Area: Transformation

Sevilla FC, together with LaLiga, has implemented NFC (Near Field Communication) technology in the season tickets for the 2024/25 season. The club, which has already made the season ticket available to subscribers in digital format via a QR code, will now also have a wireless season ticket (NFC), allowing fans to enter the Ramón Sánchez-Pizjuán much more fluidly. Thus, by simply bringing the electronic device close to the wireless scanner located at the turnstiles, season ticket holders will be able to enter the Sevilla stadium more easily. All of this is part of a continuous improvement of the club’s services to help spectators.

NFC passes will be available on both iOS devices (the Wallet app on your iPhone or Apple Watch) and Android (the Google Wallet app on your Android phone or Smartwatch). The digital ID cards will also continue to work with the usual QR code on those electronic devices where NFC is not available. It should also be noted that the physical, NFC and QR cards will not be incompatible, highlighting that once the physical season ticket has been scanned, the digital one will no longer allow admission, and vice versa.

Season ticket holders will receive an email from [email protected] through which they will be able to download their season ticket for the 2024/25 season.

The NFC season ticket is an example of the commitment to technology that Sevilla FC has been making over the last three years to facilitate the management of the club in all areas and to continue the success achieved in previous seasons in various innovation and technology projects.

Sevilla FC has been making a firm commitment to using technology to optimize all its areas and obtain the best results both on and off the field. The Innovation Center Sevilla FC brings together all the R&D&I variants carried out by the entity. The 2023-24 season has been that of the club’s consecration as an international reference in the sports industry in terms of technology developed and applied in all areas of the club.

Undoubtedly, one of the major milestones of the 2023-24 season was the launch of the Scout Advisor tool, developed by the Data Department. This solution, built in conjunction with IBM’s WatsonX, its generative artificial intelligence system, has made it possible to optimize the availability of information from more than 200,000 scouting reports from the sports management’s own database. This qualitative leap is achieved through natural language searches, significantly reducing the time technicians used to extract all the value from the database.

The appearance of Scout Advisor has had a worldwide repercussion, which has made Sevilla FC and its commitment to technological development receive the attention of general and technological media all over the planet. This tool has accumulated prominence in more than 1200 media worldwide, with a potential audience of more than 2 billion readers. It has also been presented at conventions around the world, attending summits in the United States, India, Brazil and Saudi Arabia, among others.

Scout Advisor is just a sample of the tools that Sevilla FC has been developing over the last three years to facilitate the management of the club in all areas and is a continuation of the success achieved last season with the launch of Transfer Tracker, the first technological solution marketed by a Spanish club together with LALIGA.

We continue to break records on social media. The club’s official accounts have just reached the figure of 20 million followers across all platforms.

The numbers consolidate Sevilla as the fourth most popular club in Spain after Real Madrid, FC Barcelona and Atlético de Madrid. Furthermore we are now the 24th most followed club in Europe, having doubled our total number of followers in the last year.

Our growth on digital platforms is the result of a firm commitment to use them as a means of communication with our most loyal fans, but also to expand our fan base to all corners of the world, with a clear and defined strategy for each of them.

In recent months, the accounts that have grown the most are TikTok and Instagram, while new platforms such as Threads, WhatsApp or Twitch have also been embraced. However, at no time do we forget our closest followers with our commitment to programmes such as La Bombonera and El Partido, and new formats such as El Cubo, Triple V or El Santuario.

Meanwhile, one of the key factors in the club’s growth on social media has been the commitment to the internationalisation of the club’s brand with this type of digital platform as one of its fundamental vehicles. The number of followers outside Spain has grown by 80 per cent. 

One of the keys to expansion beyond our borders has been the generation of local content that creates a greater affinity with fans in other parts of the world. We produces content in six different languages: Spanish, English, Arabic, Chinese, Portuguese and Japanese. In addition, content has been created with local agencies and influencers, as well as a wide range of content with live specials featuring players.

The visit to the United States and Mexico during pre-season in 2023 had a major impact locally and served to increase our north American fanbase thanks to various activations with our players and local fans.

Within the overall growth, some of the most notable markets are the Arabian market with an annual increase of 383 per cent. Also, the market that has grown the most is India, with an increase of 1126 per cent in a country where football is flourishing and where the club has a strategic agreement with local club FC Bengaluru United. The club also produced the ‘Never Surrender’ video series.

Likewise, in China in 2023, we were the fastest-growing European club with an increase of 83 per cent and with a well-defined strategy to reach local fans on the country’s specific social networks: Weibo, Douyin and Wechat.

Finally, in January 2024, the club launched its new Portuguese language accounts with the aim of strengthening the already existing link with Portuguese-speaking countries and, in particular, with Brazil, where the club already has a large community of supporters and high-profile ambassadors with various players from the country who became club legends.

We continue to reap the rewards of our firm commitment to the internationalisation of the club. 2023 has been a particularly fruitful year in terms of one of the most populated countries in the world, China.

The club’s account on Weibo, the most popular social network in China, acquired more than 500,000 new followers in 2023. This brought the total number of Chinese fans following Sevilla to 1,285,000, and that number has since surpassed 1.3 million in the first few weeks of 2024.

In 2023, we grw 64% on Weibo, a percentage that underlines our position as the club that has grown the most in the last calendar year on this social network, ahead of clubs such as PSG, Barcelona, Tottenham, Roma, Real Madrid, Villarreal, Monaco, Real Sociedad and Borussia Dortmund. Our growth on Weibo over the past two years is 117% and, in 2023, all metrics in terms of post impact grew compared to 2022, and was the account’s best year since its inception.

Meanwhile, the progression on China’s social networks also extends to the video platform, Douyin, where the club’s account has almost reached 150,000 followers. By adding the followers on both platforms, we are now the Spanish team with the fourth-most followers in China after Barcelona, Real Madrid and Atlético de Madrid, with accounts on  Weibo and Douyin, and also on Wechat. 

Our growth on the main social networks in China can also be explained thanks to a strategy based on local content with nods to local culture and customs, collaborations with local influencers and the production of live programmes with native presenters who bring the daily happenings of Sevilla closer to the fans in the Asian country. 

As a sign of this, we are planning to develop several special initiatives in February to commemorate the Chinese New Year. To celebrate the arrival of the Year of the Dragon, the club will organise several special events to wish its Chinese fans the best during the match against Atlético de Madrid on Sunday 11th February.

The growth in digital platforms is only part of the work that we has been doing in China. Since March 2023, it has been working with ISS (International School Services) and are active at the Shekou International School in Shenzhen, China, where sports coaches carefully selected and trained by the club offer extracurricular activities to students, following the club’s exclusive methodology of talent development and training. They expect to finish the season with twice as many players in their different teams. As part of the programme, tournaments are also planned and a new Summer Camp will be held this summer.

Commercially we also have three official regional sponsors in China for the current 2023-2024 season: 1717, Kubet and Nova 88, which further strengthen our ties with the country’s football industry.

We encourage all our fans to get to know the culture of China better with the Spring Festival Gala broadcast by CMG this Friday starting at 1:00 PM Spain time through this link. Recognised by the Guinness World Records as the most-watched television program worldwide, this gala has become a cultural celebration that spreads the spirit and joy of the New Year celebration among Chinese communities worldwide.

Together with IBM, we are delighted to unveil Scout Advisor, an innovative Artificial Intelligence (AI) tool that the club will use to provide its scouting team with comprehensive data when it comes to the identification and evaluation of potential player signings. Built on ‘watsonx’, IBM’s AI and data platform designed for businesses, the club proposed the Scout Advisor concept with the aim of incorporating it into its pre-existing, in-house developed suite of data-generative tools.

The club’s data department has been working for months with IBM’s Client Engineering team to build this latest application, using natural language processing and the base ‘watsonx’ models to search for and analyse massive amounts of information present in its scouting database. This includes both quantitative data, such as height and weight, speed, number of goals or minutes played, and unstructured qualitative data, such as the written analysis included in its more than 200,000 scouting reports.

The solution’s natural language processing (NLP) capabilities have enabled the club to use multiple large language models (LLMs) to help improve the accuracy and efficiency of player identification. Using cues from the club’s scouts describing the key characteristics of players being assessed, Scout Advisor generates curated lists of candidates based on the traits being sought and summarises the full set of reports for each individual player. In addition, Scout Advisor links each player to our current database to produce further detailed information on their quantitative performance data.

Scout Advisor reduces the time needed and provides crucial support when it comes to making key decisions

Traditionally, player recruitment has been based on a combination of subjective human observation and data analysis. However, these measures have various restrictions given the amount of time they take and only consider a limited number of factors. Now, IBM’s Scout Advisor tools offers us a competitive advantage, combining those existing indicators with generative AI to close the gap between metric-based scouting and human behaviours that are hard to measure. This will improve our ability to identify talent and help in our decision-making processes.

Our scouting team is widely renowned for its data-based recruitment of emerging stars; yet, the club is also a pioneer in developing its own methods of using detailed information to gage a more rounded profile of each player we scout. IBM watsonx nurtures this data and communicates it in digestible terms, identifying possible signings based on key qualitative indicators and expert scouting opinion.

“Technology is part of the club’s DNA”

José María del Nido Carrasco, our club president, expressed that this step forward will mean that “our scouting and analysis teams are committed to finding the best players and young talent that will help the team and the club develop. They have worked tirelessly to build an impressive bank of data that will aid us to make informed decisions. Now, with IBM’s support, we can use this to its full potential. We are delighted to work with IBM, knowing that this project could be revolutionary not only within our club, but also throughout the sporting industry. It gives us a significant advantage in the recruitment process, allowing us to get the best fit for the team. We strongly believe that this collaboration will have a positive impact on sport in general. This is a clear indication of our intention to show that technology is not only an object, it is a powerful and helpful tool on our journey to the future. It will form a key part of our DNA.”

Ana Paula de Assis, Chair and General Manager EMEA at IBM, recognises the pride of “collaborating with Sevilla FC to use the full extent of ‘watsonx’ generative AI in order to help and to improve the accuracy and efficiency of the recruitment process. With the correct use, AI continues to change the rules of the game for businesses across all sectors.” Horacio Morell, President of IBM Spain, Portugal, Greece and Israel, explained that “at IBM we are very excited for this collaboration with Sevilla FC so that we can transform the process of signing new players and unlock the full potential of data analysis. This is a clear demonstration of how ‘watsonx’ can help companies through AI to gain a competitive advantage.”

Our collaboration with IBM is a fundamental part of our business strategy moving forward, with the intention of using AI to assist sporting operations. Integrating ‘watsonx’ into the current system will allow us to increase our ROI and make better, quicker and more informed decisions.