Confidence is the currency that all entrepreneurs deal with, sometimes it’s the only asset they have when they start a venture. The belief that you can build something from nothing is a strong characteristic and a vital one for the challenging journey that lies ahead. It is this bedrock of confidence combined with a vision of a better future that epitomises entrepreneurship.

Dealing with setbacks is inevitable when starting a new venture, even the thought of that alone is enough to put most people off. Many who go down the lonely road will fall at the first or second hurdle, but it is those who get back up, never take no for an answer and brush themselves off, only to start again right where they fell down, who are the ones destined to make it to the top.

You either win, or you learn

It is a mindset shared among the elites of many professionals, the belief that you didn’t really lose, you just ran out of time, or another of my favourite anecdotes is that you either win, or learn.

An eternal optimism and self-efficacy that is unwavering when challenged, is what many young entrepreneurs lack. With the rise of social media platforms that have given everyone a direct to consumer platform and with angel investors willing to throw cash at ‘the next Uber of sandwiches’, the problems facing entrepreneurs have changed. It’s no longer what do you have as a business, but have YOU got IT as an individual. It’s becoming less about the horse and more about the jockey.

One of my favourite quotes is “Pressure can burst a pipe or make a diamond” with the notion that challenges will bring out the best in a person. The competitive and tenacious nature of business will filter out those not up to the challenge and therefore only the best will succeed.

Pressure can burst a pipe or make a diamond

It is not only confidence that is needed though. Conviction in your decisions and being able to appreciate the learning process are also necessary. You cannot stall and be indecisive about taking a risk when it comes to your business. The time you spend analysing and thinking about the potential challenges ahead is the same exact time that somebody else out there is using to get ahead of you.

Risks are meant to be taken. Rules are meant to be bent and not all blueprints have been written.

Be clear and logical, strategic and tactical when it comes to making decisions, but be hungry, dynamic, wildly ambitious and overtly confident in yourself and your game.

Think about the long-term vision rather than short-term gains and remember, the wolf that catches the prey is the one that never gave up.

Dear friends of the industry,

2016 has been another transformational year for not only our business but for the whole sport industry. At the beginning of 2016, we released our ‘digital trends’ whitepaper. Downloaded over 2,500 times, the whitepaper highlighted the most important areas for rights holders and brands to focus their marketing budgets for the year.

Across the nine topic areas that we covered at the start of the year, there was one that had cemented itself firmly by the end of it, Facebook. Not only the single largest social network, Facebook is now one of the most important platforms for driving measurable, commercial revenue. While many organisations wondered what the future was for businesses on Facebook after the debate around the level of organic reach that it offered, Facebook has transformed opinions by creating one of the greatest advertising products of all time.

Facebook, combined with our investment into Programmatic, has enabled agencies like ours to package up a cost-effective commercial offering, which includes a mix of digital strategy, data analysis, content production, campaign activations and digital media buying – to deliver repeated success across a range of different sports and to a wealth of leading rights holders and brands. 

  The Return. As a commercially driven business, we are proud to have delivered over 475,000 transactions, all tracked through our conversion pixels – generating millions in revenue in the process. 

 The Delivery. Our creative team have produced over 300 pieces of video content, over 2,200 visuals and our community managers have published tens of thousands of posts.

  The Engagement. Through our campaign activations and media campaigns, we have reached over 2bn people accumulatively across platforms and engaged almost 400m of them, maintaining an average engagement of above 20%.

Looking into 2017, we do so with a lot of excitement. That’s not just because the new Baywatch film is being released, but because it’s another year that we get to do what we love.

On behalf of the team at WePlay, I’d like to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. 

We’ll see you on the other side.

Luca Massaro
Chief Executive