SPORT OR ENTERTAINMENT: DOES IT REALLY MATTER? WHAT TRADITIONAL SPORT CAN TAKE FROM THE “BIGGEST EVENT IN INTERNET HISTORY”
On Saturday 25 August 2018, 20,000 fans packed into Manchester Arena to watch one of the most talked about UK boxing events in recent history. Several million more watched online. This wasn’t a professional fight, however; rather a white-collar event involving two of the world’s biggest YouTubers and online influencers, KSI (real name Olajide William “JJ” Olatunji) and Logan Paul. These two men might not be professional or even experienced boxers, but between them they have over 37 million subscribers on YouTube alone.
But what can the world of traditional sport take from a fight billed as being the "biggest event in internet history", as well as the recent trend of YouTubers and vloggers entering mainstream sport and entertainment?
Paying for content. The fight was available on YouTube’s official pay-per-view channel for $10. Whilst reports suggest there were around 860,000 concurrent viewers at its peak, well over a million more are believed to have got access to the fight for free, via illegal streams (primarily on Twitch as well as a handful of other platforms). What does this tell us? Well, it is no coincidence that the fan base of KSI and Logan Paul (and indeed YouTubers in general) is largely made up of a young and digitally native audience: Gen Z and the millennials. These are generations that aren’t used to being monetised when it comes to consuming live content. For them, streaming easily-accessible content for free is, and always has been, the norm. £7.50 might seem like nothing for a major event like this, but there is no doubt that this demographic is a much tougher nut to crack when it comes to pay-per-view content.
The piracy problem. The ease by which fans were able to access illegal streams of the fight raises interesting questions about the approach platforms such as Twitch are taking to pirated content. Some will argue that these platforms have a responsibility to do more to tackle infringement, and Twitch has received criticism from various quarters in the aftermath of the event. In reality, however, there are few (if any) bigger commercial winners coming out of this event than Twitch given the traffic on their platform during an event they weren’t even hosting. Given the current landscape, the future of livestreaming of major events makes for a fascinating debate.
Sport or entertainment? Cynics will point to the fact that the fight didn’t take place under the jurisdiction of the British Boxing Board of Control (or indeed any regulatory body). Nor were the two participants licensed fighters. “Surely this isn’t sport then; it’s entertainment” is what some of the traditionalists might argue. The reality is though: just like the world of esports, the lines between traditional sport, entertainment and the online world have become blurred. And in many ways, the choice of definition is irrelevant. This event will have generated revenue from the very same sources as a traditional sports event: ticket sales; streaming revenue; advertising; merchandise; and betting. From a production perspective, the fight was just as impressive (if not more) than recent professional boxing events. The eyeballs on the fight itself and the engagement levels pre and post-event were on a par with traditional events on a global scale. So whether this was sport, entertainment, neither, or both, is in many ways meaningless. All that really matters is that it represented an incredibly valuable set of commercial rights.
A powerful narrative. Not everyone will be a fan of the online feuds that have become a trend within the YouTube and vlogging world in recent years. KSI and Logan Paul have taken this trend to a whole new level. There is some science behind the ‘trash talk’, however. The way in which these rivalries are curated and played out over social media has helped create incredibly powerful and engaging narratives. Turning an online rivalry into a physical fight in a stadium is, in some ways, the obvious climax. Add to this the fact that these two individuals weren’t boxers and you have fascinating potential for entertainment.
Influencers & mainstream entertainment. The KSI v Logan Paul fight is part of a wider trend involving influencers making their move into mainstream sport and entertainment. Most recently the BBC announced YouTuber Joe Sugg as a contestant on this year’s Strictly Come Dancing. Provided ‘traditional’ sports and entertainment brands do their due diligence on an influencer’s online history, it’s a no brainer move and an obvious way of targeting a new and younger audience.
More of the same. This wasn’t the first (KSI fought fellow YouTuber Joe Weller back in February 2018) and certainly won’t be the last time we see online influencers seek to commercially leverage their social media profile by entering the live events and mainstream sport and entertainment space. It’s impossible to say just how much both KSI and Logan Paul will have pocketed from the Manchester fight, and how many people are still talking about it. Rest assured, however, it will have been more than enough to incentivise other YouTubers and online influencers to pursue similar commercial opportunities down the track.
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/sport-entertainment-does-really-matter-what-can-take-from-madill/
