WSC Sports, the Israel-based sports video content provider, has expanded its presence in France by striking a new multi-year agreement with soccer’s Ligue 1 side Lille.
The partnership will see Lille use WSC Sports’ artificial intelligence (AI)-powered video solution to analyze the club’s live matches in real-time and automatically create and distribute the content across its digital platforms.
The club said the new partnership will enable it to maximize the use of its digital IP and create new revenue streams for its digital inventory and assets.
Aurélien Delespierre, Lille’s director of marketing, communications, and ticketing, said: “One of our main objectives is to be able to offer our fans even more content. This collaboration allows us to provide footage to our in-house production teams in real-time.
“Thanks to this speed of access, and the efficiency of automated processes, WSC Sports' technology enables us to meet the demand for immediacy on social networks, to optimize the value of our sporting performances and our deferred rights to French championship matches.
“Our partnership will thus help us develop our content and digital communities and, at the same time, generate additional opportunities for the club's partners to offer them new ways of interacting with the club's supporters.”
Aviv Arnon, WSC Sports co-founder and chief business development officer, added: “[Lille] is a huge club with a loyal and passionate fan base. Our partnership will support the growth of Lille’s fan base around the world, and also ensure Lille fans can stay better connected across all the club’s digital platforms.
“Utilizing WSC Sports' solution will enable Lille’s digital content team to dedicate more resources to original storytelling, which will increase engagement levels.”
Lille joins WCS’ growing client list in France, including commercial broadcaster TF1, streaming platform Skweek, pay-television broadcaster Canal Plus, Ligue 1 giants Paris Saint-Germain, basketballs Ligue Nationale de Basket, and national lottery operator Française de Jeux.
The company also has a roster of over 400 leagues and broadcasters across the globe, including basketball’s NBA, soccer’s Bundesliga, LaLiga, and Serie A, as well as broadcasters ESPN and DAZN.
During an interview with Sportcal (GlobalData Sport) last year, co-founder and chief executive Daniel Shichman said the trend for more personalized content is only in its infancy and every fan could have their personalized highlights, tailored perfectly to what, who, and when they want to see it - with WSC Sports poised to take the lead having already won over all major sports league and organizations worldwide.
He said: “Rights owners are becoming much more aware that they need to move and become more direct in their consumer approach, they need to be more innovative and sophisticated.
“It’s getting to a point where media rightsholders can’t just put a game on TV and that’s it, they need to build the right experience and collect the data and monetize to justify the price.”
Read more - WSC Sports: How AI has led the highlights revolution
