Alex Ferrer Kristjansson: How EuroLeague Basketball Retains a Startup Mentality

Today’s Episode, I’m joined by Alex Ferrer Kristjansson, Senior
Director of Marketing and Communications at EuroLeague
Basketball.


Having joined almost 20 years ago, Alex began his career working
on the ULEB Cup, now known as the EuroCup, developing and
coordinating the marketing strategy across the teams and he has
since held a number of different positions at the organisation,
always related to marketing somehow, be it ticketing, brand
management, or social media and digital.


Since 2012, Alex took on the role that he currently holds,
focused on marketing communications, which means overseeing
everything related to the promotion and distribution of the
competition from PR and comms, to brand and business
intelligence. He also looks after the EuroLeague’s long term
partnership with IMG, which has had a huge impact on the league
since beginning in 2016, from changes to the format, to the
allocation of new licenses in markets like Germany and
France. 


The league is a truly unique case study merging the worlds of
European and North American sporting governance. Their startup
attitude also provides many lessons for us to learn from. 


Time Stamps 


2:00 - Alex’s Career Journey


4:00 - The Impact of Partnering with IMG


6:00 - The Format of the EuroLeague


13:00 - Increasing Presence in Strategic Markets


16:00 - Harnessing the Brand Power of the likes of Real Madrid
and Bayern Munich


19:00 - Retaining a Startup Culture and Launching Fan XP
Innovation Challenge


31:00 - Leveraging Creators and Launching Hoop District


38:00 - Future Plans for EuroLeague Final Four


40:00 - Influence of the Adidas Next Gen Tournament


Additional Links


Future Gazing: EuroLeague was Early on OTT, Sees VR as Next Big
Opportunity


Euroleague Basketball launches 3x3 content creators tournament
'Hoop District'


Overtime Elite to represent the USA in ANGT Finals


EuroLeague Basketball FanXP relaunches with exciting SPORTBIZ
partnership


Connect with Alex on LinkedIn - Here


Connect with Andy on LinkedIn - Here