How Rugby Live Streaming Created New Revenue for French Club

"Video is becoming increasingly essential in monitoring players and supporting the club's game strategy. Until now, the various teams were autonomous when it came to video, and the club and the association lacked a unified approach or shared video resources," says Frédéric Julien, Veo coordinator at Colomiers Rugby Association.

Julien discovered this truth after implementing live streaming technology with his rugby club near Toulouse. The visual feedback and streaming capabilities transformed how the historic French club engaged with families and generated revenue. This challenges the assumption that amateur sports clubs can't create sustainable business models using modern technology.

Colomiers Rugby's quest for unified video strategy

Frédéric Julien serves as a volunteer Veo coordinator at Colomiers Rugby Association, a historic club founded in 1915 near Toulouse in southwestern France. His experience spans multiple levels of French rugby development and community engagement.

Colomiers Rugby Association operates as two entities, with the professional men's team managed separately while youth and women's teams are overseen by the club's association. The association operates independently with limited resources, reflecting the common structure in French rugby where amateur teams work within tight budget constraints.

This challenge reflects a broader issue in amateur sports: how to create unified video resources and engage families while generating sustainable revenue streams.

The struggle with fragmented video approaches

Before implementing live streaming, Julien's club struggled with inconsistent video coverage across different teams. "Finally, in an economically challenging context, the association was reflecting on new sources of revenue, either through donations or license fee increases, but always with the goal of providing added value to players and their families," he explains.

Traditional video methods left teams working in isolation without shared resources. Parents often couldn't attend away matches, particularly for important games like finals. "Last year's final for our Alamercery cadets in Châteauroux was a highlight. It was a final match, and many of the players' families could not travel," Julien recalls.

Without better streaming solutions, the club faced mounting pressure to increase fees while struggling to demonstrate clear value to families investing in youth rugby development.

How Veo's live streaming solved multiple problems

Julien learned about Veo through the French Rugby Federation's initiative distributing cameras to top U18 teams. "We had the opportunity to test a Veo camera, provided by the French Rugby Federation, with the help of Florian, our Veo contact. We tested live streaming during the final match of the French Play Down Championship for our Alamercery cadets in Châteauroux," he explains.

Veo's automatic streaming capabilities eliminated the technical complexity of manual video setup for coaches. "As for the coaches, they can rely on a Veo coordinator for each category, which relieves them of the technical aspects of video setup. They also have immediate access to the match recordings on the YouTube channel or the Veo platform right after the games," Julien notes.

The results were immediate and dramatic. "The broadcast was a success, with nearly 1,000 viewers watching live. This convinced us of the value of offering live-streamed matches to players and their families," he recalls. The club purchased four additional Veo cameras and developed a €20 annual subscription model, allowing families to watch matches from men's U21, U18, and U16 teams, plus women's U18 and U16 teams.

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