Jones claimed there had been around 3,000 attendees to the 2016 conference - more than 200 more than the 2,786 which gathered in Monte Carlo in October of last year.

Despite the growth in companies and delegates, there are a number of notable absentees, with major conglomerates such as Red Bull opting not to take a stand.

Jones, who has two decades worth of experience in the industry, believes this is not because of a lack of interest but claims it is due to the decisions of companies to attend as visitors rather than exhibitors.

This may bring about a change in layout and strategy for next year’s gathering of the sports media rights world, Jones said.

"We have to understand it but I wouldn’t say it is concerning as, in essence, it is not something we are doing wrong," the American told insidethegames here.

"The companies decide to do it and as a business convention we have to adapt to that.

"In future, we will have to react and redesign the main floor upstairs.

"We have some open spaces and the decisions of some companies not to have stands left some gaps.

"For next year, we will have to sit down and come up with a new and better floor design which works and flows better because it doesn’t flow anymore."

Jones also highlighted what he feels will be two of the main topics at SPORTELAmerica, due to take place in Miami from March 14 to 16.

The SPORTEL sales and marketing agent flagged e-sports and virtual reality as themes which he expects to dominate the event in the American city in six months’ time.

"I expect SPORTELAmerica to be really interesting because of the new technologies which are coming in now, especially virtual reality," Jones said.

"It is something that a lot of people have shown interest in and most of the virtual reality comes out of the US so this is something I expect to be very key to the next event.

"We expect more from that area to come to SPORTEL because virtual reality in sports is going to happen.

"Everyone is set up for gaming for sports and SPORTEL is the platform to sell that."

On the topic of e-sports, Jones added: "It has been there for a long time already but it broke down and disappeared – most of the networks and channels around gaming disappeared – but now it has a comeback.

"It is not something we are pushing but it is something that is naturally happening and of course we are going to accommodate them."