Ever reminisce about those carefree summer vacations filled with endless games and laughter with friends? Long for the thrill of those intense matches that made you feel like a winner, no matter the outcome?

Playo is here to reignite that spark!

What is Playo?

Playo is your all-in-one sports companion designed to simplify the experience of playing sports. Whether you’re struggling to find players, book venues, or stay consistent with your fitness goals, Playo solves it all, making sports fun, accessible, and stress-free.

What Problems Does Playo Solve?

• Finding Players: It’s tough to find like-minded players, especially at your skill level.
• Booking Venues: Searching for the right venue can be time-consuming and expensive.
• Consistency in Sports: Many struggle to stay motivated and organized when pursuing their fitness or sporting goals.

How Playo Works for Users

Playo transforms these challenges with features tailored for every sports enthusiast:

1. Seamless Venue Discovery and Booking

• Browse and book from a wide range of sports venues—badminton courts, football turfs, tennis courts, cricket nets, and more.
• Access detailed venue information, including pricing, availability, and amenities, to make an informed choice.
• Book instantly through the app with secure and hassle-free payment options.

2. Personalized Matchmaking and PlayPals Community

• Use skill-based matchmaking to connect with players who match your level and interests
• Host games and invite others to join or find and join games hosted by other players near you
• Engage with a vibrant, growing community of sports lovers, making it easy to find new friends and teammates

3. Support for 30+ Sports

From mainstream sports like football, cricket, and badminton to niche activities like squash, table tennis, and ultimate frisbee—Playo has something for everyone. Whether you’re a beginner or a seasoned player, you’ll find your fit.

4. Weekly Goal Tracking and Insights

• Set personal goals for your fitness, skills, or sports engagement and monitor your progress.
• Insights on performance, participation trends, and milestones to stay motivated.

5. Affordable and Multi-City Access

• Enjoy pocket-friendly booking rates and group discounts to play more for less.
• Access venues and games across multiple cities

Playo Makes Sports Simple and Accessible:

• Convenient: Book. Play. Repeat. It’s that simple.
• Connected: Build lasting connections with like-minded sports enthusiasts.
• Comprehensive: All your sports needs in one place.

Join Playo today and experience a world where playing sports is effortless, fulfilling, and fun. Your next match, your next victory, and your next great connection are just a tap away.

Understanding our ICPs

Ideal customers of any product can be categorized in multiple ways. Here, we've highlighted three key ICPs for Playo-

Ayush - The Sporty Socialite

• Exercises regularly by going to the gym and playing badminton 2-3 times on weekdays
• Works hard at his job in the tech sector and keeps himself up-to-date by learning new skills from LinkedIn, YouTube
• To Ayush, sports are a way to have fun and de-stress after a hard day at work
• In his free time, he watches movies, videos, and sports documentaries on Netflix and YouTube, and his social media feed is filled with fitness-related reels and sports news
• Spends money on fitness (workout gear, gym subscriptions etc.), travel, and entertainment
• Loves socializing and spending time with his friends on the weekends - going to the movies, attending parties, and playing games
• Pain Points -
• • Difficulty in finding available and accessible badminton courts
  • Unable to find a consistent group of players
  • Friends/colleagues cancel games at the last minute

Neeraj - The Racquet-ready Enthusiast

• Prefers staying fit through engaging sports activities, rather than traditional gym workouts. Plays badminton 4-5 in a week to meet his fitness goals
• Avoids gym memberships due to high commitment in terms of time and money (as they require a 3/6 month membership) as well as the monotonous workout routines
• Dislikes the crowded atmosphere of gyms and values a more dynamic, personalized approach to fitness
• Apart from work, spends his time with his family, and likes watching movies on OTT platforms
• Spends his money on education, investments, shopping, and entertainment
• Pain Points:
• • Finding alternatives to the gym to stay fit
  • To track all sports activities (Games played, fitness goals, etc) in one place
  • Finding players to play with everyday
  • To be aware of games around his area

Shikha - The Social Butterfly

• Does not work out very regularly, but likes to play 1-2 times every 15 days with her friends
• Spends her free time watching movies on OTT, scrolling through Instagram, and pursuing her hobbies
• Spends money on traveling, entertainment, and exploring different restaurants every weekend
• Moderately active when it comes to fitness and sports
• Mostly likes to try out different activities with her friends, and doesn't prefer spending too much of her free time at home
• Pain Points:
• • To find activities to do with friends on a budget
  • Limited details about venues

Consumer Pain Points

🔴 Difficulty in finding available and accessible sports venues

🔴 Challenging to find players of the same skill-set to play with regularly

🔴 Unaware of games happening in the neighbourhood

🔴 Process of booking venues on call or offline is time-consuming and difficult

ICP Prioritization

Based on the above parameters, ICP 1 and ICP 2 should be prioritized -

• ICP 1
• • High adoption curve and tech-savvy - will quickly adapt to new features that are tailored to their use case
  • Frequency of app usage and value to the user is high - they like practicing and playing with different sets of people
• ICP 2
• • Value to the user and app usage is very high - they are meeting their fitness goals by regularly engaging in sports activities
  • High adoption curve

Current User Demographics

• The Playo user-base is male-dominated, with 70% of the users being men.
• Additionally, ~60% of Playo users are 18 - 34 years old.

How does Playo address the pain points faced by users?

As seen in the previous section, the main issues users face are - difficulties in finding players to play with, and discovering and booking sports venues.

Playo solves these problems with its core features as listed below. It also has additional features to increase user engagement and help users better realize its CVP.

Core Features -

• Booking Venues - Multiple venue options with different slots which can be booked in just a few steps
• Joining games - Join games hosted by other players simply by putting in a request
• Gametime - Join games hosted and organized by Playo
• Hosting games - Easily create and host matches that other players can join
• Community groups - Join groups to receive regular updates on the games happening around you
• Wide range of games - 30+ games to choose from

Additional Features and Offerings -

• Playpals - Keep in touch with people you play with
• Karma Points - In-app currency which can be redeemed while booking
• Personalization - Users can add their skill level (amateur, intermediate, etc.) helping other players to choose the level of games they want to join
• Weekly goal tracking - Link devices to measure and track activity
• Academies and trainers - Users can improve their games and learn new ones

What differentiates Playo from its competitors?

On speaking to multiple people, we’ve found that users prefer Playo and keep coming back to the app due to the following features -

• More venue options -
• • Multiple venues in different cities have tied up with Playo. This ensures that users can keep booking facilities and playing even if they shift locations.
• Strong sports community -
• • Users have highlighted that Playo has a strong community of sports enthusiasts, making is easy to find people to play with.
• Affordable prices -
• • Playo-hosted games cost as low as Rs. 50, making is very affordable for users to play.

These user reviews are also proof of how Playo has solved problems for sports lovers -

More user testimonials …

Now, summarizing the core value proposition of our product -

Playo Stats

• Average rating of 4.7 with 35k reviews in the Play Store.
• 2M+ registered users, with ~270k users visiting every month.
• Offers 100+ sports and has successfully connected 19M+ players.
• Operational in multiple countries

Understanding the Market

We’ve now understood what Playo has to offer, and how users are benefitting from it. User research showed that users prefer Playo over other products due to higher venue options, affordability, and a stronger sports community.

Let’s now deep-dive into the competitive landscape. Listing down the details of 2 other players in the market that Playo users have also used/heard of - Sporthood and Khelomore

• Sporthood: Community Sports App
• • Lesser number of sports available
  • Operational in only a few cities of South India
  • Although venues can be booked, it’s difficult to find players to play with
  • Only has 50K downloads from the Play Store

• KheloMore: Book sports venues
• • Offer venue booking services, not joining/hosting games. However, users can organize events/tournaments
  • Has its own store of sports equipment and apparel
  • Operational in multiple Indian cities
  • Wide variety of sports available

This table shows that Playo is doing well in terms of MAU compared to its competitors. However, there is a lot of scope to expand as is evident from the TAM calculation.

TAM, SAM and SOM Calculation

TAM

• Industry - Leisure Sports / Sports Infrastructure
• As of 2017, there were 15 Lakh+ sports facilities in India, with a market size of $20 Mn+. (Source)
• These facilities can be categorised as privately owned, govt owned, gymkhanas, schools, colleges, residential and corporate (Source)

Validating this number by user demographics -

• Upper middle-class size - 100 Mn households in India who can afford leisure sports (Source)
• Each household has at least one member aged between 6-60 years
• Avg. yearly spends on playing sports per person - Rs. 15000 (Source)
• Playo Commission - 2% of base price
• TAM - 100Mn * Rs. 15000 *2% = Rs.3000 Cr approx. ($375 Mn)

SAM

For calculating SAM, we will focus on Tier 1 and Tier 2 cities. A higher number of facilities will be available in Tier 1 and 2 due to higher demand. Tier 3 and beyond has lesser organized sports facilities. Also narrowing down on the age bracket of potential customers -

• Indian Population in Tier 1 and Tier 2 cities - 35-40%
• Age bracket 18 - 45 years - 45% (Source)
• SAM - Rs.3000 Cr * 35% * 45% = Rs.472 Cr ($59 Mn)

SOM

Here, the market share of Playo will be accounted for. The assumptions for this are listed below -

• As seen in the screenshot above, Playo is doing better in terms of MAU compared to it’s competitors
• Venues in tier 1 and tier 2 cities will be open to digitalization as it will increase their business and visibility. Hence, they’d like to be listed on Playo
• Based on these, Playo has the potential to capture at least 40% of the market
• SOM - Rs.472 Cr * 40% = Rs.189 Cr ($23.6 Mn)

Summarizing here -

Playo's Current Channel Distribution:

• More than 55% of the users are acquired via organic channels.
• 5% of users come via referrals - Playo gives 50 karma points to the successful referrers upon conversions, which can be re-deemed on the app

Acquisition Channel Comparison

In early-stage companies, we should experiment with different acquisition channels and then double down on what works best for us. Ideally, the channel should have low cost and effort, high flexibility, and high distribution potential.

Here, we will focus on improving the organic strategy, building effective content loops and the referral channel.

The reasoning behind the same has been highlighted below -

Organic:

• Low Cost and Sustainable: Organic channels like SEO, social media, and app store optimization have low upfront costs and will provide long-term traffic even with minimal investment.
• Scalability and trust: Organic strategies build credibility and can attract a large, consistent user base over time, especially since Playo has a strong WOM

Content Loops:

• Medium Effort, High Return: Once a content loop is established, the effort to maintain it reduces, but the benefits continue to grow as users generate and share content.
• Cost-Effective: Creating and promoting high-quality, user-generated, or shareable content requires less financial investment compared to paid channels
• Enhanced Engagement: Content loops not only attract new users but also keep existing ones engaged, increasing retention rates

Referral Program:

• Cost-Effective and Scalable: The referral program for Playo will be relatively low-cost, as rewards will be provided for successful acquisitions, and they can scale virally when each user brings in more users.
• High Trust and Retention: Users acquired through referrals are more likely to trust the product and stay engaged, driven by the social connections and credibility of personal recommendations.

Why Not Focus on Other Channels First?

• Paid Ads: While scalable and fast, paid ads will require higher effort to set up. Additionally, the reliance on paid channels isn’t sustainable without a large budget. We can explore this channel eventually, however for this assignment, I’ve not focused on the paid medium
• Product Integration: Integrations will require high upfront effort, higher cost and will be less flexible. At this stage, Playo should not focus on product integrations as organic and referral are better channels.

Organic Channel

Google Keywords

Currently, Playo’s keywords primarily target specific use cases, such as searching for courts and swimming pools, which are driving a significant portion of its traffic. This strategy is effective because competitor apps are not ranking as highly for these keywords, allowing Playo to capture more search visibility and attract relevant users.

However, we also need to incorporate keywords targeting our brand and competitors.

Current Keywords used by Playo and traffic generated -

Top Playo pages visited via SEO

Search Results of Top Keywords -

Improvement Suggestions:

• Expand Use-Case-Specific Keywords
• • Continue dominating niche use cases by identifying similar high-intent search terms for other sports and activities.
  • Use location-based modifiers to capture local search traffic (e.g., "tennis courts in Bangalore," "football turf near me").
  • Keyword Examples:
  • • "Indoor badminton courts near me"
    • "Book cricket nets in [city]"
    • "Swimming pools open today"
• Incorporate Brand Keywords
• • Build recognition by targeting branded searches, ensuring Playo is the top result for users looking for the app or its services.
  • Keyword Examples:
  • • "Playo sports booking app"
    • "Playo app reviews"
    • "Playo badminton court booking"
• Leverage Competitor Keywords
• • Target searches where users compare apps or look for alternatives, capturing undecided users in the discovery phase.
  • Keyword Examples:
  • • "Apps like Sporthood/Khelomore"
    • "Best app for booking sports venues"
    • "Sporthood/Khelomore alternatives"
• Focus on Informational Content
• • Create content that answers common queries or provides value to sports enthusiasts (e.g., "how to improve badminton skills," "top sports venues in [city]"), driving traffic through long-tail keywords.
  • Keyword Examples:
  • • "How to find players for football"
    • "Affordable sports venues in [city]"
    • "How to organize a badminton tournament"
• Optimize for Voice and Mobile Search
• • Use conversational keywords and phrases that mimic how users search verbally (e.g., "where can I book a cricket turf near me").

Play Store & App Store

Playo has an average rating of 4.7 with a total of ~40k reviews across the Play Store and App Store, which is more than its competitors Khelomore and Hudle.

As seen in the screenshots below, the content on the Play Store page can be improved, with more focus on the feature of booking venues. This can be called out by adding more visually appealing content.

Improvement Suggestions:

• Highlight Venue Booking as the Key Feature
• • Use clear, concise text in the app description emphasizing venue booking as a core functionality (e.g., "Easily book badminton courts, football turfs, and swimming pools near you in just a few taps!")
  • Include this feature prominently in the opening lines and bullet points of the app description to align with user search intent
• Revamp Visual Content
• • Instead of showing a video first, focus on showing well-designed, high-quality screenshots showcasing the booking process, available sports, and user benefits
  • Incorporate visuals highlighting unique features like skill-based matchmaking, PlayPals, and weekly goal tracking
• Optimize the App Description for SEO
• • Include target keywords such as “book sports venues,” “badminton courts near me,” and “sports booking app” in the description, title, and short description.
• Include Social Proof
• • Showcase achievements like “Loved by 40,000+ users” or “Top-rated sports app” in the screenshots or description.
  • Feature snippets of user testimonials to build trust.
• Localized Content
• • Create location-specific screenshots or text (e.g., “Find football turfs in Bangalore” or “Best badminton courts in Mumbai”) to appeal to different user demographics.

YouTube

Playo does not have a strong active presence on YouTube. As seen earlier, our ICPs spend a lot of time on social media, including YouTube. Hence, efforts should be made to optimize this channel. The videos are not optimised for YT search. The title and description needs to contain terms that are searched for. Video dimensions and quality is not optimised for YT. The videos are posted infrequently.

Improvement Suggestions:

• Content Strategy
• • Match Highlights: Showcase high-energy clips from user-organized matches or tournaments. Include commentary or captions to make them engaging.
  • Venue Spotlights: Create videos featuring newly launched venues, giving viewers a virtual tour and showcasing the facilities.
  • Sports Tips and Tricks: Post tutorials, strategies, or fitness tips relevant to the sports Playo supports, such as "How to Improve Your Badminton Smash" or "Dribbling Tricks for Football."
  • User Testimonials: Record players sharing their experiences with Playo, highlighting ease of booking, community building, and fun.
  • Seasonal Content: Tie video content to events or trends, such as “Best Summer Sports Venues in Bangalore” or “Top Fitness Tips for Winter.”
• Optimization for YouTube Search (SEO)
• • Titles: Use searchable, keyword-rich titles (e.g., "Top 5 Badminton Courts in Bangalore" or "How to Book a Football Turf in 3 Easy Steps").
  • Descriptions: Include detailed descriptions with keywords and timestamps for key video moments. Add links to Playo’s website or app.
  • Tags: Use a mix of specific and general tags, such as "sports booking app," "badminton tips," or "football grounds near me."
  • Thumbnails: Design eye-catching, professional thumbnails with bold text and vibrant colors to stand out in search results.
• Frequency and Consistency
• • Maintain a consistent posting schedule, such as 1-2 videos per week, to keep the audience engaged.
• Leverage YouTube Shorts
• • Create 15-60 second clips of match highlights, quick tips, or behind-the-scenes moments. Shorts are a great way to reach new audiences quickly.

Content Loops

Short videos on the app with cool tricks

​At Playo, we create short videos offering tips and techniques for various games, such as demonstrating the correct cricket stance or badminton serve. We encourage users to try these techniques and share the videos within their groups or with fellow athletes, inspiring others to practice and improve their skills.

💡 Hook - Users brag about exciting new moves they tried out during games; New players visit the platform to check out these videos resulting in higher traffic on the app

💡 Generator - Playo App

💡 Distributor - Playo users can share these videos with friends

Why will this work?

• Engaging and Shareable Content
• • Short, actionable videos provide immediate value, making them more likely to be shared among sports enthusiasts.
  • Techniques and tips tap into the users' desire to improve their skills, creating a natural incentive to share with friends and teammates.
• Bragging Rights and Social Proof
• • Users who successfully try new techniques gain social validation by sharing their progress, encouraging others to join the loop and explore the content themselves.
  • This creates a ripple effect, as the showcased skills inspire both existing and new users to engage with the platform.
• Continuous Content Cycle
• • New techniques and sports tips can be introduced regularly, ensuring the loop remains fresh and engaging, preventing content fatigue.
• Alignment with User Interests
• • Sports enthusiasts are naturally inclined to explore tips and tricks for their favorite games, ensuring high engagement with this type of content.
  • The loop keeps users returning to the app for fresh ideas and challenges, increasing retention.

Instagram Reels

With 90% of our users spending a lot of time on social media, we should improve our Instagram profile and reach. This can be done by increasing the frequency of posts, and making the content more appealing and engaging.

Collaboration with fitness influencers and coaches will also result in high awareness and reach.

Referral Program

A well-crafted referral strategy can significantly enhance Playo’s growth, as it aligns seamlessly with the app's core value of building a strong and vibrant sports community. Below, we’ve outlined the current referral program alongside a proposed revamped version designed to address its limitations and maximize its effectiveness.

What is bragworthy about Playo?

The accessibility and ease of booking all sports through one application. It makes life convenient for users by doing 3 things -

1. Finding and Booking Venues
2. Finding Players
3. Discovering New Sporting Communities

Current Referral Program

Referrer Flow -

Users can navigate to the ‘More’ section on the app to refer Playo to friends. They get 50 Karma points (App Currency) when their friend downloads the app using the referral link. These points can be redeemed on bookings and payments on the app.

Let’s deep-dive into the current flow -

Who can refer?

❌ Everyone can refer - there is no control or intervention in the flow specifically for asking users to refer

❌ AHA moments are not taken into consideration

How do they discover it?

✔️ Navigate to the ‘More’ section to find the ‘Invite and Earn’ option

Why and how do they refer?

❌ Although they earn 50 Karma points, the usability and importance of this currency is not highlighted

✔️ Multiple channels available to refer - WhatsApp, Email, SMS etc.

How will they track referrals?

❌ No dashboard to track all referrals, only the total referrals earned are shown

How will they keep referring?

❌ No additional incentives for referring more people

Referee Flow -

Referees click on the link, are taken to the website, click on the Download CTA and land on the Play Store page.

✔️ Referee gets 50 karma points on registration, and 25 after completing the profile

❌ Messaging is very vague - No information about Playo, and why should the user sign up and use it

❌ No clear and attractive landing page on the website to motivate the user to sign up

❌ Even after signing up, there isn’t a separate flow for referees to tell them about incentives

Suggested Revamped Referral Program

The current referral program can be improved by increasing visibility, and creating a better reward structure that motivates referrers to keep referring. A few changes have been suggested below to make this happen -

Referrers -

✔️ Only happy users who have experienced the CVP should be asked to refer

✔️ Here, only those users who have played one game successfully should be asked for referrals - this can be by booking venues, hosting or joining games

Discovery -

✔️ Visibility of the referral program should be increased. This can be done by multiple ways -

• In-app banner on the homepage after users have played one game
• Referral pop-up after user gives feedback on the first booking
• Current section of ‘Invite and Earn’ should also continue - but the incentives should be clearly mentioned

Incentives for the referrer and referee -

✔️ App Currency -

• Continue using Karma Points - Currently, these can be used to get 5% off on the base cost of each booking
• Allotment can be made progressively throughout the journey

✔️ Rewards for the referrer -

• When the referee signs up - 30 Karma Points allotted to the referrer
• When the referee successfully plays a game - 50 Karma Points allotted to the referrer. This will encourage referrers to push their friends to play.

✔️ Rewards for the referee -

• On sign up - 25 Karma points allotted
• On profile completion - 25 Karma points allotted
• On their first game - Discount of 10% on their first game, and 50 Karma points allotted after the game
• Of the 100 Karma points earned, only 5% can be redeemed on the first booking (along with the 10% discount), and 10% on the 2nd booking. After that, the usual construct will kick in (5% off on the base cost of each booking)
• This will encourage users to play 2 games, thus experiencing the CVP better

Sharing the message -

✔️ Multiple channels are available to refer - WhatsApp, Email, SMS etc.

✔️ Can add a CTA with the WhatsApp logo as this is the easiest and most-used channel

✔️ The messaging can be improved - Should include details like why Playo, the perks and rewards, focusing on the main features.

• • Sample 1:
    Hey! 🎉 Join me on Playo to book sports venues effortlessly and find players to team up with. It's perfect for staying active and meeting like-minded sports enthusiasts! Sign up through this link: [Insert Link] to get 10% off your first booking and earn up to 100 Karma Points. Let’s play! 🏀🏸⚽
  • Sample 2:
    Hey! 🎉 Have you tried Playo yet? It’s an awesome app where you can book sports venues seamlessly and connect with players nearby. Whether you’re into badminton, football, or tennis, it’s perfect for staying active and having fun! Sign up now through this link: [Insert Link] to enjoy 10% off your first booking and earn up to 100 Karma Points. Let’s hit the field together! 🏀⚽🏸
  • Sample 3:
    Hi there! 👋 If you love playing sports, you’ll love Playo! It helps you find players, book venues in just a few taps, and build your fitness routine around the sports you enjoy. Use this link to join: [Insert Link] and get 10% off your first booking plus earn up to 100 Karma Points. Let’s keep fit and have fun together! 🏸⚽🏀

How will they track referrals?

✔️ A dashboard with Karma points and the stages of the referees in their journey should be displayed

• Divide it into 3 buckets, with the number of users in each bucket -
• • • Referred
    • App Installed
    • Game played
• L1 page of each CTA will show the names of the referees, with a CTA to nudge those who haven’t done the action with a WhatsApp message

✔️ When the referrer sees the points added, they will start influencing the referees who have not entered the funnel

How will they keep referring?

✔️ Better incentives when they refer more people -

• 10 successful referrals - 30% off on their next booking
• 15 successful referrals - Play one match for free
• 25 successful referrals - Free goodies like shuttles, t-shirts, etc

Referee’s Onboarding Journey -

To improve the onboarding experience of the referee, there should be a landing page with a personalized welcome message and an indicator to redeem their rewards -

THE END! 🍻