The last dance of the Boe brothers, the coronation of Sturla Lægreid, the breathless duel between Franziska Preuss and Lou Jeanmonnot for the big globe... The biathlon season has once again punctuated the winter of millions of enthusiasts, what was seen in the audiences of broadcasters and on IBU platformsFar from resting on its laurels, the federation has recently announced several innovations, including the creation of a festival in Munich and the modification of the World Cup calendar by integrating races during the end-of-year holidays. Max Cobb, secretary general of the IBU, granted a long interview to Francs Jeux, the first part of which is devoted to the challenges and outlines of this strategy.
The IBU will launch the first edition of the Loop One Festival in October in Munich. What is the objective of this type of event?
The festival will allow us to advance several goals. The first is to bring biathlon to an urban environment for the very first time. The Munich metropolitan area has around 6 million inhabitants; biathlon has never been to such a densely populated place. This is very exciting for us! We want to make the sport more accessible to more people and attract a younger audience, those aged 18-34, but also children and families, who can come and experience the excitement of biathlon on site. The entire track, which is just over a kilometer long, is accessible free of charge. We will also give people the opportunity to try biathlon with optical or laser rifles, to be combined with running. This is part of our Biathlon4All programThis helps our clubs and federations to recruit, and it expands our fan base. If they try our sport, it will be easier to get them to love biathlon.
We commissioned a study of our Gen Z fans: why they love our sport, how they learned about it, etc. By talking to them, we can tailor our efforts to attract more young people. We are still at the data analysis stage, but one thing we can already take away is that when we ask them why they watch biathlon, the number one reason that comes up is that it's exciting. We are recognized as an exciting sport, where everything can change every time they step onto the shooting range. This is very encouraging because it means that we "only" have to expose our sport to people for them to join us as fans. I say "only," but it still requires some effort!
What is the average profile of the biathlon fan today?
It depends on which fans we're talking about. If you consider those who travel to competitions, the majority are between 25 and 50 years old. If you consider those who watch biathlon on television, the majority are over 50. We're not alone in this demographic. What's encouraging for us is that it remains relatively stable. But what we're most proud of is the gender balance: interest is similar for both men's and women's races. This balance is also reflected in our fans, as we have almost as many women following our competitions (47%) as men (53%). We sold 3.500 tickets for the Loop One Festival; the main stand is already sold out, and the majority of buyers are women; we're very proud of that. You don't necessarily see that in other sports, which are more male-dominated.
“The weekend before Christmas is when families are busy preparing for the holidays, shopping, etc. On the other hand, the following weekend is a better time to watch sports.”
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Another innovation on the calendar: a World Cup weekend during the end-of-year holidays, between the end of December and the beginning of January. Why is this time slot relevant for you?
We're trying to think of a way to adjust the schedule to reach as many fans as possible. We know from our research and experience with other sports that families gather and watch sports together between Christmas and New Year's Day. The weekend closest to New Year's is one of the busiest times of the year in terms of ratings. We expect a 20 to 40 percent increase in our audiences. As part of our Gen Z research, we asked young people how they started to watch biathlon. The majority said they watched biathlon as a family when they were little. And there's no better time to watch sports as a family than the weekend closest to New Year's. We hope this will help to further stimulate the younger generations.
Have the successes of English Boxing Day or the NFL influenced you?
Yes, of course, as are the World Junior Ice Hockey Championships, darts, and the Four Hills Tournament in ski jumping. It's a busy window, but one of our broadcasters in the Nordic countries reminded us of one thing: “Biathlon is the winter sport number one, you have to start acting like it!” And so be a little more aggressive (Laughter)Broadcasters have been asking us to think about this for years. We know that athletes also need time to train in December, so we decided to give them the weekend before Christmas. It's a controversial topic among athletes; honestly, they weren't very enthusiastic.
Since they weren't really on our side, we took our time to analyze things. We concluded that the weekend before Christmas is generally not a big sports weekend because families are busy preparing for the holidays, shopping, etc. On the other hand, the following weekend is more conducive to watching sports. So we made this decision, but we'll take it step by step: we'll test this formula twice over the next four years and assess the situation. If the increase in audiences isn't in line with our expectations, or if the teams find it too difficult to manage their training, we can change our approach.
"We are currently studying the possibility of an indoor simulation of our sport, combining a physical element with shooting."
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The IBU has also deployed a lot of effort to strengthen its digital presence. What is your approach to eSports?
We're at the very beginning in terms of gaming. This year, we launched the Biathlon eCup in collaboration with PowerPlay. It's an experiment, but we've seen a lot of interest from our fans, at a level we didn't expect. This encourages us to explore gaming solutions. We're the most followed winter sport, but our fans are mostly in Europe. To financially support the development of a great biathlon game, we would need a global fan base. We're not big enough to mobilize the necessary investments to create an exceptional biathlon game, but we still intend to offer something like this to our fans. Our research shows that young people would like to have a game they can play with their friends. Most of the time, their friends don't know about biathlon. If they want to talk about sports with their friends, they usually talk about football because it's universal. We're very interested in finding a way forward; we're working on developing a global game that can be played on phones.
Are the eSports Olympics in your plans?
We invited the president of the Norwegian eSports Federation to our Partner Summit, and we had some very interesting discussions. We could use existing gaming platforms to create a successful biathlon game. We're looking at the possibilities of using a physical biathlon simulation like Concept2's ergometer, which replicates the effort of cross-country skiing, and combining it with an existing target shooting game. Targets that aren't live, of course! We found this suggestion very relevant. Indoor rowing competitions use this concept. (Concept2 is a partner of the World Rowing Indoor Championships, editor's note)The ability to have a very precise measurement of the distance traveled is quite impressive. This opens up the possibility of an indoor simulation of our sport, with the combination of a physical element and shooting. We are currently studying the issue. We hope to find a good solution before 2027 so that we can participate.
Does it seem possible to you to be ready in just two years?
It's very close. The only way to get there is with the support of the eSports community. The president of the Norwegian Federation has shown a lot of enthusiasm, and she's part of the European eSports organization, so that's quite encouraging. Both of Concept2's founders are Olympic rowers, and three of their children are biathletes in their family, so they have an affinity for biathlon. If we can bring the eSports community and Concept2 together, then we might be able to find a fast track. If not, it will take longer.
