How digital transformation can boost sports like handball

On the day before the Maschinensucher EHF Finals 2025, more than 100 experts — from clubs, sponsors, media and agencies, across handball, basketball, ice hockey and volleyball — gathered to share their ideas and discuss the future, marked by one word: digitalisation.

The summit is the successor to the EHF European Handball Talks on the fringes of the TruckScout24 EHF FINAL4 in Cologne. In Hamburg, the event embraced other sports and spanned the entirety of the sports industry: from digitalisation to infrastructure, from ticketing to marketing, from content to access to younger generations.

The programme included panels, key notes and interactive discussion formats, and offered deep dives into strategies, market developments and best practice cases from across the sports landscape. 

Right at the start of the event, David Brody, vice-president and global partner management leader for the NBA, impressed the participants with numbers that are unbelievable for the handball community. Brody explained what global growth for the NBA means: 2.5 billion people all over the world follow the 21 NBA social media channels in eight languages on five platforms and the top basketball league is broadcast in 216 countries in 60 languages.

Particularly in Europe and the Middle East, interest is growing more and more. More than 115 NBA matches are held outside USA and Canada and the association has offices on all continents. Some 125 international players are part of NBA squads and, alongside the big US idols, are responsible for this extreme growth.

“It is not only about connecting people all over the world by basketball, but also to spread our culture. NBA is more than a sports league, we are fashion, films, TV, merchandise and many more,” said Brody.

“Our teams directly profit from our global partnerships. The number of global and regional NBA partners constantly increased in the last years.”

Brody said the story of success started in 1992, when for the first time NBA stars were part of the Olympic Games in Barcelona.

“Those games were a push for global basketball. In Europe, many talents wanted to be like Michael Jordan & co., which meant a huge number of new players and many new people who followed NBA basketball throughout the whole world.”

But what can European handball learn from NBA? David Szlezak, EHFM managing director, said efforts were being made to expand the handball community.

“Our main area is Europe, and in contrast to NBA, we have many competitions for men and women. And we equally treat both genders with our initiatives,” Szlezak said.

In terms of partners, Szlezak and EHFM focus more on hidden champions than on global players.

“The partnership must fit to European handball, like our title sponsor Maschinensucher or our long-term partner Gorenje,” he added.

A major step of development for EHF and EHFM was the production and distribution of digital content, for example by EHFTV, one of the world’s first OTT (over-the-top) streaming platforms from a sports federation.

“Of course, everything is different to the start 20 years ago, but this platform was integral for reaching new markets and more handball fans. Our major aim in all fields is an organic growth, with our club competitions and the national team events,” said Szlezak.

Establishing events such as the Maschinensucher EHF Finals or the EHF FINAL4 events in Cologne and Budapest were benchmarks for the development of European handball.

“Still, there is a lot of room for improvement, like for example in terms of infrastructure of arenas almost all over Europe, but we are on a good way to reach our goal to become the top indoor sport in Europe.

“Of course, we cannot compare ourselves with the NBA. But the commercial growth and general relevance of handball have reached new heights in the previous years,” underlined Szlezak, adding: “Handball is deeply rooted in Europe, but can also reach new target groups.”

Around 150 million people in Europe are interested in handball and three million consistently attend matches, meaning many more can be encouraged to attend matches or to follow handball content. Currently, EHF has 2.5 million followers on its various digital channels.

“In cooperation with our partner Infront, we are constantly working on our media and digital strategy,” explained Szlezak. He said countries like Great Britain, Italy or Portugal were potential growth markets, with a huge focus on Portugal, where the top teams are offshoots of major football clubs, the national team is performing well and there is a significant general interest in sports.

One of the round table topics at the SPOBIS summit also focused on handball and the story of one of the most successful clubs in Europe, four-time Champions League and four-time EHF Cup winners, record German champions and participants at the EHF Finals 2025, THW Kiel.

THW have been a symbol of tradition and success for more than 120 years, but are now entering a new phase in terms of marketing and brand development. With new managing director Alisa Türck — a digital innovation expert for more than 20 years — and supported by the agency Dragon Rouge, experts in corporate branding, THW for example will soon become the first handball club worldwide to stream a virtual reality handball match. They will also be the first handball club to be part of the Roblox platform, a virtual reality experience, mainly used by under-20s.

“Like for all companies, digital transformation is a major challenge for THW,” said Türck. “But by entering new paths we never forget our tradition, which is a huge core of our brand. Therefore, we are creating new business models, new digital activities and our merchandise line to connect tradition to modern time, to create an emotional bridge for our fans.”

The core element of Kiel’s new campaign is the long-term club mascot, the zebra, and its colours black and white, combined it with slogans like “united power”, pointing out the strengths of a zebra, mainly as it comes in a herd.

“Our fans are proud to be part of the zebra herd, therefore it fits perfectly as a design element,” said Türck.

Kiel’s experience and that of the NBA and other sports will certainly be digested after the SPOBIS Sports Club Summit by all delegates, with the aim of bringing handball and other sports to an ever-increasing audience.

Photos © Sasa Pahic Szabo / kolektiff