SharkWorks Commercial Pulse: Reporting Sponsors Actually Read
SharkWorks Commercial Pulse turns sponsor reporting from a scramble into a strategic dialogue, giving executives and partners the attribution they need to invest with conviction.
Esports sponsorship has outgrown vanity metrics. Partners now demand proof that jersey patches, analyst desk segments, and creator collaborations move the needle on awareness and revenue. Yet most organizations still stitch together screenshots, anecdotal highlights, and spreadsheet formulas every time a partner requests an update. Commercial Pulse delivers a unified system for automated attribution, executive storytelling, and timely decision-making. This is how leading franchises use it to keep sponsors engaged and renewals growing.
The Reporting Gap Hurting Esports Growth
Traditional sponsor reporting suffers from three chronic issues. First, marketing and competitive teams rarely share a data backbone. Activations are tracked separately from match performance, so the story loses context. Second, attribution often stops at social impressions and average minute audience—good indicators, but insufficient for partners evaluating seven-figure deals. Third, reporting cycles lag weeks behind reality. By the time a sponsor sees a deck, the campaign has moved on and opportunities to optimize are gone.
SharkWorks saw the fallout firsthand when Velocity Gaming’s commercial team had to justify a global electronics partner renewal. They spent eight days wrangling clips from broadcast partners, asking analysts for stat overlays, and trying to reconcile Shopify conversion data. The sponsor appreciated the hustle but ultimately trimmed the contract, citing limited clarity on return on investment. Commercial Pulse was built to ensure organizations never lose a deal because their reporting infrastructure could not keep pace with their ambitions.
SharkWorks documents the return on investment for every activation without waiting for quarterly recaps.
Automated Attribution Across Every Touchpoint
Commercial Pulse ingests signals from broadcast integrations, in-venue signage, digital content, ecommerce, and CRM platforms. The attribution layer aligns each touchpoint with the corresponding match, roster lineup, and audience segment. When Team Apex features a beverage partner during a pregame segment, the system maps the broadcast timestamp, the sponsor visual assets, and the concurrent viewer spike. If that segment drives traffic to a landing page or redemption code, Commercial Pulse attributes the conversion back to the original exposure.
Offline activations receive the same treatment. At the Horizon Invitational, Northern Lights hosted a meet-and-greet booth with their apparel partner. Using QR-based check-ins and CRM integration, SharkWorks tracked attendee engagement, linked the data to subsequent merchandise purchases, and updated the partner dashboard in real time. Sponsors finally saw the holistic impact of their investment instead of disjointed highlights.
Executive Dashboards Stakeholders Actually Read
Reporting must be consumable. Commercial Pulse distills the live data firehose into executive summaries that executives and partner leads can review in five minutes. Dashboards showcase performance against contractual KPIs, trending narratives, and the next actions SharkWorks recommends. A revenue leader can glance at the Commercial Pulse home screen and understand which activations are exceeding benchmarks, which need optimization, and where future inventory is available.
Sponsors get curated workspaces tailored to their objectives. Velocity Gaming’s financial services partner, for example, receives a dashboard that ties branded segment airtime to new account signups. The view highlights which regions converted best, the talent featured alongside their brand, and the social sentiment surrounding each activation. Instead of email chains, both sides align on shared metrics updated daily.
Playbooks for Timely Partner Conversations
Commercial Pulse pairs data with recommended actions. When attribution trends dip, the system nudges partner managers with talking points, creative refresh suggestions, and cross-promotion ideas. During the Midseason Clash, Team Apex noticed their telecommunications partner falling short on engagement. The playbook surfaced a co-stream opportunity with a popular analyst, complete with projected viewership lift and sponsor call-to-action placements. The partner signed off the same day, the activation went live before semifinals, and the resulting conversions exceeded the quarterly target by 18 percent.
SharkWorks also automates renewal timelines. Contract milestones trigger proactive reviews with historical performance slides, sentiment analysis, and forecasting. Executives walk into negotiations with evidence, not anecdotes. Northern Lights leveraged this feature to lock a multi-year extension with a logistics partner by showcasing how branded backstage tours correlated with merchandise sales and B2B leads. The sponsor renewed early, freeing the commercial team to pursue new categories instead of fighting for retention.
Designing Reports for Every Audience
Commercial leaders, marketing strategists, and sponsors consume information in different ways. Commercial Pulse adapts automatically. Executives receive high-level visualizations anchored by ROI, lifetime value, and funnel impact. Marketing teams dive into creative performance, content cadence, and audience segmentation. Sponsors toggle between campaign snapshots, activation-level drilldowns, and downloadable slides ready for board meetings.
The system’s storytelling engine weaves qualitative insight into the numbers. When Velocity Gaming’s automotive partner requested a recap of their Invitational showcase, Commercial Pulse delivered a narrative timeline: live reveal on stage, follow-up content drops, community Q&A, and the surge in test-drive signups. Quotes from players and fan reactions were automatically pulled from approved social feeds, making the report feel curated, not mechanical.
Accelerating Revenue Decisions
Ultimately, the goal is to help organizations move faster. Commercial Pulse alerts leadership when sponsorship inventory is underutilized, when media rights clips drive unexpected engagement, or when a particular campaign hits saturation. Executives no longer wait for month-end to adjust strategy. They can reallocate budget, adjust creative, or spin up new offers in the middle of a tournament.
For SharkWorks clients, this agility is a competitive advantage. Team Apex’s commercial leadership used real-time alerts to secure a pop-up activation with an energy drink partner after seeing a spike in late-night stream engagement. Northern Lights spun up a sponsor-funded content series within 48 hours when Commercial Pulse identified a soft spot in their Thursday schedule. Each action was backed by clear attribution, making approvals painless.
Sponsor relationships are strongest when both sides see the full picture. SharkWorks Commercial Pulse provides that shared view—automated, credible, and ready for executive rooms. Reporting stops being a retroactive chore and becomes a strategic asset that keeps partners renewing, fans engaged, and the organization’s growth engine humming.