Fantasy Sports

• As social media engagement grew, fantasy sports also followed suit. In 2016, the Fantasy Sports Trade Association (FSTA) reported that an estimated 57.4 million people played in fantasy leagues. At the time, this represented nearly 20% of the United States population.
• The increased popularity of fantasy sports on social media also led to the emergence of fantasy draft sites. Notable examples include DraftKings and FanDuel.
• DraftKings uses the following social media tactics to promote its site: It holds contests and partners with sponsors; It gives its followers valuable advice.
• FanDuel uses the following tactics on social media: The company creates polls and asks questions; It embraces other current social media trends; It creates nostalgic experiences.

Case Study: Indus Games

• The Challenge: Indus Games, an Indian fantasy cricket platform, was launched in June 2017. The platform sought to achieve the following marketing goals: to become a leader in the Indian fantasy cricket segment; to brand itself and reach out to the appropriate target audience; to establish Indus Games as a leading brand and compete with the established players in the industry.
• The Solution: To achieve its aim, Indus Games launched a TVC advertisement campaign on a prominent Indian sports channel. This campaign was aired during a famous T20 International league. The brand then "created a posting schedule that matched real-life games [in order to] begin interaction with potential users on social media."
• Indus Games also created specific match related Ad campaigns, encouraging users to visit its website. This was accompanied with "an [influencer-driven] marketing campaign throughout the duration of IPL [Indian Premier League] and beyond, which accelerated registrations and enhanced brand visibility."
• Indus Games kept refining the target audience, creatives, and messaging very carefully to penetrate the market through social media campaigns.
• Also, email marketing campaigns were deployed based on player profiling. Users were targeted based on their website behavior.
• The platform collaborated with influencers in the cricket industry who could speak about its website. These influencers also encouraged their followers to register with Indus Games and play. To track their performance, Indus Games created a dedicated dashboard for these influencers.
• The Results: Within 18 months, Indus Games "went from 0 registrations to 2,04,000+ registrations." Nearly 40% of those registrations came through the efforts of online Influencers.
• The platform became "one of the [fastest-growing] fantasy cricket platforms in India."