Euroleague Basketball launches unique club business services department

Euroleague Basketball has announced the launch of a new initiative to work with clubs across all commercial areas to maximize revenues and create long-term business sustainability. The newly formed Euroleague BOCS (Business Operations & Club Services) will work to help Turkish Airlines EuroLeague clubs grow their off-court operations by becoming a hub of best global business practices and club business metrics. The initiative will also provide tailor-made advice and consultation to each EuroLeague club on a wide variety of business topics. These include sponsorship, ticketing, premium seating, digital, merchandising and licensing, communications, fan engagement, arena usage, venue development, organizational structure and executive recruitment.

The very first club services division among European professional sports leagues, Euroleague BOCS will function as an in-house consultant inspired by a model that has proved fruitful in top professional sports leagues in the United States. After the relaunch of the competition last season, which proved extremely successful, EuroLeague clubs made a clear statement about the importance of empowering and boosting its current growth through sharing, stronger collective efforts, and clear business-centered strategic planning.

A brand that stands for innovation, Euroleague Basketball will lead the field in Europe as a provider of services to help clubs improve. This initiative acknowledges that each market has its own challenges and aims to work with all clubs individually to identify tailor-made solutions for them. Euroleague BOCS will create a platform where the clubs can adopt a greater business culture and will act as a forum for clubs to voice their opinions and experiences through transparent sharing of information between all clubs and the league. The initiative, which will be led and coordinated through the newly created Business Operations department, will count on the valuable support of Marshall Glickman from G2 Strategic, a longtime advisor to Euroleague Basketball.

Euroleague BOCS naturally builds on the clubs' and the league's ongoing efforts to establish strong pillars and knowledge to grow individual and collective revenues. Those efforts started with the existing ticketing program, launched five years ago, which is now being amplified to provide a 360-degree service to all areas of the business.

"We pride ourselves on being a brand that stands for innovation," Mr. Jordi Bertomeu, Euroleague Basketball President and CEO, said. "With the launch of Euroleague 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 Euroleague 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 to put our league in a position where we can supplement our partnership with IMG, so that our clubs can continue to enjoy the tremendous growth we have experienced in the last several years."

Apart from consultations and advice, Euroleague BOCS will present and make available best global business practices to the clubs. This data-sharing model is one of the most innovative aspects of the initiative. Euroleague BOCS will initially gather quantitative and qualitative data from all key business areas of each EuroLeague club and from other professional leagues in Europe and overseas. That data will be organized, analyzed and shared with all clubs to provide key benchmarking that will drive the clubs to strive to achieve consistently improving economic results.