(Photo by Brandtix)

Jon Rosenblatt is the founder and CEO of Brandtix,a London-based global index platform for real time athlete brand value analytics. Having spent all his career in the video games industry and taken on leadership roles at global companies such as EA SPORTS and Ubisoft, he then moved to fulfill his dream of heading up Brandtix last year.

Previously, he was a Senior Director of Marketing for EA SPORTS across Europe and Asia. In this role, he helped identify the challenges for sports business leaders when looking for real-time athlete insights.

YT=Yutang Sports

Rosenblatt=Jon Rosenblatt

YT: Could you please briefly introduce what is Brandtix as a new start-up, and what's your major business?

Rosenblatt: Brandtix is a technology company providing insights for sports businesses and fans across the world. We are creating the world’s first all-inclusive index that provides athlete and team brand value scores in real time. We have started out as a sports insights provider, and majored in football, but the plan is to accelerate and expand the offering across multiple sports, as well as other major industries that are in need of real-time insights; such as modelling, music and film.

YT: As the first global index platform for real time athlete brand value analytics, what role do you think Brandtix plays within the sports industy?

Rosenblatt: Sports is seeing a paradigm shift in the use of technology and analytics. So much attention has been geared around what I call ‘training-based’ analytic solutions - how coaches and sports scientists use data to stay one step ahead of the competition. However, with over $900M paid out for athlete endorsements in 2015, and a sports sponsorship market predicted to be worth $60B this year, there is a real need for a new type of real-time sports analysis to help brands, agents and teams to better understand the true value of players and teams. 

No company has ever created an index that incorporates a players’ on-pitch stats, social stats and fan sentiment in one simple to use platform, that creates tangible insights, data and rationale to our clients.

YT: Would you say a real time index platform make Brandtix a special company in its area?

Rosenblatt: We emphasise real-time because every athlete who has a social status is being followed by fans every day of the week. We naturally see spikes of activity during game-time, but footballers today are ‘always-on’ and there’s a need to consistently track real time. How engaged are fans when they see a photo of Ronaldo’s new car; or Neymar’s new Replay commercial; or Bale in the new Welsh kit, and what’s the sentiment of their fans when they tweet or post? 

We have a relationship with OPTA to garner over 100 on-pitch stats of over 1,500 players in our platform. There is no doubt that sporting success can lead to commercial success, and we are right at the forefront of bringing that value to the professional sports industry.

YT: In what ways Brandtix could help athletes seal more commercial partnerships?

Rosenblatt: There’s a genuine advantage of clubs and agents using Brandtix to check on which players are maintaining and growing their Brandtix Score Index. A combination of excellent on-pitch performances, and a growing fan base across social will enable athletes to garner commercial deals based on the insights that Brandtix provides. A number of examples are clear, such as; comparing any given player with others at the same index score; seeing where the players’ fans are located by country and city; together with highest positive sentiment analysis. Brandtix also provides businesses with the key brands that fans of the player talk about most, which in turn allows an agent or club to rationalise and justify decisions that are being made. The feedback we have received from EPL clubs together with global sponsors and agents has been extremely positive with the benefits clear to see.

YT: And are we right to say that Brandtix is an ideal home for brands to select players as image ambassadors in their decision makings?

Rosenblatt: Yes, that is absolutely correct. Every well run brand should know their customer, together with what their brand stands for. With our technology a brand can use this to immediately ascertain the right type of player based on their on pitch and social real-time stats. The level of granularity a brand can get to when using Brandtix is very impressive. Literally with the click of a button, a brand can get to a players nationality and age, as well as their club, assists, goals, passes, social followers on global networks, overall sentiment analysis and much more.

YT: Apart from athletes, will Brandtix establish indext platform for sports clubs or leagues in the future?

Rosenblatt: This is the vision. We want to be the authority of insights across sports that resonate in USA, EU and Asia. We are starting with the ‘global game’ of football, but are seeing interest from other sports to accelerate our index into their sector.

YT: Is there any serious competitiveness in your area? If so, how do you guarantee your market share?

Rosenblatt: There is always competition, and I expect to see more traditional consultancies start to branch out to deliver more real-time analytics, as opposed to the more old-fashioned reporting that has been the case for the past few decades. Our job is to continue to promote our tech capabilities, innovate and consistently provide a unique value-add to our clients.

YT: What is your overall  strategy to grow globally?

Rosenblatt: Like I said above, our overall strategy is to start out as the definitive insight platform for the multi-billion dollar football industry, and then accelerate into new sports and other ‘celebrity’ based sectors. I strongly believe that  today’s business executives from brands to clubs, and from player agents to agencies are all looking for a Brandtix type solution to validate spend and justify decisions. 

YT: What do you make of the Chinese football market? And have you ever included CSL players in your index? If not, is there any plan to do so?

Rosenblatt: As a football fan, I am excited to see the ambition of both the national game and the CSL in China. There is a lot of investment going in to grassroots and academies, while at the top of the football chain the CSL saw a bigger January transfer market than that in Europe. If the newspaper reports are correct, it’s likely that such multi-million dollar transfer fees are set to continue.

As the CSL starts to acquire and retain new fans, it’s clear that brands and sponsors will want to play a more active role at both league and club level. With our intimate knowledge of football and fans, Brandtix is best equipped to provide the same set of insights to the likes of Guangzhou Evergrande and Shandong Luneng, as it is to a Premier League, Bundesliga, and La Liga team.

YT: What challenges are you facing currently? And how are you planning to overcome the difficulties?

Rosenblatt: After only one year since starting out, and with Brandtix being a unique insights company, our biggest challenge is to continually educate the sports business.  We are innovators, game-changers and determined to change the way that the sports business adopts and utilises real-time athlete and team insights. We’re excited about the future and plan to build our success in some of the most ambitious and determined nations such as China.

For more information about Brandtix, you can also access www.brandtix.com