Chatbots and Sports Fans: A Perfect Match
Everybody is aware how much technology has changed the ways in which sports fans consume content and engage with their favorite teams, players and sponsors. From social media to live streaming, fans now have endless options to stay updated, in real time, with the sports content that matters most to them.
Chatbots within the world’s most popular messaging apps are the latest way for sports teams and athletes to not only connect with their most loyal and passionate fans, but to open up whole new fan bases and scale across traditionally difficult to reach regions. Using a bot, teams have the ability to send messages and alerts for upcoming games or breaking team news. Teams can also sell tickets and merchandise, or allow fans to interact with their favorite players, taking fan engagement to another dimension.
More importantly, chatbots will allow teams to connect more easily with fans from the all important “millennial” and “Gen-Z” generations. According to a recent report, given their ease of adoption and personalized approach, bots have gained a lot of ground on apps in terms of popularity with this younger demographic, a trend that is only expected to grow upwards over the coming years. Additionally, by making user interactions seem more personal, they also help improve the customer experience, bringing the fan much closer to the sport.
Chatbots represent a substantial improvement over how most sports fans currently receive their sports news. Today, the most common outlets are Twitter or other social media platforms. While traditional social media provides a useful source for sports content, it’s much less personal to the fan and is typically a one-way conversation. However, with a bot users are able to converse with the team much like the way they would talk to a friend, while having the option to receive relevant news alerts without needing to open any applications or websites.
Now with the advancement of major messaging apps, the world’s most famous sports leagues and teams have a new opportunity to drive revenue from their fan base. Perhaps the earliest example of this were soccer giants Real Madrid and FC Barcelona, and their successful partnership with Japan-based Line. They not only provide their fans in the region with the latest team updates bringing them closer to the action, but sell merchandise through the platform including exclusive stickers for fans to share with friends and other like-minded fans — a surprisingly lucrative endeavor for the teams!
The NBA is clearly seen as the trailblazer in terms of adoption of new sports tech, and they have now paved the way for sports leagues by becoming the first to launch a Facebook Messenger bot for last month’s NBA finals. This enabled fans to ask the bot for team or player specific highlights around key games and plays, which drove huge amounts of traffic back to the NBA’s video player and subsequently their website. Due to this success, they quickly followed up with a searchable 40-year draft history bot to promote this year’s NBA Draft, which only serves to highlight the diversity of applications chatbots have to offer sports franchises. NBA teams are quickly lining up to follow suit.
The introduction of chatbots within the sports market is particularly exciting for the team at Chatsuite. With the help of Chatsuite’s bot development and messaging solutions for the world of sport, personalized branded bots will provide a fascinating new platform for teams and players to engage directly with their fans and drive new revenue. Looking ahead, while chatbots still have a way to go to fulfill their potential in the sports industry, there is no doubt they are set to usher in a new era in the sports fan experience. The only question is, “How far can we go?”
