The Fan Experience Company

What The Fan Experience Company does

The Fan Experience Company, founded in 2005 by Mark Bradley and Ana Bradley, is a UK-based sport-sector consultancy that helps associations, leagues, and clubs improve the live fan experience and grow matchday attendances. It operates as the trading style of Mark Bradley Projects Ltd, is headquartered in Bradford/Wyke, and runs a lean team supplemented by senior advisers such as Director Darren Young (since 2017) and Nicole Allison (joined March 2025). The firm is best known for creating the EFL Family Excellence scheme — credited with a 45% increase in junior season ticket sales over ten seasons and six million additional under-12s attending EFL games — and was the first organisation in sport to introduce 'personal value' as a measurement framework.

The firm's core technology is a proprietary qualitative 'story-telling' assessment methodology, deployed at over 3,000 games across 19 countries since the first assessment at Swindon Town vs Boston United in September 2006, with more than 400 games assessed each season. Its service portfolio spans six interconnected areas: assessing the fan experience, developing organisational strategy, training matchday staff, designing fan engagement programmes, collecting qualitative and quantitative feedback, and communicating findings through narrative storytelling. Ancillary IP includes The Fan Experience EXPERIENCE podcast and an online Fan Engagement course authored for FC Barcelona Innovation Hub in 2020.

The business model is pure professional-services consultancy, with revenue derived from project-based assessments, strategy development, training workshops, and fan engagement programmes sold directly to sports organisations. Distribution is sales-led, with direct engagement of governing bodies (Football Association of Wales), leagues (EFL, Eredivisie, United Rugby Championship, Liga F, Danish Superliga, Premier League clubs), and marquee events (FIFA Qatar 2022). The company has no external institutional investment, no software or SaaS product, and pricing is not publicly disclosed. Marketing is content-driven, relying on a blog, podcast, social channels, industry speaking, and earned media in FC Business magazine.

Name

The Fan Experience Company

Legal name

The Fan Experience Company

Website

https://fanexperienceco.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

2005

Operating status

Operating

Short description

The Fan Experience Company is a UK sports-sector consultancy, founded in 2005, that delivers qualitative fan-experience assessments, strategy, training, and engagement programmes to associations, leagues, and clubs across football, rugby, and cricket in 19 countries.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Sports Fan Engagement Consultancy

NAICS

Management, Scientific, and Technical Consulting Services (5416), Sports Teams and Clubs (711211), Spectator Sports (7112), Other Spectator Sports (711219)

SIC

Services-Management Consulting Services (8742), Services-Amusement & Recreation Services (7900)

akta.pro primary industry

Sports Hospitality, VIP, Ticketing & Fan Experience Services (MPAKAKAG)

akta.pro secondary industries

Venue & Event Presentation (Game Presentation, In-Venue Entertainment) (MPAKAKAD), Customer Support, CRM & Fan Engagement for Ticketing (MPAGAJAI), Athletics Marketing, Communications & Fan Engagement (EDALAIAM)

Keywords

• Sports fan engagement consultancy
• Fan experience assessment
• Matchday experience strategy
• Sports club advisory services
• Supporter engagement research

Headquarters

HQ city

Wyke

HQ country

United Kingdom

HQ region

Europe

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Technology or R&D

Revenue model

1. Consultancy Services: Professional consultancy services including fan experience assessments, strategy development, staff training, and fan engagement programs for sports organizations.

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels1 record

Marketing channels5 records

Core offering

The Fan Experience Company is a specialist consultancy that helps sports associations, leagues, and clubs improve the live fan experience through qualitative match-day assessments, strategic development, staff training, fan engagement programmes, fan feedback research, and storytelling-based reporting. It sells six core service lines — assessing experience, developing strategy, inspiring staff, engaging fans, listening to fans, and telling the story — to football, rugby, and cricket organizations internationally.

Product overview

The Fan Experience Company offers a consulting and advisory services model rather than a software-as-a-service platform. Its core offering is a qualitative, storytelling-based fan experience assessment methodology, supplemented by strategic development, staff training, fan engagement programming, feedback research, and communication services. The portfolio spans six interconnected service areas — assessing the live fan experience, developing organizational strategy, inspiring and training staff, engaging fans through touch-point programs, collecting and analyzing feedback, and communicating findings through storytelling. Additional offerings include The Fan Experience EXPERIENCE Podcast and an online fan engagement course developed with FC Barcelona Innovation Hub. The company works with sports associations, leagues, and clubs across men's and women's football, rugby, and cricket at all levels internationally.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Fan Experience Assessment Services Qualitative storytelling-based fan experience assessments conducted at sports venues, covering the full match-day journey from pre-game through post-game, involving real fan observations and reporting. Sold to sports associations, leagues, and clubs seeking to understand the actual supporter experience at live events.
• Strategy Development Development of strategic frameworks for sports clubs, leagues, and associations to improve fan experience and drive attendance growth, advocacy, and retention. Sold to sports organizations looking to translate fan insight into a structured strategic plan.
• Staff Inspiration & Training Workshops and training programmes for match-day staff, stewards, and customer-facing personnel to elevate service standards and fan engagement. Sold to sports clubs and leagues seeking to upskill their match-day workforce.
• Fan Engagement Programmes Design and implementation of fan engagement initiatives and touch-point strategies to attract, retain, and grow fan bases across demographic segments. Sold to sports clubs, leagues, and associations.
• Fan Feedback & Research Collection and analysis of qualitative and quantitative fan feedback to identify experience gaps and improvement opportunities for sports organizations. Sold to sports organizations seeking independent research and benchmarking.
• Storytelling & Communication Narrative-driven reporting and communication strategies to tell the story of fan experience data, supporting organizational change and stakeholder buy-in. Sold to sports organizations needing to communicate findings and drive internal change.

Quantifiable outcome

• Created EFL Family Excellence scheme which led to 45% increase in junior season ticket sales over 10 seasons
• +2 more outcomes

Named customers15 records

Segments1 record

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature2 records

Scale indicators4 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Broad incumbents

• Deloitte Sports Business Group: Global professional services firm with a dedicated sports practice advising federations, leagues and clubs on commercial strategy, fan engagement and venue operations. Larger incumbent offering overlapping fan-experience work as part of a broader advisory portfolio.
• Bain & Company (Sports practice): Global strategy consultancy with a dedicated sports and fan engagement practice advising rights-holders on growth, ticketing and fan strategy. Broader, generalist consultancy competing at the top end of the same league-level mandates.
• KPMG (Global Sports Advisory): Big-four advisory firm with a global sports practice serving leagues, federations and clubs on commercial and operational strategy. Incumbent alternative for fan and matchday strategy work, particularly at the federation and governing-body level.

Emerging players

• InCrowd: UK sports fan engagement, data and rewards platform serving clubs and leagues. Comparable as an emerging digital-first player addressing the same fan-experience and CRM use cases the firm consults on.
• LiveStyled: Fan experience and stadium technology platform powering in-venue fan engagement, loyalty and rewards for sports organisations. Comparable as a digital, product-led emerging player in the fan experience value chain the firm advises on.
• StatsBomb: Sports analytics provider offering advanced data and fan/performance insights to clubs, leagues and federations. Comparable as an emerging data-led alternative that is increasingly used by the same buyers to inform fan and commercial decisions.

Direct peers

• Twenty First Group: Sports consumer research and fan intelligence firm (formerly ChyheaterH) providing data-driven fan and sponsorship insights to rights-holders. Comparable as an alternative supplier of fan-focused research and strategy to the same league and club buyers.
• The Sports Consultancy: London-headquartered consultancy advising sports organisations on strategy, commercial growth and fan engagement. Closely comparable service-line mix targeting federations, leagues and clubs across global sport.
• Two Circles: UK-based sports data, fan engagement and commercial strategy consultancy working with leagues, federations and rights-holders on fan experience and revenue growth. Directly comparable as a sports-business consultancy competing for the same league and federation mandates.
• BrandNew (sports marketing consultancy): Brand and fan engagement consultancy working with rights-holders and brands in sport. Comparable as a creative-led boutique competing for fan-experience strategy briefs from clubs and leagues.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/FanExperienceCo

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles4 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about The Fan Experience Company