Supertri, the rebranded Super League Triathlon competition, has announced it is transitioning to a new franchise-based ownership model for 2024.
The competition will shift from its previous league ownership model to a franchise system, through which teams are purchased in perpetuity by their owners.
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The quartet of teams, made up of four men and four women, will compete in Supertri’s League, beginning in Boston on August 18, then staying in the US with Chicago, before continuing in London (UK,) Toulouse (France), and Neom in Saudi Arabia.
The teams will compete for a total prize pot of $925,000, with the leading side collecting $375,000, (in addition to individual prize money).
The winners of 11 Olympic medals at the recently-completed Paris Summer Games will be competing across a five-round series, with Paris gold medal winners Cassandre Beaugrand, Alex Yee, and Tim Hellwig being the flagship names.
The teams will be Brownlee Racing, Podium Racing, Stars & Stripes Racing, and Crown Racing.
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By GlobalDataSupertri co-founder and chief executive Michael D’hulst has now spoken to Sportcal (GlobalData Sport) about the new franchise ownership system, how the competition appeals to younger generations while maintaining a traditional triathlon audience, and how Supertri plans to globalize.
What benefits will franchise ownership bring and why have you chosen now to implement this model?
"I need to frame that in terms of what Supertri as a business stands for – we were founded with the aspiration to take triathlon away from being just a participation sport. We've reshaped the format to make the sport more exciting, and make it more equitable for the next generation of sports fans. What T20 Cricket has done to cricket is something we are trying to replicate by making it shorter, sharper, and more accessible, and that's where we started.
"I wanted to see how we can widen its appeal, hence moving away from an individual sport where you have an audience who already know the athletes, to a team concept which I believe makes it accessible to new fans.
"You can create a narrative of an American team, which is a lot easier to understand for the American public. They will start following on from that, and then that trickles down to them following individual athletes.
"As to why now, after Covid I saw the opportunity, and that now is the right time to pivot. We've already proven the concept of the format with this short, sharp, racing, pre-Covid, so now we can implement teams.
"But yes, there was still a little bit of hesitation – would the athletes buy into it? This is traditionally an individual sport, and now we want to make it a team sport, so will it work the way we want to see it work?
"We are funded from our cap table, so when we introduce the teams, it's not with the ambition of this being a fundraising initiative for us, we already have the funding. Now we are finding the right team owners to take the business to the next level.
"We find team owners who invest capital, they buy the franchise and they are committed to growing their teams, but we see it more as an amplification of the success that the league already has, rather than a mechanism for us to fundraise and expand the league.
"Previously we had to focus on the athletes, as well as on the events and the media, now we can focus solely on building the events and the media, and we have trusted partners and invested partners to build out the athletes."
What is your partnership strategy moving forward?
"For the moment we are focused on event-centric partners. So we have events in London, we have events in Boston, we have events in Chicago, we had events in Toulouse, we have some events in the Middle East also – there are multiple markets.
"Where we are focusing now is on partners who are relevant, who are focused on that one market. Then, as the league expands, we're looking to have regional partners, let's say Europe, and then growing into two global partners. So our partnership strategy is for the moment very much market by market with the intent of – in two years time – making it more regional and global."
In terms of your globalization strategy, what is the thought process behind the selection of the host cities?
"I think it's important to own all the events and have a regional approach.
"We operate two events in North America, two events in Europe, and we intend to have two events in the Middle East. For us, the growth strategy is about adding more and more footprints to those regions.
"Triathlon is also very much a mass-participation sport. For us, it's important to own that ecosystem of having a professional sport that inspires people to pick up the sport to start being active. We want to offer them elements of mass participation.
"We are active in those markets with professional events, now we're also adding on mass participation events. For example, in the US, we have the Chicago triathlon, the Long Beach triathlon at the LA28 course, we do an event in Boston, and we're looking at expanding through acquisition.
"So we're creating an ecosystem of professional racing that opens us to wider audiences, to the media, and then amplifying that also with the participation events, which give people the opportunity to join us in riding those big city events.
How do you plan to maintain interest following the Olympics and in between Olympic cycles generally?
"Outside of our league, we also have an esports of triathlon. This is something that we started in Covid because we were not able to do the outdoor events. And with that product, we're actually integrating into the Olympics. We were part of the Olympic eSports week, and now there's an Esports Olympics that is in discussion so we're looking at being part of that.
"And now, looking at Paris, we've done a bonus scheme for athletes who will win the Olympics to join our league and race. Then we're working with the key broadcasters in Europe, Eurosport for example, to amplify stories and continue the narrative.
"I don't see the Olympics and the International Olympic Committee as a threat so much, instead I embrace it and say look, there's never so many eyeballs on a sport as in an Olympic year.
"Let's leverage that. Let's take the athletes and let's continue the narratives and the emotive connections that start there. Let's bring these fans on a journey throughout the next four years going into the next Olympic cycle."
Are you trying to attract a younger audience with your esports offering?
"It's a younger, different type of audience, because we see that even with our normal outdoor events, because of the short and intense nature of them, they are very good for TikTok. Through those, we've already attracted quite a young audience, but indeed, the esports audience is young, and different to your traditional sports audience.
"It actually requires a different approach – for example, the broadcasting of it is very different. You can visually see the difference between your YouTube (which is more traditional) and Twitch, the way that is presented is very, very different. If you look at how we broadcast our esports, there's more graphics and a very different look and feel."
Is there anything else that you're doing as a modernization strategy?
"First of all, it starts with the product itself. I think the product itself is exciting. There's a lot happening, it's very dense in action and we're quick to embrace that.
"Within the Olympic sports movement, we were quick to embrace a quick TikTok strategy and create tailored content for that channel. As an organization, we want to be the future of triathlon. So, we talk to that next generation, we adapt quickly to the platforms where they play or where they watch.
"When I say next generation, I'm not only talking about younger audiences, but I'm also talking about new audiences.
"We're actually launching an initiative called Supertri Next Gen which is all about breaking boundaries.
"For example, triathlon is still very much a white, middle-class, sport. So how do we bring people of color into the sport? How do we make the sport more diverse? How do we use the sport to bring that new fan base right into the sport.
"We've chosen to pick stories that are close to us, highlight them, and support the people who are breaking these barriers. We're [trying to] use our platform to not only showcase but also motivate more people, more women in the Middle East, to come in the sport. The next generation is not just young people, but also those that have not traditionally been part of the sport as such."
What is your broadcast strategy moving forward?
"So we've been live broadcasting on cable television since the beginning. Originally we've been very Europe-centric, because that's where a lot of the talent comes from. Like with every broadcast strategy, you need live events in markets and you need talent from those markets too [to attract broadcast partners]."
How do you plan to balance innovation while continuing to appeal to a more traditional triathlon audience?
"It is a balancing act, but I think what we do for the more traditional audience is we continue to give more insights than what they're currently used to. Even the traditional triathlon audience has always said look, [Supertri has] the best broadcast quality, the most insights in terms of data.
"We are pushing the boundaries in terms of usage of technology and access to different camera angles and insights. We've always promoted and worked on the immersiveness of our broadcasts, and I think that has gone down very well with the existing fan base."
