FANTASY SPORTS

A Phenomenal ‘PlayerzPot’ In The Making

WORDS BY MANTHRA KOLIYER

When two energetic and ambitious people set out with high aspirations, even a brand that started from a garage becomes a hit. We are refferring to none other than Playerzpot, a one-stop-app for fantasy sports.

Playerzpot recently changed its social media strategy, roped in cricketers Smriti Mandhana and Bhuvaneshwar Kumar, and have been growing steadily ever since. The platform has invested a substantial amount in advertising to

improve engagement. We got in touch with Mr. Mitesh Gangar, co-founder & director of PlayerzPot Media Pvt Ltd, to know how they made a race to the top.

“We are always at the forefront of improving our engagement quotient. To keep our audience hooked and also scale our user base, we planned on a substantial investment in advertising. The previous year’s budget during the India Premier League (IPL) (September-November) was INR 4-5 Crore, whereas this year, we pushed the envelope with 3x the previous budget. We believe investing in marketing is a good idea to create brand awareness and garner attention via user expansion,” said Gangar.

According to statistics by datareportal.com, during 2020 - 2021, the number of social media users in India has increased by 21% or 78 Million. Playerzpot aims to connect with tech savvy Indians by employing a unique social media strategy. Gangar added, “We went ahead with a mix of digital assets. We boosted our social media campaigns, digital campaigns, and also bought OTT airtime during select matches. We also blended our affiliate campaigns with influencer-based campaigns that proved to be instrumental.”

The content on social media is highly driven by influencers who are the driving forces for products or brands to reach the masses. PlayerzPot used

influencers to promote the brand. Gangar believes that when an influencer promotes a particular brand, users feel attached to it and wish to give it a shot at least once.

Social media strategy is just one of the many promotional activities that PlayerzPot actively employed in 2020, and the brand has a strong plan for 2021 too. Gangar wants PlayerzPot to be the one-stop destination in the real money skillbased gaming segment. Speaking about live matches, Gangar adds, “We have transitioned to casual games where we organize quizzes and games like housie, snake ladder, etc., and are also planning on introducing new games in the upcoming months. We are anticipating 3X growth in user base and 5X in revenue in 2021. With new games and diversification of our real money skill-based gaming portfolio, we aspire to connect with the Gen Z.”

In the next five years, Gangar aims at a user-based approach. He adds that from its inception, PlayerzPot has been a user-centric brand. “We were the first to bring instant withdrawals, to give importance to the bowlers and provide equal weightage to them in terms of point systems. We also laid the foundation for the point system, lifetime referral, and earn system, and many such features. PlayerzPot is committed to the legacy of putting the customer first with innovation as the core value of the company,” he concludes.

The fantasy sports vertical has had unprecedented growth in the country over the last 12 months. Brands like PlayerzPot have fuelled growth in the industry and are emerging victorious in this cut-throat market.