THE BUSINESS OF SA20: RENDANI RAMOVHA

As the biggest funder of sport on the continent, SuperSport’s investment into Betway SA20 was a key catalyst towards launching the inaugural season. As the second season looms, SuperSport CEO, Rendani Ramovha, believes the broadcaster and shareholder’s partnership with the League will be a gamechanger for cricket in the country.

How important is Betway SA20 as SuperSport’s larger content strategy?

It is quite key and big for us, even if you look at the January/February window that it falls into, it is key content for us. With the excitement we saw from Season 1, the focus for Season 2 is to continue to build up on that. 

Credit needs to go to SA20 for a phenomenal job in terms of positioning SA20 as that fan love, fan engagement, exciting cricket competition. As SuperSport we would like to tap into that. It is another opportunity for us to engage a younger audience as well and as always, over that period when there is a lot of cricket, I think it is an opportunity for us to have a deeper connection with the cricket fans.

How did SuperSport bring innovation to the first season of Betway SA20

Innovation is a big part of what we do at SuperSport. One of the things that we are constantly trying to drive is how we constantly become industry leaders by setting the tone of innovation. The way we approach SA20, in terms of partnerships and collaboration perspective, is innovative in an SA context. Our marketing and go-to market plan had one message, historically SuperSport would have a message and the different federations would have a different message. We all had one message because we have one objective and that was to be at the heart and soul of connecting with the fans.

How did SuperSport and SA20 evolve to meet the changing needs of the consumer and viewer?

We have seen a lot of shifts in terms of consumption interest, what is happening is people will watch the live product on TV but will also look for the second screen experience. The League gave us an opportunity to tap into an existing sport or cricket audience through our conventional method of broadcasting live sport, but it also gave us an opportunity to have different pockets of content that lives outside of the live, whether it be on digital or social. One of the key pillars was the use of content creators, they played a big role in terms of attracting a different audience of people that love entertainment and might not love sport, that was a good entry point to bringing them into the ecosystem, then the event itself converted them to then becoming SA20 or cricket fans.

What can fans expect for Season 2 of Betway SA20?

A big shout out to the SA20 team for putting on the show they did in Season 1, that in itself is phenomenal. I think there is quite a lot of pressure in terms of improving the benchmark for Season 2, but having the team that they have, I am more than confident that they will achieve it. SuperSport and MultiChoice fully backs them to pull off a successful second season.