Putting funding from the Olympic Games and Government sources to one side,  governing bodies which own the rights to events rely on ticket sales, media rights and sponsorship with a small contribution from the sale of licensed merchandise and hospitality.

But while the revenue streams may not have changed, the commercial environment in which rights owners operate certainly has. Over the years we have seen a continuing polarisation of commercial value throughout sport.

The major properties, such as the world’s most popular football leagues, top US sports, global series such as Formula One and mega sports events like the Olympic Games, vacuum-up rights fees and sponsor spend, leaving the majority of governing bodies pushing elephants upstairs to make ends meet.

Make no mistake, it’s tough out there but there are changes on the horizon which will create new commercial opportunities for all rights holders.

There is currently a major disconnect between the way that the world consumes media and the way that sports deals are done. While a relatively small number of major events still have the power to attract massive live TV audiences they are rare examples in a world which continues to migrate towards digital. 

Every study that is conducted underscores that, when it comes to watching and talking about sport, digital, and in particular social media, rules.

Even when they are watching broadcast TV coverage of sport, the majority of fans in most markets do so with a smartphone or laptop at hand, supplementing the experience by surfing additional sources of data and comment, watching clips from other games and discussing the action with friends. And this social and digital interaction starts before action commences and does not end with its conclusion, when TV sets are turned off. It is compelling and unceasing.

So here’s the thing. Audiences may be moving to digital to enjoy sport but sponsorship deals are still largely based on TV audience figures, consequently ignoring the value of engagement and exposure across social media. And that simply doesn’t make sense.

The problem is not that the theoretical value of social and digital media coverage isn’t understood by rights owners and sponsors, it’s that actually measuring coverage and engagement with any accuracy and then attaching a value to it has simply not been possible.  Such valuations as do exist tend to be arrived at on the basis of guesswork rather than science, robbing them of credibility or the ability to withstand rigorous analysis.

In business it is impossible to properly negotiate a deal if neither side has a real handle on the value of what they are discussing. But once the data is in place and figures attached, a new world of opportunity opens up.

This is particularly important for the majority of sports governing bodies which are unable to rely on significant and consistent television exposure to deliver rights fee revenue and the exposure which drives sponsorship.

But these same Federations are among those which have been - out of necessity – active in developing social media programmes to ensure that they are connected to and engaged with their global audiences. The issue they face is how to turn the engagement and reach they are achieving into new and sustainable revenues.

That’s something I have been working on for the last 18 months and every piece of research which my company, SnapRapid, has conducted using our bespoke technology, shows that there is a huge amount of value for sponsors which is simply not being understood or paid for. 

And it is happening right across sport. On one hand, we discovered that English Premier League teams delivered nearly $400 million (£280 million/€354 million) in additional sponsorship value across social media in the 2015-16 season, while in April/May, the FEI Classic Three Day Event in Kentucky generated $430,000 (£298,000/€380,000) of value for sponsors Rolex on social media alone.

The point is that even the smallest Federations are, effectively, sitting on value because they have been unable to articulate it to current or potential sponsors.

That’s important because understanding the real value of the social media engagement you generate for sponsors doesn’t only underscore and add negotiating muscle to existing relationships, it has the potential to open-up a sponsorship proposition to new brands in categories which might never before have considered involvement with a particular sport or event.

So while the sports industry may not have altered much over the last 50 years or so I can’t help feeling that this is a real game-changer. Being able to value visual social media exposure is not simply about the number of people who get to see a particular piece of video or a still image, it is about the levels of engagement with that content.

Being able to measure the reach and level of that engagement and to know what it is worth closes a major gap and eliminates the disconnect. Most importantly, it gives sports governing bodies the opportunity to better understand and maximise the value of the digital connectivity they have already invested-in significantly to create.