The Challenge
A leading Premier League football club was keen to carry out a strategic online competitive benchmark study of the fan experience of their website and app against 16 other European football clubs including Liverpool, PSG, and Real Madrid.
Our client was also keen to expand the research to evaluate the digital fan experience for other sports including Major League Baseball, and the NBA with a total of 28 clubs evaluated globally.
The main aim was to understand which elements of the online experience drive improved outcomes e.g., improved fan engagement and the commercial effectiveness of the sites in terms of the shop, subscription TV, and other commercial activities.
Our client was also keen to understand:
· How each club performed on these drivers and what best practice looks like across the clubs and across global sports.
· The experience of their fans in the US, Japan, and South Korea. The US is a particularly key market for new fans given the fact that the World Cup is being held in the US in 2026.
Our approach
Lumivo worked closely with several Premier League football clubs, as well as football clubs in other countries such as Inter Milan, and similar stakeholders from other sports. We designed a competitive benchmark study that worked across the different countries and sports.
In total, 8,000 fans of 28 teams took part in the UK, US, Japan, and South Korea.
Fans carried out a range of tasks on the websites / apps including evaluating the website/app on a matchday, browsing and purchasing items in the shop, evaluating the ticketing experience and fan membership.
The outcome
We were able to help the digital and marketing teams at the Premier League club to truly understand the desires and experience of their fanbase in the UK and internationally when using their website and app.
The research found that US sports websites with their heavy focus on game statistics were very effective at driving fan engagement. In the Premier League, our client’s website was one of the top 2 for overall fan experience but there were several opportunities for improvement.
The study also found that there was a noticeable gender gap in terms of digital fan experience across football.
Lumivo’s actionable insights and the global best practices we identified helped our client to redevelop their website and app and ensure that they were delivering as well via online channels as they were on the pitch.
We now run the online competitive benchmark with this client and several other Premier League clubs on an annual basis.