Can fantasy biz survive without social media?

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Permalink Reply by Jay Kemp on October 28, 2009 at 1:59pm

Not anymore! Trend has been developed and has set the standard. Social Media is exploding like mad. We are all attached/addicted to it.

Professional Athlete Self Promotion is the next advance that is growing. Fans get see into the minds of their favorite athletes. Sure, there's Twitter and some athletes on Facebook. But, they are getting their own websites now. It only used to be the high profile athletes, but the draft-elegibles are now going global. My company has been encountered about this for some time, due to my dediation and addiction to sports (not to mention our non-greedy, affordable pricing).

We are now partnering with a group that is starting an online, uncensored sports webshow.

The WWW is powerful!

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Permalink Reply by Joe Gill on October 28, 2009 at 2:11pm

I dont this fantasy sports could survive without social media. Speaking from personal experience, I get all my football information from tweets and facebook updates. Social media is now even more accessible and more current than info on websites.

Wow remember the days of watching sportscenter and reading the paper for player news?

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Permalink Reply by Tammy & Jeff Bowers on October 28, 2009 at 2:56pm

I agree and think its a great idea...I would even be in favor of them charging a nominal fee as long as i knew that it went to a non-profit...feeding the hungry, kids education, learning disabilities, even offering a variety of choices for the individual to choose where they would want their $5. to go to should they play...

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Permalink Reply by Frank Reed on October 28, 2009 at 4:19pm

It is likely to survive but those who thrive will embrace the social media aspect and get into the micro-transaction model that Scott mentioned.

I think that the real way to make these things work is a very low monthly / annual membership for a 'velvet rope' community within the community. This should not be positioned as premium content .... I don't think people like that idea because they feel like content should be free. What is important in the velvet rope delivery is a feeling of being 'special'. Online events / webinars, exclusive communities, special offers and then other opportunities to spend more to be more exclusive.

Honestly, I am not in the fantasy industry although I am a casual player who took this year off from football. There are highly impassioned people though who might find value here.

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Permalink Reply by Deven Nongbri on October 28, 2009 at 6:45pm

Aside from being a more socially-networked world, it's becoming an increasingly mobile world as well. The fantasy sports model is already there in terms of participants gathering news/stats on their players and keeping up with other participants. The fantasy sports leagues are ripe for monetization via any number of micro-transaction platforms - and now is as good a time as any to make a move. I think it'd be great if some of these mobile payment outfits like Obopay or MPOWER Mobile could power these transactions so people wouldn't be tied to their PCs for all their fantasy league needs.

Deven Nongbri
http://twitter.com/dnongbri

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Permalink Reply by Rick Wolf on October 29, 2009 at 12:15pm

Well, I think the question is a little dramatic. Asking if Fantasy Sports can survive without Social Networking is like asking if the game of Poker would survive without WSOP on TV. Social networks augment the game in the same way mobile/iTV/smartphone apps and other mediums do...and since Fantasy Sports was a social network before the Internet, I don't think that the adoption of the hobby onto Social Networks or the lack thereof will threaten the entire hobby and its enthusiasts. If you play fantasy sports and love it, you will play forever.

The boom of Fantasy Sports is amazing and without the Internet it would have been nothing. Most people will continue that immersive experience for years to come and add on the other methods to augment and enhance the experience not become the experience. As far as monetization goes, the hobby will exist forever and people on the Internet pay for things for three reasons: (1) Saves you time; (2) Saves you money; (3) Makes you happier - entertains you.

So, if companies decide to give away products and services that do those three things, they leave subscriber money on the table. One problem is that the free items become commoditized as soon as they are delivered free and are quality products. Then fantasy players' expectations are quality products that have great value propositions "should" be free.

This is never good for the companies that need subscriber revenue to thrive. What I think is really needed in Fantasy Sports industry is a re-energizing of the innovation that happened in the mid-late 90s. We added live scoring, sortable stats, matchup analysis and player news coverage on CBS SportsLine in the late 90s for my Midtown Maulers that rivaled that of the Miami Dolphins. That was the way that we designed it...why not? Content, personalization and interactivity always wins. We need some real innovation to take place again.

Social media is one platform for the still exploding hobby. Let's not make the cart more important than the horse.

Rick Wolf

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Permalink Reply by Pat Coyle on October 29, 2009 at 3:59pm

@ Rick...guilty as charge for writing a "dramatic" headline...gotta find a way to engage the experts! Thanks for sharing your perspective.

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Permalink Reply by Jay Kemp on October 30, 2009 at 5:49am

The bigger question is where is it going to go from here? Social media is here to stay. Fantasy football has only greatly increased the love of football. People are embracing player and teams more with the ever growing access to stats, insight, exposure to the sport. What is the next advance?

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Permalink Reply by David Langan on October 30, 2009 at 11:07am

Fantasy Sports were born the day two cavemen had an opinion on the outcome of a fight between two others. Anything that's been around that long doesn't "need" social networks to survive. Technology, from newspapers, telephones and now the internet, have simply aided and abetted the process of enjoining far-flung but like-minded individual communities. Technology has systematized and codified the act of simple prognostication, and has now commoditized what used to be a lucrative subscription business--the sharper edge of the digital media sword that has affected nearly every business's margins. Micropayments for ever-smaller slices of data, or for incremental service improvements are exactly why large companies who do make their money on massive ad sales and big sponsorships will continue commoditizing the industry; turning a competitor's profit center into your own loss-leader is probably as old as cavemen as well.

What the fantasy industry needs is a growing market-- difficult to create when the barriers to participation, let alone personal success, are time and knowledge. We're all maxed out on those. So perhaps one area of growth is in shorter, simpler games. Or games that apply to ever smaller affinities at a team or regional level, where parochial knowledge counts. That may help foment a larger market.

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Permalink Reply by Bob Gaudreau on November 2, 2009 at 9:48am

I read this article the other day with great interest as Scott Philp is truly a pioneer (10 plus years) in the Fantasy Sports Industry and for that I respect his opinion & thoughts! I became a Fantasy Football Player only because my son invited me to join his league 2 years ago and at 50+ I became attached to it's competitive gamesmanship! There's nothing better than GM reflection and criticism when it comes to self performance and I allow myself to win with dignity and lose with new strategy thought!

A few years ago this article would have meant nothing to me but 6 months ago I launched a pilot program geared at creating new business sales revenue and assisting non-profits with "New Economy Trends"! Although my interest was not targeted at "How to Monetize" Fantasy Sports, we in fact have found a way to do so! Because we are in the Golf Industry, I decided to focus our testing primarily on the PGA Tour and Fantasy Golf! Although the playing numbers vary dramatically for Fantasy Golf as compared to Fantasy Football, we have found a niche toward cracking Scott's belief in the "MICRO-TRANSACTIONAL" model, which includes player spending opportunities to purchase small packages, geared primarily at Major Golf Event Marketing!

I am happy to report that not only have we launched very successfully here in Tampa, but we have reached out to targeted professionals in many states through Social Networking to form strategic partnerships in 16 States. We are growing our new Fantasy Golf Brand and we are open to collaboration with anyone who would like to partner with us!

Bob

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