Rugby sevens needs to raise its status and commercial appeal so major broadcasters are "busting a gut" to sign TV rights deals to broadcast the game if it’s to move forward, according to the global head of sponsorship at HSBC.
Speaking at the World Rugby Conference in London on Monday, HSBC's Giles Morgan said that World Rugby needed to take advantage of the popularity of the game, following the success of the Olympics in '16, to strike deals with broadcasters.
Morgan said, "There are many Olympic sports that don’t succeed globally. If you look at the great sports in the world, money doesn't come from sponsors it comes from television. It is television companies busting a gut to get the rights. At the moment rugby sevens doesn't have that, it must look towards it. The way you finance, yes, there is sponsorship revenue, which is important, there's ticketing revenues, there is merchandising. But the real sports that make it and where commercial appeal grows is where the broadcast revenues are there to really help drive not just the athletes’ costs and salaries, but, more important, just getting the circus moving. This is the opportunity for rugby sevens, it has gone onto the global stage."
HSBC has been the title sponsor of rugby sevens since '09 and believes the sport’s popularity is now at an all-time high.
Broadcasters do currently air some rugby sevens. The game was broadcast to a global audience during this year's Rio Olympics while the Singha sevens competition has been broadcast on BT Sport in the U.K.
ENHANCING ITS APPEAL: But Morgan urged that more needs to be done to enhance rugby sevens appeal, citing broadcast innovations such as access to players and coaches during games and an overall enhanced viewer experience.
He said, "The next two years of the [World Series] are the time for it to attract itself new broadcasters."
Morgan, who was speaking on a panel along with Mark Egan, head of competition and performance at World Rugby; Mike Friday, USA Sevens head coach and Osea Kolinisua, Fiji sevens captain, also suggested that rugby sevens could become as popular as the traditional 15-player game.
He added, "I think sevens will grow significantly and you will see more parity in the fan bases particularly in newer markets where sevens is much easier to understand as sport, and, therefore, you may see more countries getting involved in rugby sevens."
John Reynolds is a writer in London.
