Professional Bull Riders is celebrating its 25th season with a huge event at Madison Square Garden January 5th. Sean Gleason, CEO of Professional Bull Riders, and two-time World Champion bull rider J.B. Mauney, aka "the John Wayne of PBR", join Cheddar to discuss the fast-growing sport.
According to the organization, PBR attendance increased 11% from 2015 to 2017, setting 13 local event attendance records in 2016 and eight more in 2017. Annual global attendance has reached 3 million fans. Gleason also talks about the company's new streaming platform called "RidePass" and how it fits within the distribution strategy.
Mauney talks about how he prepares for a bull riding competition and how he stays connected with his fans. He says he's one of the oldest professional bull riders, which is why he's old school in his training. He predicts he'll ride for a few more years before hanging up his hat.
Fintech companies are taking notice of the rapid growth in esports, and Quicken Loans has partnered with 100 Thieves, a League of Legends expansion team. Quicken CMO Casey Hurbis said this venture opened the company's eyes to the endless possibilities of esports and its personalities.
The Twitter Esports Business Summit ran from Oct. 1-3, and it held its focus on the growing market of esports and how Twitter fits into the business. Rishi Chadha, head of gaming content partnerships at Twitter, said the company is focusing on the communities that foster players and fans, as well as publishers and developers of different platforms.
The team became the first in the NBA to introduce GIFs for the Facebook platform. Sandro Gasparro, director of social media for the Los Angeles Clippers, told Cheddar it's not just another way to promote engagement, but can also connect fans to players on a more personal level.
Ralf Reichert, CEO of ESL, sat down with Cheddar at this weekend's tournament at the Barclays Center and talked about the esports world and what he believes is needed for the enterprise to grow.
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Ron Darling, a former MLB starting pitcher and current TBS baseball analyst, said the easiest way to attract younger people to baseball is to get more kids playing it when they're kids. Darling said there are more children opting out of football due to concerns about head injuries, and those athletes should be primed to take up a different sport.
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18Birdies has seen success as a one-stop shop for golfers, both amateur and pro, gaining 1.3 million members since its launch. The app lets players book tee times, navigate a new course, and choose the right club. But CEO Eddy Lui says the main goal is to create a community ー a social network ー of golfers.
The blockchain has made its way into a slew of industries. Next at bat ー the sports world. The Los Angeles Dodgers are moving away from traditional promotions and have begun using crypto tokens to give away digital bobbleheads to fans. Ralph Esquibel, VP of information technology for the team, said this is the first giveaway of its kind and could lead to more experiments with cryptocurrencies.
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