How to Improve Fan Engagement for Live Sports Streams
Keeping users engaged in between main events and enhancing overall fan experiences is a challenge for all sports streamers. It means giving fans new chances to interact with the content, developing second-screen experiences, bringing in influencers, addressing accessibility concerns, and more, according to Joe Caporoso, President of DAZN’s Team Whistle, in this conversation with Reality Software’s Nadine Krefetz from Streaming Media Connect 2024.
Better user experiences: live polls, bets, and game challenges
Krefetz asks Caporoso what Team Whistle is thinking about when planning for a better user experience and how to engage people in different environments.
Caporoso emphasizes the importance of creating multiple interactive formats. “All the different countries and leagues come with certain limitations about what we can and can't do, where you can and can't integrate advertising in a second screen experience,” he says. “How do we navigate that to create a consistent forum where if we want to do a live poll, if we want to do a live bet or a live game challenge? How do we set that up and how do we prompt it throughout the game that drives as much interactivity as possible and enhances the experience of watching and consuming the game?”
He discusses the “second screen” challenge of keeping viewers within the broader app they are already watching. “That's one of the bigger challenges that we're tasked to fill,” he says. “It's easy to get someone in the door to watch a Premier League game, but how do you keep them entertained between the two Premier League games or when there's no game on? How do you create an experience for them in the app during the game, but also before and after the game and then off the platform? We need to make sure that that experience is as seamless as possible for the customer and the user if they're going to take the leap to subscribe or pay for a pay-per-view for us and not go the route of trying to find the stream somewhere else, whether legally or illegally.”
DAZN’s most popular types of user interactivity
Krefetz asks, “What's one of the most popular types of interactivity that you can offer the fans?”
‘We've had a lot of success with the new FanZone tool that DAZN has been testing throughout the year,” Caporoso says. “We've been able to integrate sponsors into it like Visa, which is effectively a hub within the app for fans where they can compete for different giveaways and give their different reactions in real time to the game. We can filter through different athletes and influencers there to have a second screen, almost like manning a cast-type experience where they're watching and commentating on the game alongside the fans. And [there has] been encouraging early signs for that, and now it's how do we do it with as many sports and as many markets as possible?”
Focusing on accessibility
Krefetz asks Caporoso how DAZN focuses on accessibility in their programming, such as captioning.
He says accessibility has been a priority for them, including working issues such as, “How do we ease the user journey and user experience once they get in the app to find what we're broadcasting and how do we get them to stay there? So, enhancing accessibility is something that our tech side is always looking at. How do we make the steps and the user experience [in an] ecosystem where we're streaming all of these events as seamless as possible? How do you sign up with as few clicks as possible, and how do you actually get into a spot where you're watching and engaging overall?”
Join us in November 2024 for more thought leadership, actionable insights, and lively debate at Streaming Media Connect.
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