Microsoft cloud enhances Real Madrid’s connection with fans

Spanish football club Real Madrid has partnered with the Microsoft Sports Digital Platform to create a new fan engagement solution which integrates digital services across all areas of the club, and is based on the Microsoft cloud and Office 365 platform.

Real Madrid has over 500 million fans globally. Of its 106 million Facebook fans, only three percent are in Spain. So the club turned to Microsoft to help fulfil its objective of reaching each supporter.

“We know our fans better than any other time in our history,” said Rafael De los Santos Navarro, head of digital strategy at Real Madrid. “We used to have a connection with fans only through the TV, but now, through Facebook, the website and the app, we have new channels and new opportunities. All of this information gives Real Madrid a real need to connect these channels and to gather information from them.”

As part of the new solution, the Real Madrid app provides fans with access to the latest news, scores, interviews and detailed stats from specific games.

The club can capture and securely store personal preferences, allowing the app to prioritise and display the content most relevant to each individual user.

For example, fans of a specific player can be presented with news about the player above other items. Supporters can also use the app to check in at the stadium, allowing them to use a personal QR code generated specifically for them, accessing in-stadium loyalty offers.

All aspects of Real Madrid’s fan engagement solution are captured and stored on Microsoft Azure, and displayed in an easy to understand format using Microsoft Power BI. A customised profile for each individual fan is created, showing their interests and engagement in an easily digestible format.

The club can tailor relevant promotions to its followers, providing them only with information that they’ll find relevant, such as a promotion on tickets if they happen to be in Madrid on holiday, for example. This allows Real Madrid to offer a genuinely useful service to its fans, increasing engagement and generating loyalty in the process.

Sebastián Lancestremère, general manager for Microsoft Digital in Sports, said: “Digital transformation is redefining the sports industry and shaping the fans’ consumption behaviour. These fans, the customers of our customers, have evolved how and where they consume content and entertain themselves.”

“We can create a one-to-one relationship with fans around the planet with the Microsoft solution, connecting this huge community of people and making the experience of being a supporter of Real Madrid much better,” said José Ángel Sánchez, CEO, Real Madrid.

“The Microsoft Azure platform is helping us rebuild and reinterpret our business in a way that makes it possible for us and our fans to do things that used to be impossible. It is really a complete disruption of the business model that football has had over the past 15 to 20 years.”