LaLiga and Microsoft's fan engagement project in the limelight at Digital Difference event

LaLiga's ongoing digital transformation made an impression on a number of specialised media outlets and pioneering companies from the robotics, transport, finance, health and new technologies sectors during the Digital Difference event, run by Microsoft in New York City.

As concluded by a new report by Harvard Business Review, Analytics Service which was presented at the event, 80% of business leaders believe that their industry will be positively affected by digital transformation in the next three years, but less than half of them have defined a digital strategy in this regard. LaLiga, however, is investing strategically hand-in-hand with Microsoft and the Azure program, in order to understand the behaviour of its fans around the world so that it can offer them a personalised and innovative product – a huge technological leap never seen before in any competition which will position LaLiga at the cutting edge of technology.

In the presence of Judson Althoff, the executive vice-president of worldwide commercial business at Microsoft; Sebastian Lancestremere, the general manager of Microsoft's sports business; and over 100 attendees, LaLiga shared its expertise and experience in relation to the use of technology as a vehicle to create new business models and better products for fans. "Incredible transformation is taking place in every industry. In sports, the technology collaboration between LaLiga and Microsoft is unleashing the next wave of fan experiences," said Judson Althoff, executive vice president, Worldwide Commercial Business, Microsoft Corp. "LaLiga's digital transformation is helping bring rich business insights to make the most of new digital channels, and intelligent connections with billions of fans across the world."

Raul Gonzalez, LaLiga's country manager for the United States; Silvestre Jos, its director of technology services; and Minerva Santana, its project coordination manager, represented LaLiga at the event, where the project developed by LaLiga and Microsoft following the agreement signed between the two organisations in November was put forward as an example of fan engagement. "We are the best league in the world and that's why we want to transform the offerings for football fans through digital solutions which allow over 1.7 billion.

LaLiga supporters around the world to access digital products and services in a personalised manner," explained Jos during the presentation.

In addition, Marc Reguera, the customer engagement team lead for Microsoft's Power BI suite, complemented LaLiga's presentation with a demonstration representing social listening, which analyses what fans like, which teams are followed the most, which players are talked about the most, and in which countries the competition has a greater impact. This innovative tool will be available to LaLiga and its clubs to create products tailored to fans. For example, fans will be able to define their interests so that they only see relevant content and can easily view videos that suit their preferences or statistics relating to their favourite teams or players. What's more, they will also be able to make use of the various digital channels provided by LaLiga to share their passion with like-minded supporters, paving the way for the creation of interconnected global fan communities.