Partner Article

New Sporting App Boosts Club Revenues

Sportego, the global fantasy sports developer platform, has launched into the UK market. Increasing revenue opportunities for sports clubs nationwide, Sportego aims to harness the consumer’s ever-growing demand for game based interaction and increased engagement; catapulting sports clubs to the forefront of the industry through added value for fans.

Founded in Ireland in 2014 by Trevor Keane, the company is aiming to grow its client base by 133% before the end of 2015. Recently receiving a surge in investment, Howzat Partners, original investors in trivago, European’s leading hotel comparison website, saw similar potential in Sportego and has matched its initial investment; propelling Sportego’s expansion throughout 2015.

Sportego is the first app developer globally to offer cash based fantasy football on individual Premier League games and is available on iPhone and Android devices. The white label applications help any club and league to enhance consumer participation, heighten brand awareness, while enabling data capture and increasing revenue potential. Standing out from its competition, its applications can be produced as standalone products or built into existing gamification suites.

Within the next two years the company has plans to grow from three to 10 employees with projected sales growth of 89% in the next three years. Propelling this growth forward, Sportego’s success is underpinned by the platform’s unique developmental abilities. This means it is more rounded than other products currently on the market, and is accommodating of all team sports, not just football.

“Outside football, the fantasy gaming options for fans are minimal,” states Trevor Keane the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Sportego. “Sportego enables fans belonging to professional sporting clubs, such as rugby and cricket to engage with their team, and for the clubs themselves to convert likes and tweets to bums on seats. Gamification is an invaluable way to capture fan data.”

“Match day interaction helps clubs truly engage with their fans and it has the power to make a positive impact on the brand’s bottom line,” continues Keane. “We work with clubs, facilitating education, so they can harness gamification to develop brand awareness and boost business rates. Sporting clubs need to recognise the benefits of fully-engaged fans in and out of the stadium.”

The fantasy gaming market is worth a staggering $70 billion worldwide[1] and Sportego is aiming to gain a large share of this. With 76% of UK sports’ fans already using a second screen when watching live events on TV[2], and 84% of 25-34 year olds in the UK owning a smartphone[3], the continued growth potential for gaming applications is vast. Sportego is aiming to lead the way in this area and since the fantasy sports market has a predicated growth rate of 10.32% (between 2014 and 2019)[4], demand seems to be ever-increasing.

Spearheading the fantasy games sector, Sportego is expanding the widely consumer engaging application market into other sporting arenas. Current clients include Munster GAA, Leinster GAA and the SSE Airtricity League of Ireland, who – following the implementation of their applications – are all seeing increased engagement with fans via gaming, and greater brand awareness and extra traffic to their site.

Sascha Hausmann, Howzat Partners, investor in Sportego comments, “Sports remain big business globally. We invested into Sportego because we saw a compelling business idea in a market that attracts large consumer groups. This paired with a sport passionate and driven team is the basis for great business success.”

Fanfeud by Sportego is a real-time pick five Fantasy sports app aimed solely at Fantasy Football lovers and is aiming to grow its user database with a project on Kickstarter, the world’s largest funding platform for creative projects, helping entrepreneurs raise the finance they need to grow. To invest in Fanfeud’s app project and find out additional information about the company visit here.

Sportego is continuing to attract investors, professional sporting business and fans alike – the big game, is about to get bigger.

[1] Forbes: The $70 Billion Fantasy Football Market, August 2013

[2] Second Screen Research “The White Space”, December 2013

[3] Smartphone ownership penetration in the United Kingdom, 2013-2014

[4] Global Fantasy Sports Market 2015-2019, January 2015

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Sportego .