European Professional Club Rugby (EPCR), the organisation responsible for Europe’s elite club rugby competitions, the Heineken Champions Cup and EPCR Challenge Cup, are joining forces with digital audience specialists Horizm to drive improved performance across EPCR’s digital channels for both fans and partners.
Headquartered in Lausanne, Switzerland, EPCR seek to provide outstanding rugby experiences for all key stakeholders involved, including leagues, clubs, players, match officials, unions, fans, broadcast and commercial partners, communities and the media.
With the current season of both the Heineken Champions Cup and EPCR Challenge Cup reaching its culminations of the Finals in Marseille on 27 and 28 May, EPCR’s digital channels provide a vital source of engagement and interaction for their different audiences. Through this new agreement, EPCR will now have access to Horizm’s AI-powered platform to help them better understand engagement across all digital channels and ensure optimised performance and maximum value for stakeholders.
Commenting on the new agreement, Jonny MacDonald, Commercial Manager, European Professional Club Rugby said:
“Social media is important part of how fans engage with our competitions so it’s vital that we have an accurate picture of what this engagement looks like. Horizm’s platform gives us a granular level understanding of our digital audience which will help us deliver more of what they want to see and ensure we are connecting our partners with our fans in a meaningful way.”
Sam Grimley, Global Head of Sales & Account Management, Horizm added:
“The Heineken Champions Cup and the EPCR Challenge Cup are the pinnacles of northern hemisphere club rugby; competitions that regularly produce titanic match ups and historic rugby moments and I am sure this year’s finals in Marseille will be no different. We are proud to be supporting EPCR as they look to hone the digital experience they offer their stakeholders, and the role it plays it supporting their commercial strategy.”
EPCR join a growing stable of elite rugby organisations who have chosen to work with Horizm including Gallagher Premiership sides Harlequins, Saracens and Bath Rugby.
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About EPCR
European Professional Club Rugby (EPCR) is the organiser of the Heineken Champions Cup and EPCR Challenge Cup. EPCR’s mission is to create outstanding rugby experiences for all key stakeholders, including leagues, clubs, players, match officials, unions, fans, broadcast and commercial partners, communities and the media.
Established in 2014 with headquarters in Lausanne, Switzerland, EPCR has the following members: Fédération Française de Rugby (FFR), Federazione Italiana Rugby (FIR), Irish Rugby Football Union (IRFU), Ligue Nationale de Rugby (LNR), Premier Rugby Ltd (PRL), PRO Rugby Championship DAC (URC), Rugby Football Union (RFU), Scottish Rugby Union (SRU) and Welsh Rugby Union (WRU).
The Heineken Champions Cup and EPCR Challenge Cup tournaments feature clubs which have qualified on merit from their respective domestic leagues – Gallagher Premiership Rugby, the TOP 14 and the United Rugby Championship.
About Horizm
Founded in 2019, Horizm was born with the goal of being the number one digital audience platform for the global sports and entertainment industries; to revolutionize the way rights holders and brands operate in our new digital era and fully support them across their digital asset life cycles.
Through their proprietary Marketplace, Horizm connects brands interested in reaching sports fans with rights holders looking for ways to better value and monetize their digital content. Horizm Marketplace aggregates over $1.5bn of digital inventory, offering brands a convenient and effective route to target customers through the highly engaged medium of sports content.
This inventory is accessed through contracted agreements which see Horizm leverage artificial intelligence to provide sports and entertainment with the complete toolkit needed to value, benchmark and monetize their digital audience engagement. Predicated on a more rigorous, more holistic approach to managing and selling digital inventory, one that is routed in understanding true market price, Horizm’s platform also enables rights holders, agencies and talent to drive more value for their partners and unlock new revenue streams from existing inventory.
Horizm is the chosen digital solution for leading football clubs such as Arsenal, Borussia Dortmund, Chelsea, Everton, Real Madrid, Juventus, Olympique Lyonnais, Benfica, Flamengo and Wolverhampton Wanderers along with the Portuguese Football Federation and other elite sports organisations such as Saracens, Cricket West Indies, Mumbai Indians, the FIVB, the FIH and the Australian Open.
Horizm. Digital Audiences Unlocked.
