Alan on how media organisations can leverage the Twenty3 Toolbox at Euro 2024
Spring is quickly turning to summer but the football season is showing no sign of slowing down.
Once the club campaign comes to a close, attention will swiftly switch to events in Germany, where the latest edition of the European Championship will be taking place – and it promises to be a hugely interesting tournament for a host of reasons.
Many people argue that, due to the tighter nature and the high concentration of elite players, the European Championship can actually often be of a higher standard than the more fabled World Cup.
From a personal perspective, I’m disappointed that the Republic of Ireland have failed to make the grade and will be watching Euro 2024 on television – although that’s something we’ve all become rather used to.
The teams I usually pay most attention to in international tournaments are Spain and Portugal, two countries that I have lived in and covered in a professional capacity during the last European Championship back in the summer of 2021.
It’s something I have fond memories of – the electric energy of the sinewy Spanish coach Luis Enrique, decked out in a black tee on the touchline, coupled with the raucous nature of the travelling Portuguese support as they travelled from city to city in their unsuccessful quest to retain the title they won in France back in 2016.
I no longer cover football as a journalist but that doesn’t mean that I’ve left the game – far from it.
My current role with Twenty3 is just as integral to the top-quality coverage surrounding high-ticket tournaments like Euro 2024 – and my experience as a football writer informs that opinion.
My pen may no longer be as sharp as it once was but I still get to experience firsthand the enthusiasm and excitement engendered by media organisations across broadcast, digital and betting when they fully understand the potential of the Twenty3 Toolbox.
I know for certain that access to such software would have made my life significantly easier as a working journalist during a tournament like Euro 2024.
The Twenty3 product enhances the storytelling capability of media outlets, helping them to put data at the forefront of their work in order to enrich content, elevate audience engagement and promote credibility.
But there’s more. This is a marriage of storytelling and speed. The Toolbox is well-suited to the fast-paced world of tournament football and is optimised to facilitate live content creation and relieve pressure on end users.
Its fundamental selling point is that it can help content creators produce top-drawer graphics and visualisations with lightning speed, and help those less initiated in the world of data to understand the power and necessity of advanced metrics in contemporary coverage of the beautiful game.
Imagine, for instance, you’re covering Spain’s opening fixture against Croatia in Berlin.
It’s approaching the hour mark and you’re keen to circulate a graphic on X that illustrates how Rodri is serving as the fulcrum of La Roja’s play and that Lamine Yamal is their key threat on the right flank.
Through the Toolbox you can easily – in a matter of seconds – produce graphics showcasing both of these things with violent clarity (for these examples I’m going to use recent performances of theirs for Manchester City and Barcelona).
That image can be uploaded to X, shared on Instagram or included in a live blog.
It’s of the highest calibre and takes no time or effort to make – which is handy because with 51 matches set to take place at this summer’s Euros, that’s a lot of graphics to produce! Only Twenty3 can arm content creators with such potent weapons.
The Toolbox also strips away reliance on others – such as a busy design team – and gives power to content creators themselves, resulting in increased autonomy, a streamlined workflow and, ultimately, more time spent on content and less on admin.
Back in my media days, I was a writer first and foremost – other arrows to my bow, like elements of graphic design and the weaponised use of heavy-duty data, were always secondary to my pen. That’s where the Toolbox would have proved an essential companion to my work.
What’s more, the deep customisation features available within the software ensures that every customer enjoys an experience – and an output – bespoke to their objectives.
Finally, the multilingual capability of the Toolbox enables users to operate in whatever language they need to without losing a step. As someone who was working in English, Spanish and Portuguese while moving amidst the ebb and flow of a major tournament, that would have helped me no end.
These are the reasons why many of the industry’s biggest hitters – from Sky Sports to William Hill – will be using output generated from the Twenty3 Toolbox as part of their coverage of events at Euro 2024.
If you’re interested in understanding more about our software, what we do as a business and whether our offering is right for you, don’t hesitate to get in touch with me by clicking the button below.