Across March 12-13, SportNXT2025 brought industry leaders, innovators and enthusiasts to Melbourne for two days of insightful discussions on the future of the sports industry.

At MKTG, we were proud to play a significant role in the event. As the Official Gold Partner for Sports Marketing & Sponsorship Servicing, we were able to contribute to key conversations shaping the industry. Below are some of the key themes we captured.

Maximising sponsorships of the future

MKTG’s General Manager, Commercial, Michael da Costa-Alves, moderated the dynamic panel ‘Maximising Next-Gen Sponsorship’, sharing the stage with brilliant minds including Visa’s VP APAC Partner Services Marketer Dr. Minh Tran, World Netball CEO Fiona Harold and Tennis Australia’s Director of Partnerships and International Business, Roddy Campbell.

Da Costa-Alves’ panel leant into the conversation on the forces shaping next generation sponsorships;

The panel provided great insight into how brands and rights holders are preparing to shape their future strategies to adapt to the changing landscape, from Visa's focus on ‘tailored engagement’ through AI and personalisation, to World Netball's focus on building a content strategy to engage Gen Z in the lead up to the 2027 World Cup, and Tennis Australia's focus on partnerships based on co-creation as inventory becomes increasingly scarce.

The evolving broadcasting landscape

As the Official Research and Insights Silver Partner, dentsu Sports Analytics played a pivotal role in the discussions, offering valuable insights to help shape the future of sports.

Futhermore, dentsu Sports Analytics’ CEO & Global MD Glenn Lovett moderated a powerhouse panel on the future of sports media, with a focus on the evolving broadcasting landscape and the growing challenge of privacy. Industry leaders stressed the importance of innovative solutions to protect intellectual property and sustain the business model of sports broadcasting.

Joined by James Rushton (DAZN Co-Founder), Hamish Turner (Nine), and Kylie Watson-Wheeler (The Walt Disney Company ANZ), the discussion tackled the evolving media landscape, the rising threat of piracy, and the need for broadcasters to rethink engagement strategies in a digital-first world.

A great example of sports adjusting to increase fan engagement is The Dunk Score – which combines player tracking technology with NBA data science to analyse every dunk from every NBA game in real time.

Where does growth come from?

SportNXT Co-Founder Eddie McGuire and CEO of the AFL Andrew Dillon had an insightful discussion surrounding the growth of the AFL and what’s on their agenda for the year ahead.

Dillon called to light the dominance that the AFL has in Australia – claiming over 40% of viewer hours than any other sport and dived into where that future growth is going to come from.

MKTG’s Head of Business Solutions, Steve Whately, shared his key takeaways from the discussion.

“To upset a few Victorian AFL fans, he [Dillon] went on to make it very clear that Opening Round is here to stay, and in his words, ‘they’re just scratching the surface in NSW and QLD’. They’re really happy to see over 50% growth for boys and girls playing AFL in Western Sydney. Plus, outside of Australia, they have international expansion on the cards and Dillon has identified the US and India as key markets for growth. Furthermore, a big way they’re going to look at growing within the US market is to continue collaborating across different initiatives with the NFL, which will be fascinating to see how they leverage the NFL being in town over the next couple of years.”

In Dillon's closing remarks, he emphasised the concept of transforming major events into mega events, leaving us with a memorable catchphrase. The idea is to enhance the overall experience for fans attending significant sporting events such as the AFL Grand Final and the ANZAC Day match, making these events even more impactful and engaging both before and after the main event.

Shifting live event experiences

The importance of trial and error in live event experiences was another key focus. Speakers emphasised that failure is a valuable part of the innovation process, encouraging a culture where new ideas are tested, refined and improved to enhance fan engagement.

Jarrad Provis, MKTG General Manager of Marketing, highlighted a significant shift in focus from the technology used to engage fans to the methods of engagement itself. He stressed the importance of understanding platforms that not only engage fans but also provide valuable insights into their preferences and behaviors. In years past, emerging technologies such as AR. MR, AI dominated the conversation. In 2025, whilst technology remains an enabler, focus shifted to how these tools, if relevant, can help us better understand and engage the fan as the primary focus. As a whole, across the SportNXT conference, it was made clear that there is shift away from platform first planning, to fan engagement first planning, with technology only one of the tools at our disposal in a grander vision of dynamic and contemporary engagement.

Dentsu Sports Analytics Decoding360 data reveals that social status is a major sports attendance driver among Gen Z, with expectations around private experiences rising, desire for exclusive merch and attendance at live events strongly linked back to elevating their social status.

Increasing investment in women’s sports production

The conference also underscored the necessity of increasing investment in women’s sports, particularly in production value. Higher standards can create a more engaging viewing experience, and help promote greater equality in sports coverage.

Briana Doyle, General Manager of Partnerships & Events at MKTG, emphasised the need for off-field investment in women's sports, backing Cate Campbell's comments during the leadership keynote that stressed the need for entertainment and product quality to match the athletes' performance, ensuring fans' expectations are met.

Campbell commented “We know that the women can take care of what's happening on court, but it was the entertainment value around the game that really elevated it and took it to that next level. 

We need to support the athletes off the field as well as on the field. And when I say that, I mean the entertainment and the production value of women's sport is nowhere near what men's sport is.”

Personalising the fan experience

Sanjog Gupta, CEO of Sport JioStar, delivered a compelling narrative on the evolution of cricket fandom in India. With some hard-hitting comments, Gupta challenged the traditional view of the cricket fan base, advocating for a more nuanced approach that recognises the diverse segments of cricket fans within the market.

By analysing fans based on regional, cultural, and motivational factors, Gupta talked about his goals of enhancing the fan experience, making it more personalised and engaging.

"The fan had evolved, the sport had two. But perhaps the experience had not. We asked ourselves a profound question: why do we serve many fans as one, and not one fan as many? We could no longer define our market as the homogeneous cricket fan. The market was in fact, disparate groups of cricket fans who watched differently, experienced differently, and watched for different reasons.

So, we decided to disaggregate the mass of humanity known as cricket fans in the country, into fan segments defined either by their regional or cultural similarities, or by their motivation for consumption."

Overall, an insightful conference with many insights to drive further innovation in sports fandom.