Artificial intelligence can boost fan engagement and bring revenue for companies in sports

Sports fans are no more just consumers of sports. They are now keen participants and want to virtually connect with the game. This is exactly the case of fantasy sports in India. All credit goes to the innovative application of artificial intelligence in the sports technology sector through which fans can not only watch their favourite game but also participate in it, build teams, bid, analyse and do much more. This trend has made sports fans a major consumer of data and its analysis.

Hence this relationship is increasingly being acknowledged and monetised by various companies. James McQuivey, the author of the book Digital Disruption, said: “Sports is a massive business that is barely beginning to experience digital transformation. The years ahead will be full of many opportunities to change the way sports are ‘delivered’ as an experience in the stadium, near the stadium, or at home, not to mention outside of actual game time. All of those innovations are digital.”

Potential for Brand Promos

There’s a huge potential for brand promotion during sports events where millions of fans gather at the stadium or are virtually present. Promotions at such events with a humungous footfall help the brand to exploit maximum viewership and create a buzz. And there aren’t just one or two means of promotion at big-ticket events.

The options are endless. The higher you pay, the more attention you get through promotional activities. Corporate companies are increasing their fan engagement programmes like contest, prediction, quiz, providing stats and so on. The end result is the creation of a fandom that looks forward to engagement and are keen on participation on their platform. This, in turn, becomes a perfect base for boosting sales among a specific target group. A recent trend on social media is the conduct of sports quiz programmes during an on-going sports event.

Questions are prepared from the day’s match and a lucky winner is chosen from the shared correct answers. During sports seasons, such as IPL in India, many startups run unique campaigns or have collaborations to make most of the enthusiasm among game lovers. This not only boosts fan engagement but also profits. During the previous IPL season, startups such as BookMyShow, Zomato and Swiggy conducted various fan engagement programmes that helped boost their sales.

One of the most recent and most successful methods of fan engagement is the fantasy league. Huge cash flows have been witnessed in the past, and it is only gaining momentum with every passing year. There’s a major chunk of sports fans who love information and stats on their favourite player or team from a particular match. Considering we already have the artificial intelligence technology that collects this data and processes them, we just need to ideate on creative ways to utilise this content for fan engagement and monetization.

Interesting Offers

Interesting offers add a twist. The more questions you answer, the better the offers or even freebies. Such campaigns drive fan engagement while boosting sales simultaneously. The recently concluded World Cup and IPL witnessed a lot of such campaigns.

During the World Cup, Uber had launched a fan engagement programme in which you either had to order food from Uber Eats or take a ride in the Uber cab to earn runs based of your quantity of order or the distance of the ride. Whenever the user scored 50 or 100 runs, they were awarded a free ticket for watching the match in the stadium. This fan engagement programme had witnessed humongous sales and rides for Uber.

Jeff Bezos, CEO, Amazon, says that the new model of sports business 4.0, as well as any other industry, as a function of sport experience 4.0, because the fan feels privileged, and aspires to be more and more, passing, from a simple user to becoming a member. The artificial intelligence transformation that is revolutionising the sports sector is getting bigger and better by the day. In this digital expansion the fans are pivotal, and hence, needs to be tapped effectively. The strategy of acquiring and expanding the fan base could be encapsulated as information >> activation >> interaction >> involvement >> monetisation.

Anto Binish Kaspar, Founder and CEO, Roanuz Software