Product selected - Sportcafe(.)in

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A media product under Already Media's wings in which I am directly involved.

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Understanding the Product, User & Market

Product Overview

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SportsCafe is a website for people who love sports, especially cricket. It gives the latest sports news, quick updates about matches, and cool stats. Besides cricket, it talks about all Indian sports and big events like the Olympics and Commonwealth Games. SportsCafe is for serious sports fans who want clear and simple news and updates.

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Additionally, it provides statistics-backed match predictions with detailed previews and analysis for a secluded audience, which they can copy and place via the affiliate partners available on the website.

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User Overview

After having a conversation with a few people, I identified four distinct types of users:

1. A Sports fanatic
2. A Regular fan
3. A superfan
4. A Casual fan

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ICP prioritization

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Going ahead with ICP 1 & 2
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Product category

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Sports Cafe finds itself in the media market, facing off against well-known traditional brands like NDTV, Times of India, Hindustan Times and newer digital players like ESPNcricinfo and Cricbuzz.

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Competitors

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Product Comparison

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Market Sizing

Total Addressable Market

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-Total population of India: 1.42 Billion

-Cricket fans: 900 million

-Smartphone users: 600 million

-English proficient: 265 million

-Population above 18 of 265m: 200 Million

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-Total addressable population: 200 Million

TAM for Media business

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-Avergae revenue per user: $9.65

-TAM = 200 Million X $9.65 =$1.9Billion

TAM for affiliate business

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-Average revenue per user: ~$50

-TAM= 200 Million X $50 = $10 Billion

Serviceable Addressable Market

-Male population in top 10 Indian cities: 62,331,786
-Female population in top 10 Indian cities: 64,475,794
-Males vs. Females following sports ratio: 9:1
-Addressable population = 56Million males + 6.5Million females= 62.5 Million

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-88% of this population can read and understand English which equals 55 million

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-Assumption: Around 20% of the population is ICP 1 and 80 % is ICP 2

Therefore,

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Marketing Pitch​

• The core value proposition for ICP 2 > Make a stat-backed decision (For betting/Fantasy)

• The Core value proposition for ICP 1 > Be the 1st one to watch in-match viral content

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🤝 Building Acquisition channels​

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Acquisition via Product Integration

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One product that was very common among the ICPs was Dream11 or a similar fantasy app. Even casual fans had the app but weren't aware to make the best team.

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In this experiment, SportsCafe will integrate its statistic-backed guides and previews directly into fantasy.

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Taking a conservative approach:

New users in months 1,2 & 3 will depend on the cricket cycle if month one falls within IPL the new users will be very high in comparison to a month like August when cricket slows down.

**Assumption: Dream11 has 210 Million+ users and only 25% read or click on the view analysis button.

How does the user make a team currently?

• Users currently rely on self-proclaimed cricket experts for fantasy tips and advice. These tips are often informal, not stat-based and lack proper vetting. Either you are lucky or you will lose money

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How does it help Dream11?​

1. Help showcase that they care about them and want them to win big.
2. Improve competition joining rate

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How does Dream11 currently solve this?​

1. By providing guru teams which people can straight up copy
2. By providing a few match-related stats

How can Sportscafe solve it?​

• By providing in-depth data along with analysis & preview that can be read on the app itself for an affiliate fee or website traffic.

Benefits for both parties :

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Likely customer journey post-integration

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• For a new user:

User logins > Clicks on the 1st banner > goes through the rules > reads player list > attempts making a team > sees "check analysis" option > clicks on the option > reads through it > follows the analysis & makes the team > adds money to the wallet > Joins a contest

• For an active user

The user opens the app > Clicks on the match banner > Sees the analysis tab > Reads it > corrects himself while making a team > completes his team selection > checks his wallet > adds money > joins the competition

Potential button placements

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When the user clicks on the button, they will see the article within the app like this:

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This entire integration can also be done for a betting website using the same principles and the landing page could look like this:

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• The individual will be taken to Sportscafe, where he can decide which bets to make.

Getting fantasy right is crucial for paving the way to success on betting websites.

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Why: Fantasy sports, with their widespread popularity, serve as an excellent introduction for anyone looking to profit from sports. Making informed decisions in fantasy sports helps build trust with users as they start seeing positive results.

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When these users transition to a betting website, the trust they've already developed significantly boosts conversion rates.

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Acquisition via partnership

Indian youth consume their news needs via news aggregators like InShorts or Daily Hunt. Partnering with any of these firms can greatly impact the user numbers.

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Platform for the experiment: InShorts

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SportsCafe can provide exclusive, high-impact videos of noteworthy incidents from sports matches. These could include:

• Fan invasions
• Player altercations
• Remarkable wickets
• Stump mic conversations

Current InShorts Offerings:

While InShorts provides some cricket viral content, there are key limitations:

• Delays in identifying and publishing incidents
• Dependence on tweets that often lack sufficient context

How SportsCafe Can Fill the Gaps:

• Rapid Content Delivery: Provide incident articles within 10 minutes
• Detailed Context: Offer comprehensive background information on the incidents

User Benefit:

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This approach allows users to access the hottest videos on the internet before anyone else.

Success Metrics

For InShorts:

• Increased InShorts app traffic via notifications of viral incidents

For SportsCafe:

• Increased traffic redirected from the InShorts app to the SportsCafe website

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Engineering effort required

• Very minimal as only backend tracking links need to be added and the rest remains the same

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Organic Acquisition

We have already invested in SEO, which is currently in progress. Hence, below is a new experiment focused on acquisition via organic social media.

• Via this channel, we will be able to get users of both target ICPs

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Current user journey​

• The user picks up his phone > unlocks it > finds his favoured social media app > opens it > starts scrolling the content > sees interesting content > likes the post > scrolls away.

-Currently, the user moves on after liking the post, and we have to wait for them to return.

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Idea: To build a connection with individuals who have an interest in sports.

How: Once a user is interested via can reach him via an automated DM and initiate a conversation.

Process

1. Content Creation: The social media team publishes high-engagement sports content.
2. User Interaction: Users engage with the content (like, comment, etc.).
3. Automated Outreach: An automated DM is sent to users who publicly interact with the content.
4. Engagement: Initiate a Q&A session to understand their content preferences better.
5. Content Delivery: Provide personalized content to the user.

This approach aims to increase website traffic via high repeat usage.

Advanced Steps (Post-Trust Building)

1. Identify Interests: Understand users' betting interests.
2. Community Integration: Invite users to a dedicated community platform (Slack, Discord, Telegram, WhatsApp, etc.).
3. Community Engagement: Users join the community and make 1st interaction
4. Personalized Support: Address user needs in the most effective way possible using AI

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Required Software

• ManyChat

- Pricing $8835/month for over 2,000,001+ users

- Cost: $4.42 per 1,000 users

• ChatGPT

Success metrics

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- Percentage of users who reached step 5

- Repeat usage of the users

- User joining the dedicated community

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If the initial experiment does well it can be further scaled using different pages by connecting them to the same automation process

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Success blocker: Poor conversion at each step of the funnel

Mock chat:

Opening message: Hey <user name>, how are you? I am <dummy name> from Sportscafe and I got a notification that you liked our content. Thank you for your support, but we want to do more for you.

So how can we help?

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User [Will have 3 different options which he can tap upon]: Can you tell how many 100s has Virat scored?

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Initial interaction is complete

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System: Sure, <detailed answer>

System: who is your favourite player?
User: Wasim Akram

System: Did you know, <A unique fact >

System: Did you know about this? Yes/no

User: No.

System: We have a lot of facts that you may not know. Can I share them with you? Yes/no

User: Yes

System: Wait.

System: Here it is <link>. It has everything about Akram that you may not know. Let me know how was the article. { Automated option - Good/ Great /Medicore/ bad}

• This process continues until we get permission from the user to send me articles regularly

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