-driving sponsorships build on the objectives to grow into something far more collaborative and create true value for both sides. They’re partnerships in which the technology partner doesn’t just get to share the kinds of things they’re working on that go beyond the norm, they can collaborate with the rights-holder on ambitious ideas that advance innovation to further the DNA of the sport itself.

It’s a long process that takes time, but these conversations are crucial. And it’s the investment in sponsorship deals that open them.