Table of Content
From the businessman's perspective, revenue and customers matter significantly to them. Any business, whether a startup or established; expertise focuses on how it can grab more audience and create an opportunity to enlarge its business.
Similarly, the fantasy sports industry, one of the largest business sectors worldwide, integrates everything that helps increase its billion-dollar portfolio even more.
Unsurprisingly, we've seen tremendous growth in fantasy sports applications over the past few decades. This industry has delivered massive opportunities to sports businesses looking to make huge profits through their online expertise.
With the growing influence of cricket, football, soccer, and basketball, as well as other sports and competitions around the world, the sports sector has grown into a multi-billion-dollar industry. Without a doubt, the fantasy sports app development industry has become the most lucrative industry out there, and it continues to expand at a rapid pace.
According to the recent Global Fantasy Sports report, the market is estimated to be worth around $18.3 billion in 2020. The market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 14.2% over 2022-2026, reaching approximately $40.6 billion by 2026. Moreover, as many experts have said, no matter how big this industry is expanding, the profitability and opportunity are outstandingly stable.
As I mentioned, this industry is filled with fantasy sports apps; many reach out to more than just members. For example, MPL is a fantasy sports application that has over 50 million active users on its platform. Therefore, developing fantasy sports for your business is undoubtedly more than beneficial.
These new-gen fantasy sports apps feed the hunger of many sports game lovers through their features and functionalities. So let's understand how developing a fantasy sports app for business is essential and how to develop a fantasy sports application.
Users create virtual teams of real players in the fantasy app. These teams compete based on the performance of those players in real games. And the user with the highest point holder in the leaderboard wins massive prizes.
The workflow for the Fantasy app looks something like this:
Select Match: After login and OTP verification, users select the match.
Creating a Team: The next step is to create a team per the game's requirements. For example, if a user selects Cricket, they need a team of 11 players. There are many ways to build a proficient team. The most prominently used methods are serpentine, auction-based, and offline drafting.
Captain: The user selects the captain and vice-captain of the team.
Team Division: The user builds multiple teams according to the game's rules. Virtual players can also join the team of their choice.
Team Management: Users can modify the created team at any time during the game.
Prize Distribution: Players get points according to their performance. The dream team with the highest points on the leaderboard is the winner.
Are you looking for a solution to create a fantasy app? We can help you build your app. Whether it's creating a clone app solution or a custom feature, let's see what best fits your needs. Contact us and send us an inquiry about your project requirements.
Let's consider that you developed your application, but why? What are the goals behind it? Why do you want to step into this industry by developing fantasy sports applications? What unique selling point do you have that no one else has or has failed to offer?
Think of one thing that will set you apart in this growing sports industry. It can be anything, a promise to deliver the best gaming experience or functionality that the user will not find in other apps. Before going into the development stage, let's look at some of the essential things to consider that can serve as your unique selling point for your business.
As I mentioned above, what are your goals behind developing a fantasy sports application for your business? The goals can be anything, you want to be part of this big industry, or you want to leverage the profitability of these apps to enlarge your business.
Still, in confusion! Don't be. You might already know the benefits of fantasy sports applications. But some are new here and want to know how they should define their objectives. For new startups or well-established entrepreneurs, you need to spell out your business requirements and revenue model.
If you are a sports league or brand looking to improve your branding values, make sure there are fan engagement elements in your fantasy sports business. If you are a sports media brand, your objectives will be related to user engagement and growth. Similarly, the iGaming industry may aim to promote its existing products. Defining a clear goal behind starting a fantasy sports business will help you choose the right partner for fantasy sports app development.
Spend time researching and setting up a proper roadmap for your brand visibility. Find out what sports are trending in your country, and learn about the competition you can expect when entering the fantasy sports market. Finalize your budget, potential audience, team, legalities, and the features you want to offer your users.
You do not want to take this part lightly. This is where you need to add all your resources and team. If you miss out on any information while researching, it can cost everything you have been working on.
The best way to make things easier is by assigning the work to your teams and gathering all the essential intel you can. Do as many team discussions as possible and pick out every pros and cons of your business plan. This way, you will get the best and most profitable results.
It is essential to determine the USP of your brand before pitching it to your potential audience. Consider the factors that set you apart from your competitors. Defining your USP will help your app development partners incorporate features unique to your fantasy sports business. Let's look at some features that can serve as your unique selling point.
Referrals & Bonuses - Referral helps users to get extra points when a new user joins with their referral code. Free points like this are something that sports fans crave. Even MPL and Dream11 include this approach to increase user engagement. This can serve as a marketing strategy where with the help of existing users, you attract a new audience to your platform. This will help you to boost your foot traffic.
Achievement Badges - An achievement badge works as a gamification feature. Today, many gaming industries are using gamification to increase user engagement. When the user achieves a certain level in the game, an emblem-type badge or a title appears on their profile. This is a great way to keep users motivated and engaged on your fantasy sports app platform.
You can go a step further by providing social sharing options. Users who share their achievements with their friends on social media platforms are likely to get new followers and more registered users. You can also have other gamified elements like virtual goods, side quizzes, player progress screens, etc.
Generally, there are many sports that people are interested in – Cricket, football, golf, hockey, basketball, baseball, and table tennis fantasy sports. So, you can also decide on the sports you want to target.
You can also include all of these sports. This will help engage the users more. However, these sports are not equally popular; therefore, choose them carefully. Below, we have defined the sport's popularity through a graph.
It would be best if you decided how your game would work. Many fantasy sports apps have customized game formats and rules that make them different from others. Rules make undefined gaming properties optimize and load more fun areas in the game.
On the other hand, formatting is also crucial for making a sensible gaming experience. Adding some logical and practically possible game rules and formats enhances your players' gaming experience to the next level. And this type of integration also makes your app unique and different from what is going on in the current market and provides a unique selling point.
The technologies are now more advanced than we ever imagined that they would be on this level. As a result, cross-platform app development is easily possible. If your business is targeting a more extensive user base, it will be more profitable for you to approach cross-platform development. This way, developing individual applications will save more pockets than you save.
However, choosing the app platform ultimately depends on your business objectives and resources. You can develop a single platform app as well, there is no drawback in it, but then you have to define your target users. Moreover, developing the app for Android or iOS, the cost will be the main factor, so decide carefully about app platform development.
This is, without a doubt, the most fundamental element of building a fantasy sports business. You will need to settle on a reliable data provider with prior sports and league experience.
The most crucial part is finding a good development partner for your fantasy sports application. There are hundreds and thousands of IT and software development companies established worldwide; finding the best one takes a lot of work. However, you do not need to contact overseas companies as you can approach the local companies available in your country.
Hiring a good and experienced company becomes complicated when you have many options. Therefore, it would be great if you checked the company portfolios, the experience of past clients, reviews, the experience of the company's members, etc.
This way, you will make your work easy and reduce your chances of getting into fraud companies. So take time searching for the best mobile app development company for your business project development and create a brief structure to present to the developers.
The attractive and more engaging app foundation depends on how you present your app interface to your users. Rich textual content is the last thing a user wants to interact with in your app.
Our experts have different perspectives on text usage. Their opinion is that until and unless it's indispensable to put the textual contents in the app, do not bother to use them.
Nowadays, users are attracted to more graphical content connecting them with the app interface. Plus, it makes your app more engaging and responsive as well.
It may look less attainable but believe me, it's more imperative than anything. Launching the app is more complex than it seems; there are so many preparations that you have to do it correctly. Ensure that your app is functional, follows every guideline, and has a proper gaming license.
There are some essential features that you should include in your fantasy sports app.
User Panel Features:-
Login/Signup
When users first enter the app, they must log in or sign up with a provided phone number or google account.
Landing Page
The landing page is where users can look around the overall application design, like games, profiles, leagues, sports, etc.
Profile
This feature allows users to see or edit their profile accessories like profile pictures, names, and basic information.
Live Streaming
With the live streaming option, users can track real-time scores, and at the same time, it will help them to entertain themselves by watching sports matches live. You can make this feature exclusive by making it a subscription model where users need to buy a subscription to access the live stream option.
Admin Panel Features:-
Geo-location
With GPS position tracking and monitoring, you can send your users a push alert or notification about ongoing tournaments and matches.
CRM Integration
Integrating CRM in the application helps generate responses to important user queries. This makes them feel attended to and keeps them engaged with the app. Users can further share their feedback about their gaming experience on the app. This is an effective way to enhance customer experience.
Admin Dashboard
A must-have admin panel feature that displays all the relevant information about the app and users: it includes Total Matches, Upcoming Matches, Live Matches, Total Participants, and Total Earnings. Furthermore, a dashboard helps to check, manage and update things like rewards, users, transactions, etc.
Custom Mail Reminder System
With this feature, admins can send custom emails to participants to inform them about upcoming matches or share any information related to their players or team.
The features you want to include in your app depend on your budget and other requirements. If you integrate any of these features into your app, we can help you. We have industry-leading fantasy sports app developers in India with many years of experience and knowledge. Let us build a feature-rich app for your business.
In-App Advertising
Advertising on the most downloaded and popular apps is one of the most common revenue-generating strategies to attract the target audience's attention to your brand and services. This benefits the brand known for branding and is a golden opportunity for fantasy sports operators to earn money through these advertisements.
Paid advertising is quite popular in marketing to get a massive user base in less time. As a fantasy sports app operator, once accredited by the industry, you can enable the option for other brands to place their ads in your app and charge accordingly.
Participant Charges
Some fantasy sports platforms organize contests and tournaments for players. In this model, the organizer charges a certain amount from the player to join the competitions. They take a portion of these cash prizes. Participant fee is a great business model that can top your revenue growth rate.
Different Types of Other Business Models
Many fantasy sports industry leaders, such as MPL and Dream11, offer multiple contests and tournaments that increase their participants' fee collection even more. And also provide:
The development process becomes much more manageable with the right tech and resources. There are many technologies and platforms available that can confuse you from choosing the right one. Let's see what essential tools you need to make your fantasy sports app top-notch.
Technology Stack:
Framework & Programming Languages - Java, React Native, PHP, Flutter, C, Swift, or Kotlin
Database Management System - MongoDB, MySQL, PostgreSQL, Cassandra, HBase, MailChimp Integrations
Front End Technologies - JavaScript, CSS, HTML5, Bootstrap, jQuery, AngularJS
Cloud System - Google Cloud, Azure
Payment Integration - PayPal, Debit/Credit Card, Braintree, PayUMoney, e-Wallets, Net Banking, e-Banking
Push Notifications - Twilio, Apple Push Notifications, Google Cloud Messaging
Chat Integration - Socket.io
API - Live Score API Integration
This guide gives you a basic idea of how to develop your fantasy sports application for your business. Remember that many competitions are already waiting for you, so make sure you are similar to them. Therefore your centric focus should be on your users and the customer experience. Keep the essential factors in mind and create a complete structure before developing your app.
If you need a development partner for your fantasy sports app development, we can help you. Orion InfoSolutions is a renowned fantasy sports app development company worldwide. Our fantasy app developers use advanced technologies to provide state-of-the-art solutions that follow the latest developments.
Our process is completely secure and transparent for clients. We have experienced mobile app developers on our side. Please send us your requirements and start working on your project.
Quick Contact Us :
Call/WhatsApp: +91-8302758817
Skype: orion.infosolutions
Email: [email protected]
DC Kumawat is the CEO of Orion InfoSolutions, a leading provider of IT solutions to businesses of all sizes. He has over 14+ years of experience in the IT industry. He is a passionate advocate for the use of technology to improve business performance.