Interview With Sree Varma CEO Of iSportconnect

Sree Varma is the CEO of the iSportconnect, launched in June 2010, iSportconnect has turned into one of the largest global private network of sports business executives. Last week, we took an opportunity to talk with Sree Varma, the Chief Executive Officer of iSportconnect, who provided us with invaluable insight into the company’s business and development plans and their most important projects on the horizon.

What was the idea behind starting iSportconnect?

After working as a publisher at Business F1 & SportsPro and as a consultant for Sport + Markt, I saw how everything was heading online and going digital and how important and beneficial it is to connect leaders in the sports industry to exchange knowledge and ideas. There was nothing out there like it, so in 2010 I launched iSportconnect. It’s become the largest global private network of sports business executives.

How do you think the platform benefits the sports industry?

We have a number of services in the portfolio of the iSportConnect ecosystem to engage and keep our members up to speed on the latest issues and trends in the sports industry. They include a daily news feed, online platform, regular and specialised events, summits and workshops. Members also benefit from iSportconnect Capital, our investor network, and iSportconnect TV, a world-first 24/7 OTT platform for the global sports family. We’re always looking to improve and constantly looking to innovate.

What are the challenges you have to face?

The changing landscape of sport throws up interesting challenges year after year. In some respects, sport lags behind a lot of other industries in the way it is sometimes slow to adopt new ideas and innovations. If you take the football industry alone, every year we witness the impact of short-term planning in the way clubs operate; it’s not sustainable. We’ve seen how some clubs have struggled financially. Football and other sports should not be afraid to draw lessons and implement ideas from other industries if they want to survive and thrive. So we have to stay on top of the trends and make sure we stage summits and events that focus on the big and topical issues. We aim to bring some blue-sky thinking, market intelligence and knowledge transfer to our events to inspire sports business executives to think in different ways.

Where do you see your brand in ten years?

Serving sports business professionals is at the heart of what we do – and that won’t change. We’re always looking to expand our offerings and services to our members. The sports world will be a very different place in 10 years’ time. For instance, partnerships and fan engagement programmes in sport will be revolutionized. Sports broadcasting will move to another level, impacting the way fans consume sport. We’ll be right there working with sports executives, adapting to the changes and helping them to maximise the opportunities. We will have more summits and activities in regional markets complementing our global events in the coming years.

Do you have plans for any other ventures as well?

We’re planning to create a private members club at a venue for the sports industry from 2020. Also coming is an iSportConnect Plus version of our package of services. This will target the next generation of sports leaders, as we have previously focused on C-level sports executives. I think it’s important to offer more quality content and events to the younger generation who are aspiring to be the movers and shakers of the sports business in years to come. Now we’ve launched our OTT platform iSportConnect TV, we’ll be ramping that up to offer a mix of exciting content to appeal to our growing membership.

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