Streamcent Develops Apps to Showcase African Sports Personalities

BY Emma Okonji

Streamcent, a digital platform which streams sports and entertainment videos and live shows with an African perspective but world-wide appeal, recently appointed Dr. Adrian Ogun as its Chairman.

Ogun’s appointment came in recognition of his experience as a promoter of past world heavy weight boxing champions Lennox Lewis and Corrie Sanders (in South Africa, UK and USA) will persuade international networks, such as ESPN, UFC, Showtime, BTSport and DAZN, to host in Nigeria a world championship title defense, featuring Nigerian world champions.

As companies compete to create the most desired user experiences, advances in technology are at the heart of their strategies. Combined with a great user experience, companies can harness technology and data to create a virtuous circle – one in which increasing consumer engagement and attention lead to the capture of more data and more insights into what users want.

This understanding enables companies to further target and engage their core audiences, opening up new opportunities to generate revenue. Nigeria with a 12.1% compound annual growth rate (albeit strongly influenced by surging spending on mobile internet access) will be the world’s fastest growing entertainment and media market over the coming five years (PwC Nigeria, 2020).

Streamcent will be offering in May three episodes (free of charge) of the Mixed Martial Arts(MMA) reality show ‘African Knock Outs’ (AKO show) via the Streamcent App. The AKO show attracted 17 million viewers last year across Africa.

Dr. Ogun was the last promoter to successfully host a world heavy weight championship fight in Africa, since ‘Rumble in the Jungle’ in 1974, featuring Muhammed Ali and George Foreman. In 2001, Adrian promoted a fight entitled ‘Thunder in Africa’ between former world heavyweight champions Lennox Lewis and Hasim Rahman in Johannesburg and was personally encouraged to do so by former amateur boxer and South African President, Nelson Mandela and local boxing partner Rodney Berman.

Commenting on his appointment, Ogun said, “Only last year, the founding member, director and progenitor of Streamcent, Mr Damola Akindilore, discussed with me the idea of a sports and entertainment streaming service with an African focus, but world-wide appeal and the type of sports and entertainment shows to target. I am eternally grateful to Damola and the rest of the board for placing their confidence in me as Chairman of Streamcent. I must also commend our General Manager, Sandra Oboh, who, following her appointment, has brought tremendous experience and youthful drive to Streamcent, based on her stellar roles in the US over the past decade with Bleacher Report, tru TV (both Turner media companies) and Wave TV.

“I have reached out to the UFC, at their headquarters in Las Vegas and expressed Streamcent’s serious interest in staging a UFC world title fight on the African Continent.

I hope to hear back from them after Karamu Usman’s UFC world title defense against Jorge Masvidal, this month on 24th April in Jacksonville, Florida.” Our proposal for hosting a world title fight in Africa includes the streaming of live shows in conjunction with UFC Fightpass and DSTV, at prices which are affordable to the masses of UFC fans across Africa.

“I know that Nigerian world champion fighters like, Kamaru Usman, Israel Adesanya and Anthony Joshua are eager to host at least one of their fights back home in Nigeria. What’s more, I know how to emulate international standards and how to adapt the Western pay per view fight model to be both profitable to foreign networks and affordable to the average Nigerian. Thereby, making the hosting a world title fight in Nigeria a feasible ‘win-win’ situation for: TV networks, combat organizations, the pugilists and more importantly adoring Nigerian fight fans”.

“Furthermore, when Floyd Mayweather Jnr. wanted to host his last and 50th fight on the African Continent, I was contacted by US TV networks to promote the fight on the African Continent because of my past experience in hosting as successful world title boxing show in South Africa. I am now bringing that international exposure to Streamcent”. Originally, Floyd Mayweather Jnr’s 50th fight was a rematch with Manny Pacquiao in South Africa but Floyld Mayweather Jnr’s desire to fight on the African continent was thwarted by boxing politics and he fought his last and 50th bout instead against the UFC boxing champion Conor McGregor, in a fight sanctioned by the CEO of UFC, Dana White, in the US.

“After the heavy weight UFC championship win by Francis Ngannou (of Cameroon) over Stipe Miocic (USA) on 27th March 2021, Francis declared at the post fight press conference that the UFC, with three current world champions (being Francis at Heavyweight (below 120kg), Israel Adesanya at middleweight (below 84 kg) and Kamaru Usma at welterweight (below 70kg) should seriously consider coming to Africa. “As three Champs, I think we deserve at least one event, open event to honour us,” added Francis Ngannou. To his credit, Dana White the CEO of UFC, has declared in the past that “I want to do a fight in Africa. There is a market there, it is real and we can and will do a fight there, I am planning for that right now”.

Currently, to view an Usman or Adesanya fight in Nigerian the cost of subscription is outside the budget of the average Nigerian. In Nigeria, approximately 1 percent of the population subscriber to cable/satellite sports channels that broadcast UFC world title fights in Nigeria, out of a population of over 200 million. Whereas, the Streamcent App. can connect with smart phones that account for up to 50% of the 170 mobile phone users in Nigeria, at less than one tenth the cost of cable/satellite subscriptions.

Dr. Ogun emphasizes “Our research reveals that mobile phone use in Africa shall double over the next five years to over 500 million phones and the majority of the increase in phone usage will be smart phones with streaming capabilities. So much money is being ‘left on the table’ by international sports promoters who continue to broadcast quality sporting content in an ‘analog fashion’ (using cable/satellite) instead of gravitating to a digital world where youths (who make up the majority of the African continent’s population) prefer to use mobile phones and other devices to stream sporting content.

“The outdated Western model for streaming sporting content requires adaptation for Africa. We, at Streamcen, have perfected how to engage interactively with fans, using local content to maximize revenues, in a way that international streaming companies have failed to do – ‘one size does not fit all’ – successful streaming of sports content in Africa requires a locally crafted and nuanced approach to fan engagement,” added Dr. Adrian Ogun.

Dr. Adrian Ogun has an economics degree from the London School of Economics (London University), a diploma, masters and doctorate degree in finance and corporate governance from the Wharton School (Penn. University USA) and Leeds Beckett University (UK). He started his career as a qualified Chartered Certified Accountant with Shell Oil and Price Waterhouse Coopers before diversifying into sports management and real estate development. Dr. Ogun is also Vice Chairman and co-founder (along with Chair: Paul Odili) of a 500 hectare housing estate in Abuja, called River Park.