Corinthians strike ten-year IBM stadium deal

Article posted by Coliseum, January 25^th, 2019

Image: Corinthians / IBM

Brazilian soccer giants Corinthians have signed a ten-year agreement with IBM to become the first South American team to utilize ‘360-degree digital technology’ as part of their stadium experience.

The partnership is part of plans to modernize the management of Corinthians Arena, the São Paulo-based club’s home ground, which will now use cloud technology and artificial intelligence (AI) to improve fan engagement.

The club have already registered 117,000 members of its fanbase to its new ‘Fiel Torcedor’ loyalty program, hosted on IBM Cloud, and hope to double entrants to the supporter platform in the next 18 months.

Luis Paulo Rosenberg, Corinthians’ marketing director, said that the move is key to creating a “new era of possibilities for the fans”.

“There will be one way to support before and a whole new way after this contract, which will allow unprecedented ways of immersion in the most loved club of Brazil,” he added.

Corinthians are also leveraging IBM’s AI technology platform, Watson, to help enhance the stadium experience, including the management of supporter data and ticket sales.

“The club has been pioneering and innovating to improve the experience, comfort, connectivity, engagement and communication of its fans in the games, in addition to expanding its opportunities of business and partnerships,” said Antonio Martins, IBM Brazil’s general manager.

“We are excited to be the partner of choice in leading a new era of soccer experience through AI, cloud, driving digital transformation through IBM Services in the Brazilian sport environment.”

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