Kenyan rugby fraternity savor vital commercial tips in stockholders’ workshop 

NAIROBI, Kenya, Mar 23 – The Kenyan rugby fraternity on Wednesday savored a half-day workshop hosted by the 270 Degrees Sports Marketing & Consultancy Limited to impart valuable experience on how to fully capitalize on its commercial potential in sport.

The workshop, which attracted stakeholders in the country led by Kenya Rugby Union (KRU) boss Oduor Gangla, benefited from insightful presentations delivered by the world’s leading sports marketers South African Mlondi Mashinini and Earl Patton -an American who has worked for FIFA as well as NBA sides Portland Trailblazers and Cleveland Cavaliers.

Mashinini, who is also the Managing Partner at Rumble Ventures, identified a  whole raft of opportunities he believes will spearhead the sport of rugby in Kenya to desirable heights.

Mashinini has had prior working experience with Cape Town 7s, South Africa Rugby as well as record 13-time European champions Real Madrid and believes there is potential opportunity for the country’s rugby fortunes “given that people enjoy Kenyan sports without necessarily being Kenyans”.

He identified eight facets with which KRU could leverage on in their growth’ namely

broadcasting, merchandising, Sports Betting, Sponsorships, Digital Marketing, Ticketing, fan engagement as well as games and events.

On matters broadcasting, Mashinini urged the KRU to develop their KRU TV for increased content distribution via mobile and social networks as well as restructuring and renegotiating its current media rights with a focus on global media sales, laying emphasis on the three million Kenyan diaspora and rugby playing nations.

Mashinini also called on KRU to expand the merchandise sales programme by consolidating all team jerseys (national teams and local ones) with one global manufacturer.

“KRU should partner with an e-commerce partner for the sales and fulfilment of all KRU related merchandise in Kenya and abroad,” Mashinini added.

On matters sports betting, Mashinini emphasized on the launch a fan membership programme, collection of fan data based on engagement and purchase behavior.

KRU Chairman Oduor Gangla, on his part noted that the advantages of working with international partners is that they can present a global view of how the industry is evolving, and most importantly, create commercial opportunities that are present.

“We have been working with Rumble Ventures for the last six months now and the reason is that Kenya 7s, 15s and Safari 7s are international products and it helps to present our properties before the right partners, and we are able negotiate well and get full value of these product,” Gangla underlined.

“The one thing that we have learnt from today’s workshop is that we need to be more specific in demonstrating our value,” Gangla quipped in finality.

Meanwhile, Mashinini also called on the Union to establish data partnerships with sponsors and service “There is need to build fan loyalty through engagement and rewards. The essence is to develop fan insights (engagement rates, fan clusters and other modelling), which can be used by KRU in their messaging and partnerships strategies.”

“There is potential in building new revenue channels through the programme,” Mashinini, who also owns Fanbase Analytics, stated.

He added, “There is need for exclusive partnership with a betting companies centered around fan engagement and commerce, and indeed establish betting kiosks at venues and leverage digital platforms for growth.”

Regarding fan engagement, KRU was advised to launch a fan membership programme by collecting fan data based on engagement and purchase behavior.

“Let’s also establish a data partnerships with sponsors and service providers, build fan loyalty through engagement and rewards, develop fan insights (engagement rates, fan clusters and other modelling), which can be used by KRU in their messaging and partnerships strategies and build new revenue channels through the programme,” the South African, who has also worked with NFL side Kansas City Chiefs underscored.

Mashinini explained, adding: “The launch of a KRU digital fan engagement platform to distribute content,  Monetizing the platform through subscription services, e-commerce, advertising revenue and sponsorship, developing digital assets such as NFTs and digital tokens for future monetization growth are key facets in growth of sport as well as use of the digital platform to collect fan insights regarding purchase behavior and fan avidity.”

He said that KRU could use ticketing for fan data collection, development of fan insights and for new revenue opportunities such as digital tickets bundled with merchandise sales, food and beverage and digital assets.

“We can create new ticketing types such as a KRU Season Ticket, which would bundle games across all KRU’s events and tournaments, also incorporating ticketing on KRU’s digital engagement platform.