Australia has a deserved reputation as a nation of sport lovers. But sport is not just an enjoyable pastime or a way to keep fit. For thousands of Australians, sport represents their career and livelihood, and the Australian sports industry constitutes a significant component of the nation’s economy.

Like any other sector you might care to mention, the sports industry is one that never stands still. What are the major trends and challenges it will face over the coming year?

Closer relationships with sponsors

The days when sponsors simply paid to have their logos on shirts and to install a couple of advertising boards around a stadium are largely behind us. Today, the focus is all about partnerships and the average sponsor will want to engage with fans across a range of touch points.

As such, the relationship between sponsor and club is closer, but so is that between sponsor and fan. This means more thought needs to go into understanding the demographics of a sport’s fanbase, particularly for sponsors in certain industries. For example, many cricket and football fans enjoy drinking a beer and making the most of Unibet streak betting offers as part of the sporting experience. These are two industries that are a natural fit for sports sponsorship, but caution has to be employed to ensure there is no suggestion of promoting drinking or gambling to under age fans.

New channels to market

Fans are accessing and “consuming” sport in vastly different ways to ten years ago. Traditional media like TV and radio are far less powerful than they once were, as users instead choose on-demand streaming services.

At the same time, innovative platforms for watching sport, for example through social media streams on YouTube or Facebook are presenting new opportunities, or indeed threats, depending on your angle of approach.

The onward march of eSports

It is easy to scoff and say that competitive gaming is not “real” sport, but anything that can command an audience of more than 100 million for a single event needs to be taken seriously. The numbers are skewed by eSport’s immense popularity in the Far East, but viewing numbers are on the increase worldwide.

Crucially, more than a third of fans in the UK, Japan and France only started watching in the past year. No wonder major companies like Coca Cola, Mercedes Benz and Intel are choosing to get involved.

Content marketing

In today’s world of smartphones and social media, businesses in every sector need to explore new ways of engaging with Generation Z. Exactly the same applies in sport. The effects of doing this right are plain for all to see.

AFL has never been in better health and the major teams all have a strong social presence on Facebook and Twitter. Compare that with a sport like golf, which is going through something of a global crisis at present due to its failure to attract younger players and fans. There is no better illustration of how vitally important it is that commercial sport moves with the times.