2015/2016 Season Review - SportsPro...2015/2016 Season Review ... Neymar and Messi, meanwhile, ... Lyon’s Corentin Tolisso and Atletico Madrid’s Saul Niguez, have also enjoyed

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2015/2016 Season Review "The True Face of Football in the Digital Era. The European and Premier League Brand Value Index" Published 18 May 2016 / © Brandtix Sports Limited


Brandtix Sports Index (BSI) The Definitive Athlete Index Platform. BSI or Brandtix Sports Indexing is a unique way of determining a team or athlete’s 'live' brand value by measuring their sporting and off-pitch activities in real time. Brandtix takes the best-in-market data across different disciplines, then marries it with its own algorithms to create a robust indexing score. Taking the example of football, the BSI score is determined in the following way:

1. On-pitch football club and player statistics are generated, in real time, by Opta.

2. Social media reach monitors Twitter, Facebook and Instagram; player and team official accounts are included as are any official, associated brands.

3. Fan sentiment is drawn from Lexalytics, a social sentiment analysis tool. Branditx

monitors the official social media accounts for both clubs and players, fan channels and any interaction with fans on player’s accounts, and analyses quality and quantity of discussion.

4. The default on-pitch and off-pitch weighting is 50:50 but can be altered for specific

purposes on request.

5. The unique sports data integrated within BSI drives brand-value indexing of teams and players whilst also contextualising performance, fan engagement and media / brand coverage.


CEO’s Foreword In today’s celebrity-dominated world of professional sport, the public life of an athlete is no longer limited to game time – it’s real-time, all of the time.

With fans across the globe seeking to increase their engagement with their sporting heroes, the world’s most popular sportspeople can no longer afford to clock off when they shed their clubs’ colours. Their performances on social media must be as dominant as they are on the courts, courses and pitches on which they made their names if they are to keep their brands on an upward trajectory.

Make no mistake: in modern sport, an athlete’s all-round ‘brand value’ is as important to their career as the skills that brought them to the public’s attention in the first place. Vital transfer and sponsorship opportunities can hinge on off-field details including image rights and digital reach.

The Brandtix platform has been created in order to reflect this new sporting landscape. Using official data direct from the world’s leading sporting data providers and social networks, Brandtix is the world’s first service to review the performances of professional athletes and teams both on and off the pitch in order to discover their true brand values.

Ranking every player and team, the Brandtix Sports Index provides game-changing, real-time data for use across the sports industry, benefiting a huge range of stakeholders from sponsors to supporters.

Brandtix is a genuinely unique offering in the marketplace and I look forward to seeing its influence grow across the sector.

Jon Rosenblatt, CEO


The Brandtix Platform In the commercialised world of modern professional sport, athlete and sports team brand values have become a highly-prized commodity. With key decisions surrounding club investment, sponsorship, player transfers and contract deals resting on these figures, it’s vital that they reflect the true worth of the assets they represent.

The first offering of its kind, the Brandtix platform provides a comprehensive, real-time picture of clubs’ and athletes’ brand values, based on their performances on and off the pitch.

Employing privileged data from the world’s most respected sporting performance data providers and three of the most popular social networks – Facebook, Twitter and Instagram – Brandtix analyses sporting performances, social media reach and prevailing fan sentiment through hundreds of diverse data points. Using powerful, proprietary algorithms, it then indexes and ranks each player and team, displaying the results in an easily-digestible index, which can be used as a base for more detailed investigations.

As well as official player and team accounts, the platform also monitors relevant fan channels, the official pages of associated brands and any interaction between players/teams and their fans, to ensure it offers a truly comprehensive picture of teams’ and players’ performances across social media.

Thanks to its forensic focus and wide-ranging scope, Brandtix is able to offer more game-changing insights in one place than any other service.


Season Review Premier League Teams in 2015/16 Offering a clear indication that success breeds support, Leicester City’s memorable chase for their first Premier League title has won them 4.2M fans on social media in the past three months. A higher total than any other Premier League club attracted over the same period, that represents an increase in support of 65% for England’s new champions. Over the entire 2015/16 season, only Barcelona and Real Madrid attracted a greater number of new fans. Notably, the club are also expanding their supporter base geographically, with new fans emerging from the USA, India, Brazil and Spain.

Despite only ending up in third place, The Foxes’ one-time challengers, Tottenham Hotspur, can at least console themselves with the fact that their brand value has seen the greatest improvement over that time – an increase of 11.56%.

None of the above has had a significant impact on the social media juggernaut that is Manchester United, however. The FA Cup finalists’ total social following of 87.6M fans still represents a massive 28% of the entire league’s support. In fact, if you take Liverpool, Arsenal and Chelsea out of the equation, United’s support on social media eclipses the combined backing of the other sixteen clubs. Crucially, the club’s highly-engaged fan base is also maintaining its support despite it missing out on next season’s UEFA Champions League, with positive sentiment staying at an impressive 65%. Unfortunately for Louis van Gaal, however, that backing doesn’t necessarily extend to the manager, with “LVGOUT” a resonant call across fan chatter.

Figure 1: Premier League table ranked by Brandtix Sports Index.


Top European Teams in 2015/16

Reflecting the brand appeal currently enjoyed by English football, the Premier League contributes 11 of the 20 teams boasting the highest brand values in the European Teams Leaderboard. However, the two Spanish super clubs, Barcelona and Real Madrid, are way out in front of their English rivals. Their combined support constitutes 39% of the entire following of the continent’s top twenty clubs.

With Barcelona winning the La Liga title in fine fashion on the last day of the season and Real Madrid’s consistent season culminating in a UEFA Champions League final later this month, both teams have stayed at the top of this leaderboard throughout 2015/16. Based on their perennial on-pitch successes and continuing increases in sentiment and following, it will surely take a Herculean effort from another European team to disturb their duopoly.

Figure 2: European leaderboard ranked by Brandtix Sports Index.


Top Premier League Players in 2015/16

When it comes to player popularity, the Premier League’s top two are way out in front. In fact Mesut Özil and Wayne Rooney’s combined fan base of 92M surpasses the entire social media support of Liverpool, Manchester City, Tottenham Hotspur, Leicester City, Everton, West Ham and Aston Villa.

Although the Manchester United and England captain experienced one of his worst campaigns in 2015/16, Rooney’s brand value remains high. However, with Euro 2016 set to be his last major international tournament, we can expect a land grab for the position of the next truly global English player to take place in the coming seasons.

Despite bearing some responsibility for the worst defence of a Premier League title in the competition’s history, Chelsea’s top stars still boast healthy brand values, thanks mainly to their enduring popularity. The club have six players in the top 20 on the Brandtix leaderboard. The combined fan base of the top five of those – Fabregas, Hazard, Willian, Oscar and Pedro – easily surpasses the social media support of Chelsea as a club.

Figure 3: Top Premier League Player ranking by Brandtix Sports Index.


Top European Players in 2015/16

Considering their hero status across the planet, it’s no great surprise that Real Madrid and Barcelona players enjoy 11 of the top 20 social followings amongst the continent’s top clubs. Cristiano Ronaldo, the most popular player, is followed by 211.7M fans across Facebook, Twitter and Instagram – that’s over one-third more followers than his club can point to. The total of 467.1M followers attracted by Ronaldo, Neymar and Messi, meanwhile, represents more supporters than that enjoyed by the next ten most popular European players combined.

The top five players in Europe have netted more than 150 goals for their clubs in 2015/16, while fifth-place Luis Suarez’s incredible scoring exploits for Barcelona have seen him increase his social following by 20% during the latter stages of the 2015/16 season. As he fired Barca to the title, he also commanded a higher positive sentiment than his teammate Lionel Messi, suggesting that his bad-boy image may be behind him.

Another prolific goalscorer this campaign, Zlatan Ibrahimovic has hinted that his next destination could be the Premier League. If that’s the case, we could see his brand value increase as fans of his new club flock to his entertaining and regularly-updated social media accounts.

Figure 4: Top European Players ranked by Brandtix Sports Index.


Top European Under-21 Players in 2015/16

Two young English players who could play important roles for their national team at Euro 2016 are Raheem Sterling and Dele Alli. The Spurs player has had by far the better season of the pair, although his following of just under 1M across Facebook, Twitter and Instagram is yet to challenge the 4M that the more established Manchester City man enjoys. While Alli will surely improve further next season, it will be interesting to see whether City’s new manager, Pep Guardiola can get the best out of Sterling’s prodigious talent in the coming seasons. If so, we can expect to see the winger’s brand value increase markedly.

Boasting over 1.7M followers, Arsenal right-back Hector Bellerín is another young player with a chance of starring for his country at this summer’s international tournament, while two other rising stars, Lyon’s Corentin Tolisso and Atletico Madrid’s Saul Niguez, have also enjoyed breakout campaigns.

Top European Over-30 Players in 2015/16

Proving age is no barrier, the top five players aged over 30 boast index scores that are vastly superior to their under-21 rivals.

Three of the most prolific and popular strikers in football’s modern era, Cristiano Ronaldo, Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Wayne Rooney make appearances on the list, while the seasoned Spanish pairing of Iker Casillas and Andres Iniesta complete the leaderboard.

Figure 5: Top 5 Players under 21 ranked by Brandtix Sports Index.

Figure 6: Top 5 Players over 30 ranked by Brandtix Sports Index.


Premier League ‘Winners’ in 2015/16

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the Premier League player whose brand value has seen the most substantial uplift during the season is a striker who has helped fire Leicester City to the title after spending most of his career playing non-league football. Jamie Vardy, whose brand value has increased by 59% over the season, is joined by his teammate Riyad Mahrez, who has experienced a 47% boost.

In leading Tottenham’s pursuit of The Foxes, Harry Kane has seen his value increase by 43% while, despite their clubs enduring less successful seasons, David De Gea (49%) and Roberto Firmino (42%) also saw significant rises.

Premier League ‘Losers’ in 2015/16

The five players who will most want to forget the 2015-16 season all belong to clubs that finished in the bottom four of the Premier League. Aston Villa full back, Aly Cissokho’s brand value tanked by a stunning 69%, while his teammate, Gabriel Agbonlahor saw a 48% decline.

Despite his side beating the drop, Lee Cattermole’s personal stock headed south, with a brand value decrease of 62%. Russell Martin (-56%) and Jonjo Shelvey (-40%) complete the list.

Figure 8: Premier League Players with the biggest decrease in their Brandtix Sports Index

Figure 7: Premier League Players with the biggest increase in their Brandtix Sports Index.


Europe’s Top Goalkeepers in 2015/16

He might have left the mighty Real Madrid but, thanks to a social media following totalling 39.6M, Iker Casillas still enjoys the highest brand value amongst Europe’s top goalkeepers. The most consistent ‘keeper on the pitch in recent seasons, Bayern Munich’s Manuel Neuer runs the Spaniard close, despite “only” having 15.3M fans.

Real Madrid’s current custodian, Keylor Navas, whose long list of clean sheets has helped take the club to this season’s UEFA Champions League final, appears fifth on the list, with Premier League pair David De Gea and Petr Cech being rewarded for consistent seasons at Manchester United and Arsenal respectively.

Europe’s Top Defenders in 2015/16

The only defender in the top five that doesn’t play for Barcelona or Real Madrid, Paris Saint-Germain’s David Luiz has been an integral part of his team’s potential treble-winning season. Bolstered by his social media fan base of 47.6M, he is the most popular member of the PSG squad.

The Brazilian is followed by the Spanish central defensive duo of Sergio Ramos and Gerard Pique, whose consistent seasons for Real Madrid and Barcelona respectively and similarly-sized followings (36.8M for Ramos and 39.5M for Pique) see them separated by a single BSI point. Full backs Marcelo (Real Madrid) and Dani Alves (Barcelona) complete the trio of Brazilians in the top five.

Figure 9: Top Goalkeepers in Europe ranked by Brandtix Sports Index.

Figure 10: Top Defenders in Europe ranked by Brandtix Sports Index.


Europe’s Top Midfielders in 2015/16

Three Premier League players are included in Europe’s top five midfielders of 2015/16. Heading the list, thanks partly to his remarkable tally of 19 assists during the season and partly to his following of 47.4M across social media, is Mesut Özil. Occupying fourth and fifth positions, meanwhile, are Chelsea’s Cesc Fabregas and Eden Hazard.

Fabregas showed reasonable consistency in a relatively poor season for his club with seven goals and seven assists while, despite enduring a largely forgettable campaign, Hazard finished with a flourish that should boost his confidence as he looks to take Belgium, second in FIFA’s World Rankings, to a first European Championship title. Both players boast fan bases of around 20M, which will have undoubtedly helped elevate them to these lofty positions on the leaderboard.

Despite grabbing seven goals and eight assists in La Liga, many expected more from James Rodriguez in his second season at Real Madrid. However, his social following of 61.1M makes him the fourth most popular player in the world and that support was critical in seeing him end the season as the second-highest ranked midfielder in European football. The evergreen Andres Iniesta, who recently won his 30th trophy at Barcelona, also makes the list.

Europe’s Top Forwards in 2015/16

The five forwards with the highest brand values read like a who’s-who of European football. Fresh from becoming the first player in history to score 50 goals in six consecutive seasons, the world’s most popular player (211M fans), Cristiano Ronaldo, tops the leaderboard.

Barcelona’s strike force of Neymar (second), Messi (third) and Suarez (fifth) have scored 112 goals between them during the season. Added to the fact that they also boast a combined total of almost 275M followers across social media, it’s no surprise to see them in Ronaldo’s company. Completing the top five, in fourth place, is Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Paris Saint-Germain’s all-time top goalscorer.

Figure 11: Top Midfielders in Europe ranked by Brandtix Sports Index.

Figure 12: Top Forwards in Europe ranked by Brandtix Sports Index.


Season Conclusions While some of the above observations from the 2015/16 season merely succeed in confirming the suspicions of many football followers – the declaration that Cristiano Ronaldo, Neymar and Lionel Messi enjoy the three highest brand values in European football is hardly groundbreaking – the Brandtix Sports Index unique focus does succeed in unearthing a number of interesting points. Despite Chelsea completing the worst defence of a Premier League title in the competition’s history, the presence of so many of the London club’s players amongst our end-of-season leaderboards is testament to the power of celebrity when calculating brand values in the modern game. English football’s Player of the Year in 2014/15, Eden Hazard had an undistinguished season in 2015/16, yet he still finds himself amongst the continent’s five most valuable midfielders.

Similarly, despite representing a Porto side that finished a distant third in the Portuguese Primeira Liga in 2015/16, the fan base Iker Casillas amassed across social media during his successful spell as captain of Real Madrid and the Spanish national team has seen him maintain his primacy amongst European football’s goalkeepers. With the incredible club and international success he has enjoyed during his long career, and the fact that his fan sentiment remains positive, even the most talented of the current generation of custodians will have their work cut out in surpassing him.

Could we also be seeing the unravelling of the well-worn “no player is bigger than the club” maxim? With many players across Europe now enjoying larger social followings than those of the teams they represent, it’s tempting to conclude that the modern fascination with celebrity is eroding the traditional, lifelong attachment to teams. It will be interesting to see if, in the absence of geographical ties to bind them to the teams they support, fans will more readily change club allegiances when their favourite players are transferred.

There’s little doubt that the story of the 2015/16 season unfolded in the English Premier League, with Leicester City, strongly fancied to be relegated to the Championship at the start of the campaign, upsetting the odds to claim their first title. It’s no surprise that The Foxes gained so many new fans during the run-in. It’s also unsurprising to see the astonishing rises of their players, Jamie Vardy and Riyad Mahrez, reflected by significant boosts in their brand values.

Some things never change, however, and the sheer magnitude of the social followings enjoyed by Europe’s big beasts – Barcelona, Real Madrid and Manchester United – offer a timely reminder that it will take more than one season of over-achievement to affect the status quo.


Future Outlook The Summer and 2016/2017 Season Leicester City’s unparalleled achievements in the Premier League have made the 2015/16 Premier League season truly memorable. What’s more, with the enticing prospect of a second all-Madrid UEFA Champions League final in three years and UEFA Euro 2016 still to come, we can expect even more excitement.

Looking ahead to the 2016/17 season, it will be fascinating to see whether Leicester’s exploits have effectively broken the glass ceiling for other unfancied European clubs to push through. Could Bournemouth, Betis or Bologna perform similar feats now that they know it can be done, or will the old order reassert itself?

Talking of the old order, can Cristiano Ronaldo maintain his on- and off-field dominance over the continent’s other players in 2016/17, or will Barcelona’s ‘MSN’ conspire to topple him from his position at the top of the Brandtix Sports Index? Neymar came close to eclipsing him during the 2015/16 season and, with time on his side, the Brazilian could be the Real Madrid superstar’s natural successor.

Away from the pitch, it’s clear that the importance of social media exposure and the sports industry’s reliance on analytical, evidence-based decision making are set to increase in the coming season. The sports analytics market is set to reach $4.7B* and the growing desire to benefit from unique insights both on the training fields and in the boardrooms of professional sports clubs will stand the Brandtix platform in good stead.

What’s more, as its English Premier League and Top European Teams coverage is supplemented with further competitions and sports from around the world, Brandtix is well-placed to expand into key new markets.

One thing is certain, the 2016/17 season is sure to be a fascinating one. For more information, visit www.brandtix.com or email [email protected].

*Sports Analytics: Market Shares, Strategies, and Forecasts, Worldwide, 2015 to 2021


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2015/2016 Season Review - SportsPro...2015/2016 Season Review ... Neymar and Messi, meanwhile, ... Lyon’s Corentin Tolisso and Atletico Madrid’s Saul Niguez, have also enjoyed