Elevating the fantasy
Fantasy Cricket in India has seen tremendous growth lately, fuelled by the surge in internet users and the number of national and international leagues held throughout the year.
The number of fantasy sports operators has increased by seven times (~7x) over 2016–2018, whereas the number of users has grown by over twenty-five times (~25x) from June 2016 to Feb 2019 (Source: KPMG)
However, even with the influx of fantasy operators, the fantasy format remains the same, with Daily Fantasy ruling the platform. We @CricPlay wanted to give our users a free-to-play, experience-led platform where they play the game not only for the monetary outcome but also for the fun and thrill of it.
Introducing Star Contest.
A contest within CricPlay’s daily fantasy platform where users can compete head-to-head with a known cricket celebrity. Users who create a better team than the celebrity and beat them on the leaderboard will be rewarded with signed merchandise and cash or in-app currency.
Process
Problem Statement
Engage existing users, motivate new users to join and add a new sink to the in-game economy.
Understanding the sport and the game
Fantasy sports have been around for a while in India, where celebrated cricket figures are just used as faces to promote the brand. But no one has figured out a way to make them part of the game. Some understanding is needed to make such figures part of the sport.
Analysing the Problem
- New and existing users approach the contest very differently, so it’s essential to map 2 different journeys for them.
- A separate landing page for Star Contest, using the picture superiority effect to make it more memorable to the users as there is a gap between the announcement of a contest vs mapping that contest to a specific match.
- The contest's joining fee acts as a graceful sink, motivating users to spend coins (in-app currency).
Benchmarking
- Number of users joining the Star Contest.
- Coins spent by users across the season in Star Contest.
- The amount of cash payout as a reward for the Star Contest (cf. other contests) and the number of users who end up winning are also included.
- The conversion rate of newly acquired users.
User Journey
Landing Page
Joining Fee
- Newly acquired users are given a welcome bonus to join the first contest.
- Existing user can use their winnings or watch video ads to earn required coins.
Dedicated Leaderboard
A separate leaderboard was introduced exclusively for Star Contest, using a 1vs1 ranking system instead of a traditional ranking system.
This was done to promote experience-led gratification rather than just a cash reward.
Scaling Star Contest
As Star Contest was supposed to accommodate multiple celebrities during a season, it needed an adaptable, quick, and easy-to-develop system. So, we took an image-based approach for its landing page and other in-app branding requirements.
Result
Star Contest was a winner for both the business and the users.
It became the most profitable contest on the platform (based on the in-app economy); it is driving the highest retention and gameplay engagement next to Mega Contest.
The road not taken
A parallel intent of Star Content was also to derive a higher level of engagement from highly engaged users by applying eligibility criteria and gating mechanics.
But it was dropped after testing it out with our internal peer groups, a brief UAT and a few technical challenges.
As this was also our first time trying out this kind of engagement-led contest, we tried to keep it as simple as possible.
Special Thanks
Nitin Bhatnagar for co-authoring the article and kicking ass with the UI.
Chirag Chopra for being an awesome proofreader 😃
