Sports Revolution's Creative & Integrated Solutions Dir Josh Robinson penned a piece for BRAND REPUBLIC under the header "The New Breed of Sports Rights Holder." In it, Robinson wrote, "Do a quick Google search for any sports club fan base." One will see that "many ‘unofficial’ fan bases enjoy numbers that far exceed those of their official counterparts." Fan hubs that are "raw, rough and ready" are often run by the sports industry’s "answer to the bedroom DJ" and are rampant. These are "gathering and keeping crowds with only self-generated insight, content creativity and a healthy appetite for experimentation to play with." Sports fans "have taken to social with little regard for where content comes from." Their motivation "is to show the world that they belong to a tribe of passionate people, by consuming and sharing content that reinforces their place in the world." Rights holders "are now challenged by a new breed of competition." A restless "band of social renegades that are capturing the hearts, minds and clicks of sports fans with a daily desire to share." If federations, associations and clubs want to compete, "they need to think like NetFlix, not Blockbuster and make assets work harder." Rugby Football Union Digital Head Nick Shaw said, "We need to behave more like a creative agency and be the experts on how to engage our fan base, not just how many of them there are" (BRAND REPUBLIC, 5/7).
