14 minute read
FEATURE: SPORTS BARS
Raising the bar
The way patrons consume sports entertainment has prompted clubs to offer more time, space and sense of place than traditional sports bars. Grant Jones reports.
A COUPLE OF flat screens, some high tables and stools, wagering consoles and burgers don’t cut the mustard as a sports bar these days. Just ask any club manager. Look around at any of the renovations across these pages and you will see that clubs are pulling out all stops to offer the most appealing sports bars in town.
Entain Australia is partnering with venues to create a holistic sports bar experience.
From the Moama Bowling Club on the picturesque Murray River and Saints Sports Bar at St Mary’s League in Sydneys’ west to North Lakes Sports Club in Brisbane, new sports bar builds now include everything your sports armchair expert could want. From craft beer bars and on-trend hotdogs with loaded fries and massive TV screens with directional speaker systems, to high-top tables and comfortable stools or linger-longer armchairs and coffee tables, today’s sports bar should put you in the thick of the action.
The ultimate all-round experience
Mark Sturdy from Entain Australia, which operates Neds and Ladbrokes, believes the growth in sports bars relies on much more than big screens and top-quality sound.
He says a winning model must offer the ultimate sports experience that compares favourably to actually being at the ground.
“It’s more than just putting screens on the wall and getting people in,” Sturdy says. “It needs to be the ultimate experience, one where your mate goes, ‘Have you seen that sports bar down the road?’.
“Consistency and commitment to live sport is key, if customers intuitively know on a Friday night they can go to their local club and watch their sport of choice, they’ll be far more likely to choose your venue, than a venue that flips between one sport to another, week to week,” Sturdy says.
Sports wagering in-venue has changed dramatically over the recent years, Sturdy has found. Customers want more than communal form guides, or walls of monitors showing static odds and cash terminals. These elements are becoming less relevant as customers move to wager on their phones and gain information from either their own devices or new innovative ways to distribute information exclusively in venue.
“What hasn’t changed is the connection to a venue and going to the local with mates for a few bets,” he says.
That is helped by localised promotions around key racing events, tipping competitions or punters clubs to create social connections and local competition. Entain’s Sportspick product, for example, has seen an increase of more than 20 per cent in participation, year-on-year, and drives a stronger connection between the venues and their patrons.
“How do you elevate the experience? Our venue sponsorships focus on elevating and innovating the experience to create unique reasons for customers to come to their local every day of the week,” Sturdy says.
“Importantly, we are committed to the continual improvement of our sponsorships to ensure we are exceeding our venue partners and customers expectations.”
Entain’s Sportspick product launched its first Punters Challenge Championships that enables tipsters and their venues to play off against each other in an onpremise, 10-week race-tipping comp that leads to a national final with a prize pool of $25,000.
“This is our toe in the water with a national pool for race tipping and we’re looking forward to elevating this product for Spring Carnival,” Sturdy says.
Tackling success
WITH ABOUT A fifth of Australian consumers visiting hospitality venues to watch live sports and with the season in full swing, your sports bar better be up to scratch this winter as teams wind up for the finals.
Research group CGA by NIQ’s On Premise Sports Report has highlighted the opportunities to target consumers flocking to venues to catch games, in its finding that 18 per cent of consumers head to RSLs, sports clubs and pubs to watch live sport on TV.
North Lakes Sports Club, Brisbane.
“Keeping the on-premise live sports viewer engaged throughout the season will be key for venues showing live sports who are looking to drive higher levels of footfall,” says James Phillips, CGA Client Solutions Director – ANZ.
Those consumers who do visit also tend to be highly engaged with hospitality venues, visiting more often than the average consumer and have both a higher average income and higher spend when out-of-home.
Given those stats, operators should be targeting activity around big sporting occasions, helping to identify key events to activate around and making sure a welldefined live-sport occasion strategy can pay dividends for clubs.
- Mark Sturdy, Entain Australia
Previous CGA research also highlighted that 60 per cent of Australian consumers are also more likely to place a bet when watching a sporting event in a club bar, pub or restaurant than if they were watching it at home.
And almost half of consumers stay at a venue for longer if they were taking part in mobile sports betting, with about three in five saying they’d be likely to order more drinks if they were watching a game they’d placed a bet on.
Sports programming
We live in an age where there’s so much quality sports coverage both at home and internationally, that your sports bar can show heart-thumping action at any time, seven days a week. Whether that’s international men’s and women’s cricket or football – which includes the soccer and rugby World Cups – to any super series, including NRL’s State of Origin, or once-a-year blockbusters such as the SuperBowl, today’s sports bar should make your patrons feel like they have a seat in the stands – day and night.
And if you don’t have it on the big screen, Stan Sport is offering a commercial subscription with no or low-cost installation with almost immediate connection as long as you have solid wifi (or can be setup with LAN connection) and a Chromecast or Apple TV, for use on up to 4 suitable Smart TV directly or plugged into your AV System. For your subscription, live sports and all replays are available on demand, ad-free, from Club Rugby to Super Rugby Pacific and all international games.
Stan is also home of the Rugby World Cup which starts in September. Stan Sports is also an Olympics Broadcaster from next year and is home of UEFA football, MMA, all four tennis Majors and motorsport, including Indy Car and World Rally.
From September Stan Sport is also looking at giving venues access to a 24/7 channel so clubs can have non-stop live and replayed sports content without clubs having to curate it.
“Stan gives your customers variety with all sports having ondemand replays so you can program great sports entertainment across the day. So, you give your members what they want,” says Tim Fishwick from Stan Sports.
Turning research into reality
Evolution is key, and recognising that upgrades are needed in the first place is a step in the right direction when it comes to creating the ambience and features in a club that will attract today’s sportsloving audience.
As venue and culture manager Craig Allan explains of the new North Lakes Sports Club’s bar and deck: “We acknowledged that we needed a dedicated sports bar that would allow us to show multiple sports at one time.
“To evolve with current trends, our Sports with our 12sqm screen has the ability to be split in multiple screens meaning we can show traditional style sports as well as embrace the American and extreme sports market,” he says.
“Our research showed we had a market within our catchment that followed overseas and non-traditional sports and to date, we’ve had great success showing and promoting these sports.”
The space then reverts back to a comfy bar or lounge and can broadcast a multitude of sports in between big events.
“The brief to our designers was to create an area that allowed for large numbers but also had an intimate feel within the room when not at full capacity,” Allan says.
Changing the fabrics, alongside the fixtures and fittings, makes a big difference to a space. The Bunker sports bar at Club Rivers, in Sydney’s southwest, needed a sophisticated lounge look in contrast to the alfresco feel of its other new space, The Canopy. So Mint Furniture introduced classic pieces and custom finishes like velvet, metallics and inlaid tiled table tops help create that feel.
Best bar bites
WHEN IT COMES to food, sports bars remain a focus of single bite bar food, especially during big events, allowing your patrons to balance a beer or wine in the other hand.
Simplot Foodservice has introduced the Edgell Entertainers range of four Australian-made cheese snacks that have been developed with versatility in mind. They range from Mac ‘n’ Cheese Bites and Mozzarella Cheese Sticks to Jalapeño Cheese Bombs and Haloumi Chips (pictured).
They can also fill more than one application on the menu, from share platters for a bunch of friends to bar bites while enjoying the broadcast of a big sporting event.
“As a chef, if I can use one product in multiple ways, it provides so many benefits, I can save storage space, turn over stock quicker and save time with ordering,” says Edgell executive chef David White.
“Many chefs are looking for ways to expand the menu without adding extra labour and prep time, and using Edgell Entertainers for side serves or as add-ons to your main offers is a great solution,” David adds. “They’re quick and easy to prepare, and it goes without saying that they’ve been developed to deliver on flavour and texture.”
Screen strategy
As screens in the home get bigger, those in venues need to be even bigger, brighter and better with high-resolution LED walls and multiple small screens so that every seat in the house gets a clear view.
“The big thing that we see in a sports bar is obviously the split screen in the video wall and we are of the opinion that if you are renovating or upgrading and not considering it, then that will be a dead space, especially in that club market,” says Big Screen Video Group (BSV) commercial director Saul Heffernan.
But before you get to the end result make sure that in any new build or renovation that your tech is capable, the screen fit for purpose and there is easy accessibility to a control screen.
“You need to make sure you have the right technology behind that screen as well as the capability of a touch screen panel that you put behind the bar or a panel that is located behind the screen or even an ipad.”
In addition to big screens, Heffernan says there are other creative elements being seen, such as in-house advertising panels on the sides of big screens.
Venues such as The Builders Club in the Illawarra also partnered its big screen with an LED ring hanging from the middle of the ceiling, which can spruik in-house promotions and events. It’s the sort of technology that BSV will be showcasing at the AGE at Sydney International Convention Centre in August. That and a huge video wall, with touch panel operation by staff who will also be pouring beers. But not every LED wall has to be huge.
“Do what’s right for your club,” says Heffernan, “whether it’s having a look at what venues are doing internationally, and emulating things on a smaller scale, see what works and doesn’t work in your space.
The new LED ring screen from Big Screen Video at Legend Sports Bar at The Builders Club in the Illawarra.
“You don’t want to put a big screen on someone’s lap. Think about how it will work, 6m wide by 1.75m high doesn’t always work for everyone. And don’t get caught in the trap of the finer pixel pitch. The reality is you can be spending a lot more money on a finer pitch when you don’t actually need it – 2.6mm in most sports is totally fine.
“Last of all, think of your sports bar like you would your gaming room: creative, flashy, cool LEDs and maximising your entertainment. Ask yourself ‘How can I improve ROI?’, just as would you do in your gaming room and bring that out into your sports bar.
“And ad content, our creatives at BSV can do that for you too.”
When it comes to sports wagering, digital is rapidly becoming the preferred option, so having full charge on your phone is key to enjoying your time at a club venue. But with numerous security and data breaches recently reported, legacy conventional charging solutions (plugging-in with cables to charge your device) is risking the data security of you and your patrons.
-Saul Heffernan, Big Screen Video
“These cables can be maliciously modified to attempt to steal data and upload malicious software to visitors’ phones when they plug in to charge,” says Stay Charged co-founder Ryan Britz. “Wireless charging not only offers a simpler solution, but also the peace of mind that there is no malicious software or data transfer occurring.”
Wireless charging facilities, like these from Stay Charged, keep patrons in your venue longer.
Incorporating wireless chargers into existing or new furniture like EGM benches, bar top counters, or restaurant booths also encourages your visitors to linger longer. Wireless charge points throughout your venue is also a cost-effective solution to keeping your customers happy.
“Wireless charging provides the convenience of a simple drop-andcharge solution with no need to supply a range of charging cables –and with over a billion (and growing) smartphones supporting wireless charging, it is a great way to futureproof your venue,” says Britz.
Stay Charged counts Manly Leagues Club, Wests Ashfield and Petersham RSL Club among recent clients acknowledging the visitor need for wireless charging.
The 4K experience
THIS YEAR, FOXTEL Business is focused on launching 4K in venues, to offer even better quality sporting entertainment in the lead up to the finals.
“The fix we’re currently developing for this will mean that it’s a much smoother experience for venues, so we’re even more excited to launch 4K to the industry later this year,” says Greg Bohlsen, National Licensed Venues Manager, Foxtel Business.
Foxtel Business has had an impressive lineup of sports broadcasting for clubs this year and is now well into the NRL and AFL seasons, as well as Super Netball. Internationally MLB is underway, as well as F1 and Moto GP. Venues should be thinking now about promoting this to their customers well in advance of the fixture, says Bohlsen.
Bohlsen’s top live sport tips:
• Have “sound zones” where possible and an HD viewing experience with the correct aspect ratio so nothing on the screen gets cut off.
• Promote sporting fixtures on social media and use Venue Finder and promotion apps like FANZO.
Foxtel Business is working with venue partners to launch 4K this year.
• Showing the pre-match build up encourages people to come earlier and promoting food and beverage offers before and after big sporting events encourages people to stay longer.
• Utilise the breadth of Foxtel’s live sport coverage – ESPN shows the best of US sports for the early afternoon weekday hours that could capture the workday lunch crowd.
