Dentsu Launches Global Sports Analytics Division

Dentsu Sports International has launched a 'sports analytics' division, which brings together the research, data and analytics capabilities of MKTG Sports + Entertainment, Sponsorship Research International (SRi) and Dentsu-owned Merkle. The initiative is led by Glenn Lovett as Global MD.

From offices in North America, EMEA, and APAC, Dentsu Sports Analytics will deliver a global and local market offer across custom consumer research, syndicated fan and audience data, rights valuation, and measurement services. Dentsu says that while this offering was born out of MKTG and SRi, the addition of the resources of its customer experience and data analytics business Merkle, along with Dentsu's broader data and media analytics capabilities, the new division can provide sports and entertainment sponsors with a data set across more than 11,000 attributes for 268 million people in the US alone, while connecting with the group's global consumer and media data sets across 70 countries.

Lovett (pictured), who is based in New York, was previously Dentsu's Global MD, Sports Analytics, having joined the group in 2021 to advise Dentsu Sports/ MKTG on the merger and global expansion of their data and analytics agency, SRi and Merkle. Earlier in his career, Lovett was CEO of Nielsen Sports, having previously been President of sports measurement and intelligence provider Repucom, which was acquired by Nielsen in 2016.

MKTG Global CEO and DSI President, Matt Manning, said of the appointment: 'The launch of Dentsu Sports Analytics highlights the importance and demand for data to enhance our ability to accurately measure and analyse the true commercial benefits of a partnership. Given his extensive experience at Repucom/Nielsen and working in North America, EMEA and APAC, Glenn is the ideal candidate and a natural fit to accelerate our global analytics business in these regions.'

Web site: www.group.dentsu.com/en .