Sports place a major role in economic and social development. Since its onset, the pandemic has spread to almost all countries of the world, social and physical distancing measures, lockdowns of businesses, etc have also broken the habit of life, including sport and physical activity.
Human beings likely played sports for most of our history. After all, life has its’ ups and downs. Sports provide that unique blend of temporary excitement along with the intense physical and mental effort. Hence, sports remain an appropriate avenue for handling life’s stress.
The WHO recommends 150 minutes of moderate-intensity or 75 minutes of vigorous-intensity physical activity per week.
There are concerns that lack of regular sporting or exercise routines may result in challenges to the immune system, physical health, including by leading to the commencement of or exacerbating existing diseases that have their roots in a sedentary lifestyle.
So what to do if you promise yourself to start training but fail the mission every time? Most of 75% of people admit that it’s easier to start jogging, playing tennis or even to collect a team for a game of 5-a-side footy when you have a company. But how to find a teammate or a team for playing sport?
Digital Solution for Finding a Sport Mate
Nowadays you may find a digital solution for solving almost any problem and this case is no exception. Not so long ago we had a customer who comes to ask with an idea to make an app that can help him and other people to find a partner for any type of sport. He moved to another city and constantly was on the lookout for new games to get involved in and getting quite a lot of invites to new games but they were always seemed to be at the wrong time or on a wrong night.
The aim was to fix this situation when players and games were always looking for each other but the whole thing didn’t quite match up. Thus was born the idea of Find a player app and we brought it to life.
It’s a social network for sportspeople, connecting players to games easily through an app that cuts the frustration of finding a game – and not just football, with 140 different sports. But initially, the app focuses on adding users and content for the most popular ones, like soccer, basketball, tennis, etc.
The main advantages of this application:
- for players it’s a way of finding out where they can join the game, trying new sports, or finding a partner for anything from tennis to badminton.
- for captains to manage their team, send reminders, and quickly and easily find replacements.
- it provides an opportunity for users to make a list of the sports they are interested in playing, their day-to-day availability, their skill level, and their maximum distance they’re ready to travel.
- an app suggests the users appropriate games and events that fit their profile.
The application makes easier the process for people to find, organize, and play sport. So whether you’ve just moved to a new area, are trying to get fit, or are an organizer who’s constantly short of numbers –the app will provide you with what you need.
Let’s overview all features of this app:
- A live list of all the games and events with confirmed open spots at present.
- Immediately find players who are interested in playing the same sport as you in your area.
- Find local available games and clubs who are looking for people to join them.
- Build up your team so you’re never looking for players at the last minute. You’ll have a whole bench of people waiting to play.
- Rely on an automated system that weekly sales admin time up to 90% without any stress – from an hour plus to 5 mins.
- Invite your friends to build your very own sports network.
- After the game, you can give all your mates a rating on how they performed. Which might throw up some ‘interesting’ conversations with your mates and the more ratings you add the more accurate it becomes.
- Reach your mates and groups instantly through Group Chat and Instant Messaging.
- You may set the app to prompt you only people who are relevant and ready for a game.
Make your weekly training an open session or post regular tryouts so people can come and join you. We automatically sync your squad to the group chat. So anyone who gets added to the squad also joins the chat.
Don’t think that all features mentioned above are final and it is subject to discussion. The application can be improved by adding other features like as:
- photo sharing of the games and team events;
- analyzing all stats. Put all game data and analyze your team/player stats, whatever sport;
- possibility to keep records of a team’s history, season after season.
By updating an app and adding new features you can engage existing customers and attract new ones.
How to engage an app user and monetize it?
American adults spent about 3 hours and 30 minutes a day using the mobile internet in 2019. (according to the research of Zenith). We expect that the time usage of a mobile device will increase up to four hours in 2021.
So you have done a great job and people really enjoy the result of your work but how can you benefit from this? Your app can be so much more than a tool. It can also be a serious source of additional income for you.
- Simplify the onboarding process. It sounds reductive, yet not all apps initiate an efficient onboarding process. Minimize the number of steps to create an account or sign up and include the registration option (login with Facebook or Google, for example). Educate your users during the onboarding experience to introduce the app’s functionality, but it should be overload.
Users who experience some degree of personalized brand interaction are more likely to return to an app for 11 or more sessions. To put it in perspective, if you enter a physical store and aren’t acknowledged, you’d probably be disappointed with the customer service. Consider app interaction in the same light. - Advertising. The implementation of ads is also engagement not only the way to get income. We recommend being more selective in advertisement choice because the better the experience you provide, the higher the engagement will be. Your ads should interest the user, not frustrate them.
- Sponsors and Partnerships. If you can establish a partnership with another company or brand, you can greatly start your monetization. Consider a partner with a similar target audience who can add something to the experience of your users. A partner or a network of partners can seriously benefit your customers and your businesses alike, especially if you create an integrated experience.
- Free/Premium Account. But there’s another method of getting income – providing a version of your app with basic features and expanded functions that add up to a more complete experience. Having a free/cheaper version allows users to get a sense of what your app can do for them. If users enjoy what your app offers and want a better experience, they might be willing to pay for the premium account.
Keep in mind that, if users do pay for the premium option of your app, your responsibility is to make it worth for them. In this way, they’ll leave positive reviews and recommend the premium version to their friends.
Perception of sport as an important part of life
It should change how people get into the sport. People expect instant solving their issue these days, they don’t want to check around several different sports centers and local websites to find what’s on, then to lookup a phone number and to verify if there are free places, it’s too much!
Everyone wants everything in one place, easy search with the ability to join without delay, so that’s what we need to provide. Casual players don’t like the structure of training and playing in a club three times a week, they want to play at times and places that suit them and do things they enjoy.
FAQ
- Place advertising in an app. But remember that it shouldn’t be annoying it’s better to provide an ad the can be useful to your audience.
- Partnerships. Consider a partner with a similar target audience who can add something to the experience of your users.
- Free/Premium Account. The basic version is free in many cases but for the extended version, you may ask one-time payment or subscription payment.
Then there’s also the inactive people who for whatever reason, (they’ve had kids, they’ve moved to a new area, they’ve been injured) are looking for a quick and easy way to get back to the sport – they need convenience and options, at the moment they don’t really know where to look. So a mobile app may become the default place for this.