Basketball and Rugby Legends Ginóbili and Gregan Join Advisory Board of Sportian, Globant’s Sports Division

Sportian Advisory Board will be led by NBA All Star Manu Ginóbili and Australian ex-rugby captain George Gregan, with a focus on how sport can improve fan engagement and athlete performance through technology, supporting the reinvention of the industry

[13th FEBRUARY, MADRID] - Sportian, the Sports & Entertainment Company from Globant, has announced the creation of the Sportian Advisory Board, a squad of legends and experts that will guide sports organizations through the benefits and applications of technology to support the continued growth and evolution of the industry.

The new Board will feature global sports icons Manu Ginóbili, the NBA All-Star, and George Gregan, Australian rugby captain and World Cup winner. As professional athletes and sports fans, they will introduce their vision of how team performance, athlete health, and the fan experience can be enhanced through technology. 

Manu Ginóbili is an NBA Hall-of-Famer, two-time All-Star and four-time league champion with the Spurs, and widely regarded as the greatest Latin American basketball player of all time. He currently works as a Special Advisor to Basketball Operations for the San Antonio Spurs and is a keen investor in new technologies.

“Advances in technology are revolutionizing the world of sports,  enabling athletes to achieve unprecedented levels of performance while enhancing fan engagement. Being passionate about both sports and technology, I’ve chosen to become a member of the Sportian Advisory Board to play a role in further enriching the industry’s excitement and appeal while at the same time continue my education on this transformation,” said Manu Ginóbili.

Over a 13-year professional career, George Gregan became captain of Australia’s international rugby team and the country’s record appearance maker, lifting the Webb Ellis Cup in 1999. He is now a successful entrepreneur and sports technology ambassador. 

George Gregan pointed out the potential for the advisory board to impact any sport: “Going digital starts with having a solid understanding of your fans, your teams and your playing space. The Sportian Advisory Board will be the resource for any competition to lay its challenges on the table and draw up a smart growth plan. I’m excited to form part of a team that wants to preserve sport as the number one entertainment source for future generations.”

For his part, Sportian CEO Alejandro Scannapieco said: “We are proud to work alongside Manu and George, two inspiring leaders who rose to the top of global sport and have a vision for the industry’s growth. Their experience will provide Sportian a unique angle to continue evolving our products & solutions for Sports & Entertainment organizations. I'm positive that their presence on the Sportian Advisory Board will help more organizations build an exciting future for sport and entertainment, powered by innovative technology.”

Martin Migoya, CEO and Co-founder of Globant, added: “Having a Board of Advisors led by sports legends is the perfect complement for Sportian's disruptive technology approach to such global passions as football, rugby, basketball, and many other sports. We can't wait to learn from Manu Ginóbili and George Gregan’s experiences and knowledge, and we will turn this into valuable and applicable insight for each of our clients.”

Through exclusive events and assessments, the Board will give sports organizations a chance to learn and discuss how new technology strategies impact commercial objectives. Recent developments by Sportian for its clients include superapps to connect fans with new experiences, growing direct-to-consumer strategies through streaming, collecting and applying match data to content, building smart venues and integrating AI tools to enhance competition management, broadcasting, and content creation, among others.  

Sportian’s range of clients includes organizations such as Major League Rugby, LA Clippers, The Wimbledon Championships and Belgium’s ProLeague, who are accelerating their digital transformation through Sportian technology. 

Sports organizations interested in exploring digital transformation initiatives with the Sportian Advisory Board should contact advisors@sportian.com.

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About SPORTIAN
Sportian is a provider of digital transformation solutions to the global sports and entertainment sector, powered by Globant and LALIGA. 

Sportian offers a unique ecosystem of products and solutions that help sports and entertainment entities to achieve growth by designing fan-centric strategies, adopting new business models and increasing global reach. Its enables the creation of digital assets like OTT platforms, webs and apps (Maker), smart venues, fantasy games, while its solutions combine AI, data, experience design and business strategy to revolutionise areas such as fan engagement, monetisation of digital assets, competition management, real-time data capture, content innovation and anti-piracy. This ecosystem has formed a central part of LALIGA since 2014 and is now used by a wide range of global sports competitions, broadcasters, federations and clubs to reach the next stage of their digital transformation.

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About Globant

We are a digitally native company that helps organizations reinvent themselves and unleash their potential. We are the

place where innovation, design, and engineering meet scale. 

• We have more than 27,500 employees and are present in 30 countries across 5 continents, working for companies like Google, Electronic Arts, and Santander, among others.
• We were named a Worldwide Leader in AI Services (2023) and Worldwide Leader in CX Improvement Services (2020) by IDC MarketScape report.
• We are the fastest-growing IT brand and the 5th strongest IT brand globally (2024), according to Brand Finance.
• We were also featured as a business case study at Harvard, MIT, and Stanford.
• We are active members of The Green Software Foundation (GSF) and the Cybersecurity Tech Accord.

Contact: pr@globant.com

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Sportian - Manu Gonóbili and George Gregan