Case

Study: FootGolf Australia

Introduction
Leonardo (Leo) Fernandez was born and grew up in Argentina. After obtaining a
Ph.D. in Finance in Australia, he joined PricewaterhouseCoopers as a manager in
their Sydney-based Modelling and Analytics team in 2012. At about that time he
became aware of the emerging sport of FootGolf, while watching an Argentinian
television show called Esto es FootGolf (This is FootGolf). In the show, a journalist
would interview a professional football player every week, while they played a
game of FootGolf. Leo immediately realised that FootGolf offered a number of
opportunities.
1. It looked like a fun sport for people of all ages and abilities.
2. It was entirely unknown in Australia at the time.
3. Since it is played on existing golf courses, the game could be established in
Australia in partnership with golf clubs, and the start-up costs would be low.
Leo contacted Javier de Ancizar, who produced Esto es FootGolf and was the
President of the Federation for International FootGolf (FIFG) at the time, as well
as being the President of the Asociación Argentina de FootGolf (AAFG). He also
made contact with Roberto Balestrini, the current President of FIFG and the
founder of the American FootGolf League (AFGL). Following some negotiation,
Leo launched FootGolf Australia (FGA) in 2013. FGA is the governing body for
FootGolf in Australia, as well as the exclusive Australian member of FIFG and the
sole provider of FIFG-accredited FootGolf courses.

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The Game of FootGolf
FootGolf is similar to golf, except that it uses a #5 regulation football instead of a
golf ball, which players attempt to kick into a 52cm hole. It is played on a golf
course that has been modified for the game, with the first shot being taken from
a tee and players trying to reach the hole in the smallest number of shots, while
negotiating challenges such as bunkers and water hazards. The game is easy to
learn and (like golf) is generally played without a referee or umpire, relying
instead on the integrity of the players to adhere to the rules.

FootGolf can be played socially and competitively, and it attracts players ranging
from 10 to 60 years of age. Competitive players are typically football enthusiasts.
Social players come from a range of backgrounds, since the game is attractive to

Highlights from the 2016 Australian FootGolf Open:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2VGFDbPAxhA
family and school groups, as well as being a popular activity for birthday parties,
corporate events and other social occasions. While FootGolf and golf can be
played simultaneously on some courses, it is generally advisable to have
designated sessions for each sport. Many clubs have observed that their golf
members prefer to play earlier in the day, particularly on weekdays, which
leaves their courses virtually empty by the mid-afternoon. Afternoon FootGolf
sessions may thus be introduced at most clubs, with little inconvenience to their
golf players. Leo found that every golf club that offers FootGolf goes through a
learning curve in order to discover what times are most suitable for that activity.

Games similar to FootGolf have been played in the U.S. and Europe from the
1920s.1 In its current form, however, the sport dates back to 2008, when Michael
Jansen and Bas Korsten officially launched it in the Netherlands, and specified its
rules and uniform.2 Soon thereafter, FootGolf spread to Belgium and Hungary,
and was introduced in Argentina in 2010 and in the U.S. in 2011, among other
places.

FIFG was established in 2012, and currently has national affiliates in 37 member
countries.3 It aims to promote the sport at all levels and to establish and enforce
the rules and guidelines under which member organisations have agree to
abide.4 It also has the authority to raise funds for its activities, via fees, levies,
subscriptions, royalties, sponsorship arrangements and licensing agreements.
Roberto Balestrini is the current president of the organisation, and Leo is one of
the three additional board members.5 Among other things, FIFG has organised
two FootGolf World Cups, the most recent in Argentina in 2016, where 230
participants represented 26 member countries.6

1 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FootGolf
2 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FootGolf
3 http://www.fifg.org/about-FootGolf.html
4 http://www.fifg.org/members.html
5 http://www.fifg.org/about-FootGolf.html
6 Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FootGolf)

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FIFG recently sought membership of the Global Association of International
Sports Federations (GAISF). GAISF is the parent organisation for all international
sports federations (both Olympic and non-Olympic), as well as the organiser of
multi-sport games. In October 2017, GAISF announced that FIFG had been
awarded Observer Status—an important milestone in the development of
FootGolf.7 This is the first step towards full GAISF membership for FIFG, and
provides it with a pathway to World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) compliance,
and to recognition by various national Olympic committees and national sports
authorities. It will also help FIFG boost its global membership.

The Growth of FootGolf in the U.S. and the U.K.

For the purposes of strategic planning, Leo realised that he should pay attention
to the trajectory of FootGolf in the U.S. and the U.K., since both countries have
similar cultures and sporting preferences to Australia. There are round 10,000
golf courses in the U.S., of which approximately 550 currently offer FootGolf.
Since football is not a major sport in the U.S., the demand for FootGolf facilities is
rather limited. Consequently, the market for FootGolf in the U.S. is regarded as a
club-driven market, which means to say that some golf clubs offer FootGolf in
order to generate additional revenue, if doing so does not interfere with their
other activities.

By contrast, the demand for FootGolf facilities in the U.K. is quite high, due to the
enormous popularity of football there. The U.K. FootGolf market may thus be
described as a player-driven market, with many clubs offering FootGolf facilities
in response to local demand. As a result, around 250 of the approximately 2,500
golf courses in the U.K. are set up for FootGolf—about twice the fraction as in the
U.S. In fact, FootGolf has become so popular in the U.K. that some golf clubs have
abandoned golf altogether, devoting themselves exclusively to FootGolf, instead.
In addition, many U.K. golf clubs employ dedicated liaison staff, whose job is to
look after the needs of the club’s FootGolf players, by assisting with bookings and
club memberships, etc.

The Growth of FootGolf in Australia

Since Leo first introduced FootGolf to the Australian market, the number of golf
clubs that have contracted FGA to design and build FootGolf courses on their
sites as grown at an increasing pace. The following table lists the number of new
FootGolf courses built by FGA per year, over that period:

Year 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017
Number of New Courses 1 3 4 8 14

Based on his experience negotiating with golf clubs, Leo identified the following
reasons for the rapid growth of FootGolf in Australia:

7 http://www.fifg.org/news

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• Golf clubs are looking for innovative ways to introduce new people (and
especially young people) to their facilities.
• Golf clubs have learned that FootGolf does not interfere with their traditional
golfing activities, for the following reasons:
o FootGolf holes are placed far from the greens on golf courses.
o FootGolf holes are equipped hard covers, with synthetic turf on top, so
that golf carts can travel over them and they do not form artificial
traps for golf balls.
o Golf Australia (GA), the national governing body for golf in Australia,
has endorsed FGA, since they see FootGolf as a natural way of
attracting young people to the game of golf.
• The social nature of FootGolf is perfect for functions and entertainment:
o As a result of offering FootGolf, golf clubs are receiving increasing
numbers of large bookings for birthday parties, stag parties, corporate
events, team building exercises and school programs.
o The increased numbers of people visiting golf clubs to play FootGolf
socially also increases their revenues from food and beverage sales.
• FootGolf has increased the public profiles of many golf clubs, by bringing
them additional media attention:
o Each time FGA launches a new FootGolf course at a golf club, the local
media are invited to attend the event.
o Many golf clubs with FootGolf facilities have received positive media
attention from Getaway, the Sydney Weekender, Weekend Sunrise
and the Sydney Morning Herald.

The FootGolf Australia Business Model

Leo is currently the sole employee of FGA. Initially, he grew the sport by
approaching targeted golf clubs with proposals to modify their courses for
FootGolf. However, as golf clubs learned about the benefits of FootGolf, due to
the sport’s rapidly increasing popularity, Leo has begun to receive unsolicited
calls from clubs wanting to offer FootGolf.

FGA offers four packages to golf clubs (see Figure 1), each of which includes the
design of a certified FootGolf course. The packages differ in terms of what
accessories that are included. For example, the entry-level package includes only
the cups that line holes and the hole covers, while the most expensive package
includes the cups, the hole covers, flags, white flag sticks, direction signs and tee
markers. The following table gives a breakdown of the four options:

Package A B C D
Accreditation and Course Design $1,500 $1,500 $1,500 $1,500
Accessories $2,000 $2,300 $2,500 $3,300
Total $3,500 $3,800 $4,000 $4,800

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Figure 1: Pricing schedules for course development

Figure 2: Modification of a golf hole for FootGolf

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Leo does the course design and accreditation himself (see Figure 2 for an
example), in consultation with the club’s green-keeping staff and other
stakeholder representatives (e.g. the general manager and the golf captain). This
ensures delivery of the best possible FootGolf course that does not interfere with
the club’s golfing activities. The fee for accreditation and course design goes to
him, and covers his travel expenses and other costs. The accessories charge in
the schedule above is paid to a specialist sports equipment manufacturer that
FGA contracts to produce those items.

FGA derives on-going revenues from playing fees. Affiliated clubs charge a
standard fee of $15 per round of FootGolf, of which $1 is rebated to FGA. The
amount of FootGolf played at these clubs ranges between 40 and 350 rounds per
month. Some of this revenue is used to pay Leo’s salary, and the rest is
reinvested in FGA to fund marketing campaigns and FootGolf tournaments, etc.
Some FGA-affiliated clubs offer annual FootGolf memberships, for around $400
per year, of which 20% is paid to FGA. Players who buy annual memberships do
not incur per-round playing fees. Since these memberships are quite expensive,
Leo thinks they have limited potential—he estimates that no more than 1% of
FootGolf players are likely to purchase annual memberships from clubs.

Strategic Decisions
FootGolf is currently growing very quickly in Australia, but there are only about
1,500 golf clubs in the country. At what point will FGA have saturated the market
for FootGolf? That is to say, how many golf clubs are likely to be affiliated with
FGA in the long run? Moreover, how long will it take FGA to reach this steady-
state number of affiliated clubs? These are important questions for Leo to
answer as he decides on FGA’s future strategy.

An important issue confronting Leo is that his workload keeps increasing as he
signs up more clubs. At some point, it will be infeasible for him to run FGA on his
own, so he is thinking about hiring somebody to share the work. At what point
should he do this? In other words, how many additional clubs should FGA have
on its books before it can support an additional employee drawing a salary of say
$80,000 per year?

Another question for Leo to ponder is how to increase the FootGolf revenues
generated by member clubs? Since revenues increase if the clubs sell more
rounds, the question is how can Leo help them do this? Part of the answer may
lie in marketing, but Leo has realised that the clubs’ booking systems represent a
bottleneck. To some extent, this is due to the fact that FootGolf is a very new
sport, which means that golf clubs do not know how to attract new players and
do not understand the customer profile of FootGolf players.8

There is also the question of whether to pursue annual memberships. If it were
possible to get 5% of FootGolf players to buy annual memberships from their

8 In contrast to golf players, FootGolf players are often one-offs, or play the game

only a few times a year, and they frequently make large social bookings.

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local clubs, would it make sense to do so? What could FGA do to encourage
FootGolf players to buy club memberships?

Leo is keen to think of additional strategies for growing FootGolf in Australia and
for growing FGA’s revenues. Internationally, FootGolf is becoming very popular
among children. What strategies could FGA employ to grow FootGolf among
children in Australia? In this regard, the 2016 AusPlay: Participation Data for the
Sport Sector report provides some revealing data (see Figures 3 and 4).

Figure 3: Club sport participation for adults and children

Figure 4: Club sport participation for adults

Finally, once FIFG becomes a fully-fledged member of GAISF, there is a good

chance that FootGolf could become an Olympic sport. How could FGA benefit
from such a development?