For sports clubs and federations, B2B revenue streams—sponsorship, hospitality, business networking, corporate memberships, premium ticketing—form a central pillar of their business model. Yet a significant share of this potential remains untapped.
Why? On one hand, fan data is often siloed and underused in the service of corporate partners. On the other, commercial opportunities are managed through scattered Excel files, making it difficult to track prospects, workflows, and contracts efficiently.
In this article, we explore how sports organizations can:
In today’s sports industry, data has become one of the strongest drivers of economic growth. Yet only a small portion is actually exploited. Most organisations still store data in fragmented systems—ticketing, online shop, mobile apps, contests, Excel files—making activation difficult.
And while data has long been viewed as a pure B2C and fan-knowledge asset, it is now a decisive advantage for B2B revenues as well. But this is true only if the data is usable, consented, and activation-ready. Without proper consent management, no compliant communication is possible—and generic messaging leads to declining engagement.
This is why preference centres are now essential. They allow fans to choose the content they want to receive (news, ticketing, hospitality, partner offers, games, etc.) and through which channels (email, SMS…). A partner-specific opt-in is a strong, highly valuable signal for sponsors—which is why a CRM that centralises both data and consent is crucial.
Groupe Grenat (Servette FC, Genève-Servette HC and Servette RC) adopted this approach with Arenametrix. With preference centres in place, fans can update their communication choices at any time.
In 2024, the group launched a digital Advent calendar using the GuestViews module.
The goal: drive partner opt-ins and qualify new contacts.
The initiative delivered two major results:
Results :
Nearly 6,000 unique participants, including 50% new contacts.
Since adopting Arenametrix, partner opt-in databases for GSHC and Servette FC have grown by 133% and 250% respectively.
→ Check the use case.
Through integrated data-collection tools (forms, contests, surveys) like GuestViews, Arenametrix enables sports organisations to multiply touchpoints and provide actionable, GDPR-compliant insights to partners.
These insights then become powerful arguments when prospecting new sponsors or upgrading existing partnerships. But before reaching that stage, clubs must clarify their B2B offer and their commercial targeting.
Before launching any commercial outreach, a sports organisation needs a clear, structured, and understandable offer aligned with its objectives.
B2B revenue generally includes all commercial activities between a sports property and companies: hospitality, sponsorship, visibility assets, business networking, corporate subscriptions, etc.
A typical B2B offer includes:
Not every company in the region is a relevant target. A clear segmentation is essential to focus commercial efforts where they will have the highest impact.
Key segmentation criteria include:
Once targets are defined, the next step is to qualify them: identifying contacts, collecting details (email, phone, postal address, LinkedIn) and assessing their potential.
Two usual approaches:
Build the database internally : Using websites, annual reports, LinkedIn, and tools such as Hunter or Skrapp to retrieve emails.
Buy or rent a database : Faster and often more exhaustive, when budget allows.
Sports organisations can also enrich their B2B database directly during their own events. For example, a hospitality-area contest helps identify guests (clients, prospects) of existing partners—turning them into qualified B2B leads.
FCB Ardennes adopted this approach using GuestViews: During VIP events, a QR code allowed guests to enter a contest. These entries were then integrated into Arenametrix and passed on to the commercial team.
The results ?
187 entries generated 51 new B2B leads.
With targeted segmentation and structured qualification, clubs build a strong foundation for their commercial strategy.
At this stage, a sports organisation typically has:
The challenge is no longer identifying who to target—but ensuring that every opportunity is organised, tracked, and followed up consistently.
And this is exactly where a dedicated B2B CRM : bringing structure to commercial activity, aligning teams, and ensuring that each step in the partnership pipeline is tracked and actioned.
Excel quickly becomes insufficient when multiple staff members are involved or when the volume of opportunities grows.
A dedicated B2B CRM helps sports organisations:
track every opportunity (who was contacted, pending follow-ups, contracts in negotiation),
share unified information across teams (commercial, marketing, management),
save time by structuring daily workflows (tasks, reminders, notes).
Arenametrix includes a full B2B commercial management module directly connected to the platform’s other components (B2C CRM, marketing automation, forms, competitions). The benefit: a unified ecosystem linking fan knowledge, engagement, and partnership revenue development.
The first step toward efficient B2B prospection is bringing all commercial information together in one place. In many clubs, this knowledge is scattered between teams (sales representatives, hospitality managers, executives,etc). A B2B CRM removes that fragmentation by consolidating every interaction—companies, contacts, and opportunities—into a single shared workspace.
In Arenametrix, each opportunity is linked directly to a company profile and its relevant contacts.
This makes it easy to:
add meeting notes or call summaries,
attach documents (presentations, proposals, contracts),
review past offers or negotiations,
identify who from the club has been in contact with the company.
Example of an opportunity profile in Arenametrix: a comprehensive view with company, contacts, sales stage, and activity feed. On the left is the General tab, and on the right is the Activity Feed tab.
Task management helps structure daily operations:
and priorities, with the option of viewing the team's progress (click to zoom in).
This shared environment ensures nothing is lost—and the club gains a 360° view of its commercial relationships.
With structured data, sports organisations can manage their full commercial activity using a visual pipeline. Each opportunity progresses through tailored stages:
first contact → proposal sent → negotiation → agreement → signed → closed.
The Arenametrix module allows clubs to:
This visual view makes the entire prospecting process smoother and far easier to coordinate across teams. It becomes immediately clear who is handling which account, how each opportunity is progressing, and where effort should be focused to accelerate conversions.
Instead of relying on isolated spreadsheets or someone’s memory, commercial activity is finally managed through a single, shared, real-time system. The result is a more collaborative and structured approach to partnership development—one that turns B2B prospection into a consistent, organised, and sustainable workflow.
Sports organisations possess a unique asset: their relationship with fans. When fan data is properly collected, structured, and activated, it becomes a direct lever for B2B revenue and partner value.
To unlock this potential, sport organizations must:
A solution like Arenametrix helps clubs both activate fan data for partner value (opt-ins, VIP insights, engagement) and structure their commercial operations (pipelines, tasks, shared history) to grow B2B revenue sustainably.
In an increasingly competitive landscape, the clubs and sport federations that combine fan data, CRM, and commercial organisation gain a decisive advantage.