Category Archives: Pro Sports

Pro Sports

Fantasy Football – The very best in Social Gamification (Maybe a blueprint for Facebook)

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So for the last few months I’ve been hearing all these so-called “Social Media Experts” (Not something I believe exists) talking about how “gamification” in the future of Social Media.  While that’s a fairly true statement, it is often overlooked that social gaming has been around for a while.  Both in smaller communities like World or Warcraft (not that it is that small) and in large-scale communities like Fantasy Football, social gaming has been around for a while.  So let’s focus on the Fantasy Football, I figure it will probably consume the next 16 weeks of my life any way…

Fantasy Football is an extension of NFL football on to the web, where users generate all of the content, including re-distributing the NFL roster.  Think about the features of a typical Fantasy Football League…

User Generated Experience-

League Name (Name your own community)

Team Name (You control what your profile in the community)

Members of the Community (This can often be either random people or an invite only situation)

Rules for Gamification (how about that, the user controls the game rules)

Trophies/Rewards (All the incentives to Fantasy Football other than the simple win are designed by the users in the community)

So to recap, the user basically creates everything with only the use of the NFL season and roster as their information.  Hmmm, I don’t think it takes a genius to see that Fantasy Football is the premier social gaming model today.  It takes a fairly common experience, following the NFL, and creates an unbelievably social upgrade to the experience using the web.  Sound familiar?  It should.  Zynga the social gaming company repeats this same formula with “Words with Friends”.  (Most people understand how scrabble works)  Then there is the bigger Social Media concept that all started based on the same concept as Fantasy Football.

FACEBOOK is based on the same principles as Fantasy Football.

1.  The entire concept can be broken down as a utility to better experience the real world.  (FF focuses on on single sport, Facebook originally focused on college social life)

2.  The user creates and crafts their identity.  (The user chooses who they are, and how their profile is built)

3.  The user chooses who to share their experience with.  (FF has invite only leagues, and Facebook is driven by friend invites)

4.  The user controls the rules of the game.  (FF has rules set by the group, while Facebook has a group understood rules concept that develops over time)

5.  They are both games in which the Trophies and Rewards (and value of said rewards) are determined by those you’ve chosen to invite into your community. (This is where it gets the most interesting.)

Digging deeper into #5 we come to a question: Is Facebook a Game?  (Not to go back to economics again) Absolutely it is a game!  Think of it this way- you create a profile with unique attributes, then in order to play you must participate in a conversation, while in the mean time building up “klout” (Klout.com check it out, you might find it interesting after this article.) in your network of friends through such rewards as likes and comments.  The game I just described above goes further.  Because while building up a friends list and earning likes is important, this is nothing compared to the trophies that are out there.  Trophies like “relationships”, tags in photos, and of course larger friend lists.

Facebook is the gamification of the college experience.  Taking in only real life information of your college experience and then putting the right “motivations” in place to play the game.  I still think it has the same intention and result of Fantasy Football in that it offer an improved experience on top of the already good NFL (college) experience.  So next time you’re on Facebook… look around… see if you start to notice the game you’re playing.

Thanks for Listening,

Zach West

It’s the most wonderful time of the year – The NFL Season is almost here

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It’s that time of year again… Football is back.  So I thought I’d make a few changes to a holiday classic in honor of the occasion.

It’s the most wonderful time of the year
With the team just a gelling
And everyone telling you “Be of good cheer”
It’s the most wonderful time of the year
It’s the hap-happiest season of all
With those post hold out greetings and formal team meetings
When friends come to call
It’s the hap- happiest season of all

There’ll be draft party hosting
Draft busts for toasting
And football out in the snow
There’ll be scary Farve stories
And tales of the glories of
Players long, long ago

It’s the most wonderful time of the year
There’ll be sideline tip-toeing
And fields will be glowing
When the home fans are near
It’s the most wonderful time of the year

There’ll be draft party hosting
Draft busts for toasting
And football out in the snow
There’ll be scary Farve stories
And tales of the glories of
Players long, long ago

It’s the most wonderful time of the year
There’ll be sideline tip-toeing
And fields will be glowing
When the home fans are near
It’s the most wonderful time
It’s the most wonderful time
It’s the most wonderful time
It’s the most wonderful time of the year

How DirectTV will hit Cable like Netflix hit Blockbuster (NFL Sunday Ticket Coming to PS3, No Dish Required)

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A few years ago Netflix launched a cool new thing that allowed you to stream Neflix movies and TV shows on your computer. As of June 2011 that little service made up 30+% of US internet usage. (Surpassing bit torrent sites) Now bring us to the present day, and DirectTV might just be on the road to a similar move.

DirectTV like Netflix has a core business idea. Netflix sent you movies by mail with a subscription while DirectTV went around the cable companies and offered a larger offering of entertainment via the satalite dish.  Then comes the idea.

Netflix

What if we used the internet to distribute our content on top of our DVDs by mail… Integrate ourselves into every possible connection point to the internet, from you PC, to your Xbox, and even your TV.  (I’m not going to over do this story with details, but you get the picture.)

DirectTV

DirectTV has already built the relationships needed to have all of the channels people want.  (Including exclusive rights to every single NFL game)  But there is a demand issue with this exclusive rights package.  You can only get access to NFL Sunday Ticket if you have a DirectTV dish.  (And back to my old friend Economics we go…)

Realizing the true demand curve- DirectTV made a barrier to entry where a customer had to buy a dish in order to even become a part of the group able to demand NFL Sunday Ticket.  (along with other content)  But when they made the move to offer the same content package via the internet all of a sudden a lot more people became qualified to buy NFL Sunday Ticket.  By removing the barrier to entry Direct TV just opened up a whole new market.

Building a Content Empire on the skeletons of cable companies- First Sports is up for grabs.  We’ve already scene ESPN make a move to create ESPN3 to broadcast sports over the internet, and into a number of gaming systems. (PS3, XBOX, etc.) But ESPN couldn’t go all in, because of a number of contract issues requiring many of their sporting events only to air on TV.  Enter DirectTV with what seems like full access to deliver all the NFL content.  (I’m not going to write a whole break down of how many people watch the NFL, I think we all know it is a ton of people.)  Then in time what if DirectTV became an app on your phone, tablet, computer, gaming system, and even your TV.  DirectTV could become like Netflix but for live content.

I’ve been saying for more than a year, that the only reason I pay for TV is live sports.  I can’t wait for this to become something I can get anywhere.  (And on a side note, I can’t wait to lower my cable bill to just the internet.  Not the biggest Fan of Comcast)

Thanks for listening,

Zach West

This post is a breakdown of my thoughts after reading: http://mashable.com/2011/08/17/nfl-sunday-ticket-ps3/