Manchester United might dominate Liverpool when it comes to generating commercial revenue, but the Anfield side’s chief executive, Peter Moore, using his knowledge of the new-age fan, said that might soon all change.
Liverpool’s accounts for the 2017-2018 financial year showed a record pretax profit for a soccer club, as turnover increased in the 12 months to May last year by £90 million (US$111.4 million at the current exchange rate) to a record £455 million.
Their run to last year’s UEFA Champions League final and the sale of Philippe Coutinho to Barcelona helped their cause, but data released by Deloitte showed that Liverpool still sit way off United and Manchester City.
However, Moore insists that the gap is closing and is hoping to use Liverpool’s success in the Champions League this year as a springboard to catch up.
“United got ahead years ago, recognizing the global appeal of English football,” Moore said in the US on the club’s pre-season tour. “We are catching fast, our revenue continues to grow.”
“Since winning the Champions League, brands are becoming more interested in Liverpool. We have had EA Sports come on as our global gaming partner, AXA as our official insurance partner, who are now on our training gear, MG as our official automotive partner, 1xBet as our betting partner,” he said.
“These have all been finalized in the last few months, meaning we can continue to grow our top-line revenues. We have a portfolio of top-class brands now,” he added.
It is nothing new for the big clubs to garner income from a variety of sponsorship deals, with United famed for having commercial partners in everything from car tires to wine, but it is not all just advertising.
Liverpool, England-born Moore, having previously spent 10 years as head of EA Sports and before that vice president of Microsoft’s interactive entertainment business, is well-positioned to target the modern-day, gaming obsessed fan.
“There are many similarities between a global company and a football club these days, especially one that has hundreds of millions of people that interact with it,” Moore said.
“One of the things I learned in video gaming is something called ‘LTV’ — lifetime value. There has been a shift to free-to-play games, it is no longer about just selling the disc and then saying see you later,” he said. “Now it is about saying: ‘Look it is free, but then go buy these avatars, go buy these skins.’ Then, rather than buy one disc at £40 each year, gaming companies were getting £60, £80, £100 per year, gradually.”
“Over a period of years, global fans will come to Anfield on occasion, buy shirts, buy programs, subscribe to LFCTV [Liverpool FC TV], you name it. There are a myriad of ways a fan can engage with us,” he added.
With the Premier League possessing such a global appeal, top English clubs spend much of their pre-season in far-flung destinations to bring the match-going experience to their legions of worldwide fans.
United spent their off-season in Australia, Singapore and China; Chelsea in Japan; Tottenham Hotspur in China; and Arsenal and Liverpool in the US.
About 107,127 fans packed stadiums to watch three of Liverpool’s friendlies, although they will be able to get closer during the regular season through modern technology.
“We have embarked on a huge project with IBM to build up all of our network capabilities all so we can engage our fans in a deeper way,” Moore said. “There is a series that we do called ‘Inside Anfield’; previously unseen footage, in the tunnel, in the dressing room — the spontaneous stuff, rather than the press interviews. Liverpool fans lap it up.”
On the pitch, Liverpool played the patient approach, waiting one year after failing in their first attempt to sign Virgil van Dijk, for example. The Dutch defender was instrumental in last season’s Champions League success.
Moore insisted that his similar approach would ensure that reinvestment in the squad would continue for years to come.
“We are well-positioned to keep bringing success on the pitch as well as off it,” he said. “We now have a much bigger operation, with a headquarters in London.”
“That allows us to get more commercial partners and drives more revenue and then buy better players. This is the virtuous cycle of global football,” he added.
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