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Liverpool top YouTube earnings table, Arsenal launch sign language service and Camp Nou becomes FIFA testing lab

Goal rounds up the top business stories of the week from Soccerex, including news that Liverpool is the highest-earning football club on YouTube, Arsenal launching a new service for deaf or hard of hearing fans and Barca's Camp Nou being used to test data monitoring.

Liverpool top YouTube earnings table

Liverpool are the highest earning football club on YouTube, according to new research.

Data was compiled by Livefootballtickets.com, which took YouTube’s top 20 ranked soccer-dedicated channels and assessed them via ecommerce company Sellfy’s own platform. The YouTube Money Calculator evaluates a channel’s potential earnings via Adsense revenue based on cost per thousand (CPM) – how much a partner pays per 1,000 views - and estimated earnings from selling merchandise, using Sellfy’s in-house data.

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Liverpool were the top-placed soccer club on the list, earning £513,000 ($663,940) a month.

The rankings show a spread between native platform accounts, such as F2, media outlets, clubs and rights holders. FIFATV is ranked fourth, bringing in £388,000 ($503,870) a month, one place ahead of Spanish giants Barcelona.

The rankings are evidence that subscribers do not guarantee income, with Sky Sports Football’s channel estimated to be generating more revenue from its 1.5 million subscribers than the official account of Barcelona, which has 8.15 million subscribers who generate a monthly £321,111 ($415,552) for the club.

In total, the top 20 features eight clubs, with Liverpool, Manchester City, Chelsea and Arsenal from the Premier League all in the top ten. Paris Saint-Germain are the only side from France’s Ligue 1 and Juventus, similarly, are the sole representatives from Serie A. However, there are no Bundesliga teams in the top 20.

Real Madrid are ranked in 12th place with 5.1 million subscribers generating more than £66,364 ($85,880) a month.

Arsenal aid deaf fans with new video service

Arsenal have launched a new service for deaf or hard of hearing fans that uses British Sign Language (BSL).

BSL supporters will now be able to liaise directly with the club from the Arsenal website via a video link to a fully qualified SignVideo BSL interpreter who will relay the conversation in real time to the club’s fan services team. 

SignVideo, a predominantly deaf-led organisation, provides their service to the British government, the NHS, local councils, UK banks, telecommunications providers, energy providers, helplines and many other types of organisations.

Users of the service will be able to make enquiries, book stadium tours, purchase tickets for both home and away games, as well as contact the Arsenal shop, disability liaison team or customer service helpline. 

Alun Francis, Arsenal’s Disability Access Officer, said: “We recognise that British Sign Language is most deaf people’s first language. As part of our Arsenal for Everyone programme we are committed to making our services as accessible as possible to everyone. This new service is part of this.” 

Arsenal celebrate 2019-20Getty Images

Camp Nou becomes FIFA testing lab for data monitoring

FIFA has turned Camp Nou into a testing ground for monitoring systems that collect data during games.

It is hoped that the tests will lead to more effective data tracking that can assist coaches with match preparation, aid player medical treatment and supply more insight to broadcasters.

The monitoring systems of 13 data tracking companies have been subjected to the tests, including Track160, Catapult, STATSports, and Fitogether. The trials, which have been carried out during October by researchers from Australia’s University of Victoria, were specifically focused on the positioning and speed of players.

The tests saw researchers set out a 30 by 30 metre area on the Camp Nou pitch and position ten cameras on each side. Sensors were then attached to the bodies of 30 participating students from the Barcelona Campus of the National Institute of Physical Education of Catalonia (INEFC), whose movements were tracked as they walked, jogged, sprinted and changed direction within the area.

Similar experiments had been held several months ago at the Liga outfit’s Miniestadi, which until recently served as the home for the club’s women’s side and reserve team, but were moved to Camp Nou to validate the tracking systems from larger stands.

The collaboration is being led by the Barca Innovation Hub, which was formed in 2017 to help incubate innovations that will have influence soccer from both a sporting and commercial perspective in the future.

Barcelona said the trials form part of their plans to transform the Nou Camp into a ‘sports experimentation and innovation laboratory’, with the stadium set to undergo a major revamp as part of the club’s Espai Barca renovation project.

It was also reported in March that Barca were looking to raise €100m (£86m/$111m) to start their own investment fund with a specific focus on trialling new technologies.

FIFA and Barca announced in November last year that they were teaming up to help clubs around the world better monitor their player data. Together they launched the Electronic Performance and Tracking Systems (EPTS), which allows clubs to exchange and compare information in a unified and standardised fashion.

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