En el fútbol de élite, la diferencia ya no se mide solo en el césped. La experiencia del aficionado, la eficiencia operativa o la capacidad de anticipar decisiones se juegan también en el terreno digital. En ese contexto, el Atlético de Madrid lleva años avanzando en una transformación tecnológica que sitúa al club entre los referentes europeos en innovación aplicada al deporte. 

La clave de esta evolución está en una idea clara: la tecnología no es un complemento, sino un eje estructural del modelo de negocio. “En nuestro club hay una apuesta clarísima por la inversión en tecnología desde el traslado al Riyadh Air Metropolitano”, explica René Abril Martín, director de Tecnología y Desarrollo Digital del Atlético de Madrid. 

Ese punto de inflexión marcó el inicio de una estrategia en la que lo digital pasó a formar parte de los objetivos cada temporada. “La inversión inicial en tecnología en el estadio y la intención del club, basada en que la experiencia digital también acompañara a nuestros aficionados y visitantes no solo en los partidos de fútbol, sino también en el resto de los eventos que alberga nuestro estadio, fue clave en aquel momento. Desde entonces, la tecnología y el desarrollo digital están presentes en nuestros objetivos de cada temporada”, señala. 

El “corazón del club”: el aficionado 

La estrategia tecnológica del Atlético de Madrid tiene una prioridad clara: el aficionado. “Todas nuestras prioridades giran en torno a su experiencia, que siempre debe de ser excelente. Son el corazón del Atlético de Madrid, y también nuestro motor de crecimiento”, explica Abril. 

Esa visión se combina con otras prioridades internas, como la eficiencia operativa, la seguridad de la red y el apoyo tecnológico a la estrategia ESG. “Actualmente estamos enfocados en reforzar la seguridad de la red, algo tan básico como clave. Todos nuestros servicios, tanto de experiencia de usuario como de empleado, corren por nuestra red multiservicio”, explica. En ese sentido, insiste en que la solidez de la red es un elemento crítico para sostener la experiencia digital. 

En esta nueva realidad, el dato se ha convertido en un activo fundamental. “La cantidad de datos que se generan diariamente en un club de élite es ingente. Toda interacción en un entorno digital genera datos, y el análisis de dichos datos nos ayuda a comprender mejor qué está ocurriendo y, por tanto, cómo mejorar aún más la experiencia”, añade. 

Del estadio inteligente al estadio conectado 

Durante los últimos años, muchos clubes han hablado del estadio inteligente. Sin embargo, Abril pone el foco en una capa previa. “A mí me gusta pensar que el estadio conectado es clave y un paso previo, porque se basa en la infraestructura”, afirma. 

Para el Atlético de Madrid, esa base es crítica en un entorno de alta densidad. “Sin una infraestructura bien diseñada, segura y con capacidades de escalar a las necesidades cada vez más altas de conectividad de servicios, esto es imposible de ejecutar en un recinto con más de 70.000 personas conectadas”, sostiene. 

Atlético de Madrid

La prioridad es clara y operativa: garantizar el rendimiento en los momentos críticos. “Nuestra prioridad número 1 es que nuestras redes puedan soportar esos picos de demanda. Que en esos momentos se asegure la conectividad de los usuarios finales y aficionados, pero también la de los servicios críticos, como staff, operaciones, food and beverage”, explica. “Todo lo demás viene después”. 

El Riyadh Air Metropolitano, una infraestructura preparada para una nueva etapa 

La evolución más visible de esta estrategia es el proyecto de modernización tecnológica del Riyadh Air Metropolitano junto a HPE Networking, que se desarrollará en dos fases durante las temporadas 2025/26 y 2026/27. Para el club, no se trata solo de actualizar tecnología. “Queremos ofrecer la mejor experiencia a nuestros aficionados. Sentimos que llevamos años ofreciendo unas comunicaciones óptimas en nuestro estadio, pero a la vez queremos incorporar todos los avances que la tecnología de redes ha traído desde su inauguración en 2017”, explica. 

Estos años han servido al club para detectar y planificar casos de uso que eran complicados de ejecutar con tecnología de hace 10 años y que ahora los equipos de HPE sí ofrecen. “La primera es el entendimiento de la red. Las herramientas de HPE Networking Central y la información que ofrecen a nuestros ingenieros y administradores es alucinante. Incluso las capacidades que nos trae la Inteligencia Artificial que incluye esta plataforma nos hará entender aspectos de la red que ni siquiera estaban en nuestros requerimientos originales, pero que van a ser cruciales para mejorar”. 

El despliegue contempla la renovación de la infraestructura inalámbrica con más de 1.500 puntos de acceso y la incorporación de tecnologías WiFi 6 y WiFi 7. “Nos van a ofrecer mucha más capacidad y estabilidad en un entorno con muchos dispositivos conectados simultáneamente. La reducción de latencia es otro de los beneficios que los aficionados van a disfrutar con el nuevo despliegue”, detalla Abril. Lo que se busca es mejorar la experiencia en tiempo real, especialmente en los momentos de mayor demanda. 

Para HPE, el enfoque es estructural. “Cuando abordamos la renovación tecnológica de un estadio como el Riyadh Air Metropolitano no hablamos únicamente de sustituir equipamiento, sino de rediseñar la infraestructura digital sobre la que se apoyará toda la experiencia del recinto en los próximos años”, señala Álvaro Morán, director de HPE Networking. Para ello, añade Morán, “incorpora capacidades de optimización automática mediante inteligencia artificial, analítica de presencia y eficiencia energética. En otras palabras, la red deja de ser un elemento pasivo para convertirse en un sistema vivo”. 

IA, datos y eficiencia operativa 

Uno de los ejes del proyecto es su capacidad para generar inteligencia operativa. “El despliegue aporta nuevas funcionalidades en dos aspectos claves para las operaciones: información y comunicación”, explica Abril. 

La red permitirá obtener datos sobre el comportamiento dentro del estadio. “Poder tener datos de la movilidad dentro del estadio y cómo los aficionados y el personal del club interactúan con nuestra infraestructura de red es muy valioso”, señala. 

Esa información se traduce en herramientas concretas. “Nuestro equipo interno de análisis de datos se encarga de transformar todos esos datos en cuadros de mando que son de grandísima utilidad tanto durante los eventos como tras finalizar estos”, explica. “Nos permite tomar decisiones mejor informadas”. 

La inteligencia artificial ya está integrada en ese ecosistema. “Los modelos basados en Inteligencia Artificial están incluidos prácticamente en cualquier tecnología, mejorando sustancialmente los procesos y la velocidad de respuesta”, afirma. 

El fútbol sigue estando en el césped 

Pese a la apuesta tecnológica, el Atlético de Madrid marca un límite claro. “Cualquier tecnología con la que contemos en el estadio o en el club no pretende redefinir la esencia de un partido”, afirma Abril. “Eso pasa en el césped, y todo el protagonismo está en el partido”. 

La tecnología, en cambio, actúa en el entorno. “Toda esa experiencia alrededor de ese momento especial que es el comienzo de un partido cada vez es más conectada”. 

Atlético de Madrid

Más allá del fútbol 

Pero este modelo no se queda solo en el deporte, sino que se extiende a otros eventos. “Nosotros somos fútbol, evidentemente, pero cada vez tiene más peso en nuestra actividad el uso de nuestras sedes para albergar cualquier tipo de evento multitudinario que necesite grandes espacios y en el que el uso de la tecnología sea diferencial”, explica. 

“Creo que esto último es una ventaja competitiva”, continúa.” Nadie quiere ir a un concierto si estar junto a otros 60.000 espectadores significa estar desconectado. Voy más allá, la experiencia en el concierto mejora si tienes la capacidad de compartir en directo lo que vives con la gente con la que quieres compartir esa emoción, o la de un gol que te da la victoria”. 

Aun así, el objetivo final no cambia. “Nuestro objetivo no está tanto en el papel que queremos jugar como club, sino en que aficionados, visitantes y profesionales tengan siempre la mejor experiencia”. 

Management for Germany’s record-holding football championship team aims to optimize processes and provide new digital services using AI. Here, CIO Michael Fichtner discusses what the club’s IT department has implemented, and what advantages they’ll bring to the company internally, and to fans around the world.

Why did FC Bayern migrate to SAP Cloud ERP Private?

Migrating to the cloud gives us access to innovation and other developments. Some SAP services are only available in the cloud environment, so these are now accessible to us. An important aspect was the simplified integration of other technologies or services predominantly or exclusively provided as cloud services.

Another important aspect was the realignment within IT. The migration allows us to focus more on process, application, and business innovation, and therefore on topics that’ll further develop and future-proof our company.

The use of highly available cloud infrastructures also provides us with additional security since in critical situations, we’ll benefit from professional backup and disaster recovery strategies. With all the dedication our employees have shown so far, this will be a further step toward professionalizing operations and further reducing risks.

In addition to security, scalability and flexibility are always important to us. Computing power, storage, and network resources can be scaled more quickly with a cloud provider. This is particularly significant in the frequent peak situations of our business model. For our projects, new systems like sandbox, test, and POC systems can be deployed faster and in a more standardized way, without requiring any investment or new equipment. Plus, security and compliance are becoming increasingly important for us. So migration allows us to leverage our partner’s established security features, and centrally managed access and authorization concepts simplify our operations. Certified data centers also directly support us to meet regulatory, association, and official requirements.

SAP’s strategy is consistently moving toward the cloud, and migration has allowed us to eliminate the risk of eventually having to rely on an outdated on-premise technology so we were able to eliminate legacy tech through migration as well as upgrade to modern, high-performance hardware.

How many applications or systems have been migrated to the cloud?

We migrated our multi-tiered SAP S/4HANA system. But before the migration, we worked together to consolidate our system landscape, merging 52 systems carrying fan data into S/4. There, the central fan database was established, the Golden Fan Record was built, and the data was combined into a redundancy-free, 360-degree view. So this approach was a significant milestone to implement our sovereign cloud strategy.

So we’ve only migrated one system physically, but in abstract terms, our phased approach allowed us to migrate data from all 52 systems to the cloud through consolidation, thus taking a big step toward controlled and consistent data sovereignty.

Which digital innovations does FC Bayern want to implement with the cloud?

Our business model is heavily influenced by peak situations like knockout phases in sporting competitions, live broadcasts, and special sales activities. In these situations, we need to not only scale technically, but provide innovative process solutions that reliably support peak loads.

Consider the short timeframes of ticket requests that must be processed during knockout stages. Or the launch of jerseys, where fans, even during peak periods, have the right to expect that goods will be delivered as quickly as possible. So in departments experiencing significant annual peaks in volume, it’s crucial employees receive highly automated support. Handling these seasonal peaks would otherwise be impossible.

We rely heavily on solutions supported by AI and digital agents, so developing them is always a joint initiative with our specialist departments.

What digital services and personalization strategies is FC Bayern planning to use to reach fans worldwide with the help of the new cloud platform?

Our aim is to address our fans in an individual, personalized way. The way forward is to move away from mass communication and large target groups or segments, and toward a personal approach, specifically tailored to the needs of each fan.

For this, we need the relevant data and ability to process large amounts of data in compliance with data protection regulations. This isn’t feasible without the appropriate infrastructure and scalability. We see personalized communication as a crucial element to remain relevant to our fans in the future. Mass mailings to fans via email, push notifications, or standardized content without specific relevance to the individual fan won’t help us remain attractive to them.

By providing targeted, relevant content, we want to further increase the attractiveness of FC Bayern Munich, and ensure the relationship with fans for the future.

What advantages do you expect from SAP Cloud ERP Private and AI?

A crucial factor in our decision to migrate was the conviction that we could significantly optimize our internal processes by using AI approaches. Specifically, we’re working on corresponding implementations in HR using SAP’s SuccessFactors and Concur. Initial approaches have also been developed and are being put in logistics and financial accounting. We expect this will allow us to increasingly automate more activities, freeing up colleagues in specialist departments to focus on specific tasks that require a particular approach or interaction. Ultimately, this will enable us to provide better service to fans as we gain time to address other issues.

What role did digital sovereignty or data sovereignty play in the decision to migrate to the SAP cloud?

Digital sovereignty, and control over our data and the data of our fans, have been of paramount importance for many years, and have guided our actions for just as long. Driven by this principle, we’ve developed and operated our key applications ourselves.

With the capabilities our partners have made available to us, we could implement these requirements in a sovereign cloud environment without compromising standards. So we’re confident we’ve not created any dependencies and will remain operational in the years to come. We’re convinced that the de facto and legal control of our critical data is sustainably ensured in our chosen setup.

Throughout his career, Sanjay Shringarpure has developed a reputation for doing what most technology leaders aspire to but few consistently achieve: using technology to reimagine what’s possible for companies and entire industries. He has successfully led transformation across multiple sectors and currently serves as CIO of The Freeman Company, a collective of brands that delivers complex live events, at scale.

Shringarpure is a master at the intangibles of leadership. In a recent episode of the Tech Whisperers podcast, we explored how he leverages those key differentiators — including his ability to see patterns early, move with healthy impatience, challenge people candidly but respectfully, and build belief in what’s possible — to become a true force multiplier for the companies where he’s worked.

After the episode wrapped, we spent some time exploring his playbook for reimagining and reinventing industries, a particularly timely conversation considering how fast things are moving today. In this Q&A, edited for length and clarity, Shringarpure shares how technology leaders can identify new opportunities, mobilize organizations around bold ideas, and turn innovation into real business impact.

Dan Roberts: What areas are you focusing on at The Freeman Company as you think about reinventing the experience itself, not just improving the technology behind it?

Sanjay Shringarpure: I’m primarily focused on three things: One, creating a digital experience through digital twinning. Two, simultaneously making sure the digital twin and the physical live event come together — through an ecommerce platform, from a purchasing perspective, execution perspective, all of that. And third, opening new avenues for efficiency and value driven by AI, whether that’s for insight generation or simply doing rote tasks better, or using Claude to rewrite applications that traditionally would be custom off-the-shelf applications that you’d buy.

Where AI code development is right now, we’re getting to a point where the barriers for custom software have dramatically disappeared. So the idea is, can I leverage this for the core competitive advantages that I have? For ecom platforms, demand engines, digital twinning, digital asset management — things that we can potentially build from scratch in weeks what would have taken nine or 10 months and millions of dollars previously. What we’re trying to figure right now is, how do you create that across our enterprise?

The Freeman Company is also at a unique point where the digital and the physical world are colliding, whether it be robotics, virtual events, virtual digital activations of customers who then translate into physical interactions, or vice versa. How do we create a technological foundation and a layer that accelerates that and makes it one seamless live event experience, even if it’s in the digital world?

There’s another component as well. Because of AI, the technological layer doesn’t have to be built for humans. That sounds a little bit weird, right? Everything we build in software today is because a human uses it. As agentic AI and synthetic capital start evolving, and synthetics start being built out, it’s synthetics talking to synthetics, avatars talking to avatars. You’re consuming the output of those interactions. When it comes to writing software, it needs to interact in that way. You can’t apply the same patterns that have been applied for the last 50 years.

How do you envision data and AI transforming the way events are designed, experienced, and measured in the years ahead?

In the age of AI, data is the currency; it’s how you measure value. And it’s not just raw data. It’s raw data plus context around that data — the data halo of context. Today, I think The Freeman Company is in that unique position to have all of this. We are now building out not just contextual capture across events through digital twinning, AI, and raw data coming in; we’re housing that inside our data lake, powered by Snowflake, and then applying AI models to generate insights out of that through my data analytics arm.

Is this going to be easy to achieve? No, because contextual data changes at speed. We’re hoping with the introduction of AI that speed will be handled and insights will be generated in a timely way for the action to be timely. It’s about how to compress data collection, insight generation, and action into days and weeks, rather than the months it takes today. Right now, what happens is the insight gets generated, then it takes forever for it to be actioned, and by the time it’s actioned, the insight is stale. You’re fighting last year’s war.

Do you see the industry evolving toward year-round experience platforms? What role will technology play in extending the value of events beyond the physical venue?

It would be easy to say everything’s going to be digital. But what I’m finding as I get into the industry more is that live events are becoming more important to every generation. The reason is, the digital has overtaken our day-to-day lives, and we crave the physical interaction, the experiential interaction. And we’re willing to pay more for that, because the value we get from that is crucial.

That is not to say we shouldn’t create simultaneous events for agents, or interaction for agents with the physical event. The folks who are going to win in this space are those who build the best physical, experiential events, layered with an interaction in the digital world. In the physical world, there are limitations. I can only attend so many booths, so many sessions, so many interactions. And yes, they’re now virtual, so I can record them and look at them. But by creating an agentic interface, you could have your agents attend all of these in real-time and provide you a day-to-day synopsis of how insights from every session can potentially be leveraged in your strategy.

This is probably sci-fi-ish right now, but I don’t think it’s that far away. The events company that can harness all of this together, and I think we’re well on our way to doing that, will have a moat and a competitive advantage and deliver incredible value to its customer base, whether it be associations, corporations, Major League Baseball and sporting events, whatever it is. The question is, how do we get there fast enough? I think the investments [CEO] Janet Dell has allowed us to make are getting us there. We just have to tell our story better, and we’re getting there.

Speaking of science fiction, just a few years ago concepts like digital twins of venues, AI-driven attendee journeys, immersive hybrid environments, and autonomous services sounded futuristic. Which emerging technologies do you believe will have the biggest impact on the future of experiences, and what is the new killer app that is going to completely disrupt this space?

I think what is going to disrupt the space is more foundational. One, I think custom software development at the speed of light that the AI has enabled will open new worlds we’ve never thought of. You’re not limited by your CRM or your ERP or your ecommerce engine anymore. You think it, it gets built within days, it gets moved to production within weeks. “Agile on steroids” is what AI has enabled.

Second, the killer app is the merger of the physical and the digital world together into a cadence of information flow to you to make decisions. It’s hard to envision that yet, because you go to a conference, association event, Major League Baseball event, or Cricket World Cup, and they give you an app. But they’re not merging your physical experience with the digital experience to a point where they’re now curating your journey. Today, they are point interactions. What would be ideal would be a curated journey that just knows you and knows what you like and helps you achieve your goals, whether it’s selling more of your product at CES, or making contacts at AWS, or generating a CMO network, or promoting what you’re trying to sell.

One of the themes you and I talk about often is the idea of being a “net giver” as a leader. Can you expand on what that means and how that mindset shaped the way you build teams and lead transformation, especially in high-stakes, fast-moving environments?

Servant leadership is a behavior I truly believe in. A true team can only be built when a leader focuses not just on business outcomes but on the development needs of each individual. Your success as a leader is ultimately amplified by the growth of your team. I make it a point to spend at least 30% of my one-on-one time focused on development plans, growth opportunities, and helping people stretch into what they’re capable of becoming.

But for me, this goes beyond traditional notions of servant leadership. Operating with a net giver mindset means investing in people without keeping score, creating opportunities before they’re asked for, and building belief in individuals sometimes before they see it in themselves. In high-stakes, fast-moving environments, you don’t have the luxury of carrying passengers; you need leaders at every level. That only happens when people feel genuinely supported, challenged, and trusted to step into bigger roles.

When you consistently show up this way, it creates a multiplier effect. Teams move faster because trust is already established. They take smarter risks because they know they’re backed. And they push beyond perceived limits because someone has invested in their growth along the way. In transformation, technology may set the direction, but it’s the development of people and the belief you instill in them that ultimately determines how far and how fast you can go.

During the podcast, you emphasized that the most effective CIOs don’t just deploy technology, they use it to redefine what’s possible for their organizations and industries. What advice would you give the next generation of CIOs who aspire to lead that kind of transformation?

First is make the investment of time in learning. You have to learn the patterns of the industry that you’re in, the give and take, the execution patterns, the way-we-make-money patterns. Then you have to apply a base philosophy of how you’re going to help the transformation. I start with, how do I want to organize my department? How do I create focus? Then I add the guiding principles of transparency, accountability, surprise and delight, all of those basic things — build that into cadences of interaction that create a self-fulfilling, virtuous cycle. And then rinse and repeat every week.

Build your network, but don’t build it at scale. Build your network incredibly choice-fully. Pick people who make you smarter. There’s a reason why I spend time with you or certain other folks. I’m very selective. You don’t see me out there at industry events at scale. I’m not networking every two minutes. Because I’m not looking for my next job. What I’m trying to do is build something great, and then the next job automatically comes. You don’t have to go find it; it finds you.

Focus on building. Focus on you. Focus on your team. Focus on driving value for the company. If you do it, the outside marketing happens by itself. And don’t try to chase the dollars. If you continually chase the dollars every three years, you’ll have two gigs, maybe three, and then you’re done.

I also think the crucible projects, crucible events, are important. You’ve got to run to them. Not, “Okay, I’m gonna do it.” No, you’ve got to create the craving for them. And be okay with the consequences. I’ve failed many times in my career, and it’s okay. You deal with a consequence, knowing that this isn’t forever, and your next win will wipe all that away.

Sanjay Shringarpure has developed a distinctive leadership playbook that has enabled him to thrive across multiple industries, building trust, unlocking belief, elevating teams to levels they didn’t think they could reach, and reinventing entire companies and industries in the process. For a true masterclass on the intangibles of leadership that matter, tune in to my conversation with Shringarpure on the Tech Whisperers podcast.