The Record - Issue 19: Winter 2020

82 www. t e c h n o l o g y r e c o r d . c om I NT E R V I EW C hatri Sityodtong, Chairman and CEO of ONE Championship, was not handed his success on a plate. In fact, it wasn’t too long ago when he considered calling it quits on what has now become Asia’s largest global sports media property. Sityodtong credits advancements in technology as a major reason that he persisted with his passion. “When I show statistics of all the key metrics – whether it’s viewership, social, digital, TV, live audience – people are blown away that ONE Championship is larger than Formula 1 today,” he says. “F1 was started 70 years ago and ONE Championship was started eight and a half years ago. “I had no idea that we would explode onto the global scene and become one of the world’s largest sports properties. But I will tell you – if you chart the rise of smartphones, social media and technology usage all over the world over the last seven years, you also chart the rise of ONE Championship.” In its first three years, the organisation was struggling. Receiving thousands of rejections every single day, it was going nowhere. “We were rejected by brands, broadcasters, agencies, fans, athletes, reporters and govern- ments,” Sityodtong explains. “At the end of year three, I called my mother and said, ‘it’s been so rough – I’m thinking about calling it quits.’ And she said, ‘OK, well, why don’t you just quit then?’ It would have been so easy to call it a day there. We had 114,000 video views for the whole year. Exactly five years later, we had 7.2 billion. And technology has played a major part in enabling that. “I have a genuine passion for martial arts; I love it. I was genuinely trying to unite four bil- lion people in Asia, but I think if we didn’t have technology it would have taken me 70 years to get to where we are now.” Sityodtong thinks that smartphones spe- cifically were a timely catalyst for ONE Championship’s success. “On a smartphone, you can’t see the golf ball during a game,” he says. “You can’t see the basket- ball or the football, but you can see two martial arts combatants fighting. And you don’t need to know the rules to know who wins and who loses. Our content happened to be perfect for mobile. Chatri Sityodtong from ONE Championship tells us how the rise of smartphones and other technology has driven the company’s success, and how Microsoft will play a key role going forward Reimagining the fan experience BY E L LY YAT E S - ROB E R T S