Panathinaikos B.C. turns digitalDigital Transformation

Panathinaikos B.C. (Basketball Club) is the most successful basketball club in Greek basketball’s history, and one of the most successful in European basketball, creating its own dynasty. They have won six EuroLeague Championships, thirty-nine Greek Basket League Championships, twenty Greek Cups, one Intercontinental Cup, one Greek Super Cup and two Triple Crowns. They also hold the record for most consecutive Greek League titles, as they are the only team to have won nine consecutive championships (2003–2011).

Amonsgt the numerous top athletes that have played for the club, we can found Dominique Wilkins, Byron Scott, Nick Galis, Dejan Bodiroga, Sarunas Jasikevicius and the list goes on.

Euroleague is the European professional basketball club competition, coming second to populatity, after the NBA.   The management of the organisation, initiated a large project of Digital Transformation for each club, focusing on 8 main categories:

  • Ticket Management & Pricing
  • Arena Management
  • Merchandising
  • Website & Mobile app
  • CRM
  • Analytics & BI
  • Operations & Productivity
  • Innovation

Each club was assessed on the above, and was asked to improve their marks, using for benchmark the NBA standards.

So the huge challenge for the whole organisation was to digital transform all its operations, to not only match the standards set, but to also reflect its heavy history of success.

Along with the front office of Panathinaikos B.C., we develop a detailed development plan, that started by breakind down the 8 main categories to 176 specific criteria, that had to be met, in order to have a proper result.

For example, in merchandising, apart from the selling channels, we also introduced to the project more criteria, such as licensing, distribution, data gathering and syncronisation with other databases (Academies, Ticketing, Retail, etc.)

We added extended technology to all fan contact points, we centralised shared resources, we upgraded the venue and last but not least, we redesigned the whole organisation structure to be more agile and efficient, introducing a new role, the Chief Digital Officer of the club, reporting directly to the owners and the BoD.

When the initial assessment was produced by Euroleague, Panathinaikos was placed on the 10th position (out of 16 teams) on its Digital Readiness, with quite low grades on all main categories.

After the project was delivered, Panathinaikos went on to 4th position (behind clubs such as Real Madrid or Barcelona, with 100x the available budget).

The best improvement was accomplished in the merchandising category, where Panathinaikos was graded as the second-best performing club.

Apart from that, though, Panathinaikos managed to boost its club’ revevue capabilities, to achieve a much more healthier financial stability and to provide a much better experience to the fans.

Want to know more?

Contact Fotis at i@fa.gr* and let’s discover how we can assist each other

(* yes, it’s the smallest email in the world!)

Want to learn eCommerce and digital marketing from a real pro? Bring Fotis to your organization.
He’s the real deal! He makes magic of the mystery of the digital world and delivers results. Very performance oriented, strategic and multitasking mind

gezerlis
Panagiotis Gezerlis
Chairman, Convert Group

Fotis is one the most experienced senior eBusiness professionals in the Balkans. He owns the know-how, he possesses the skills and he has access to a network of decision-makers, and that makes him a great fit for most difficult projects & senior positions in the industry.

Nadia Demiri
Commercial Director, The Walt Disney Company (GR&CY)

Few people are as up-to-date with the innovations taking place in the tech, start up and e-Commerce industries, information which Fotis is able to transform to unique business ideas and proposals. More than all the above though, he approaches every issue with enthusiasm, humor and a positive attitude

Eftychia Baka
Senior eCommerce Manager, Nestle

Looking for a First-Class Business Plan Consultant?