Rajasthan Royals joins FanCode as it bets on non-live content
FANCODE
The 18th edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) is just a day away and the franchises are all geared up both on and off the field. For its part, Rajasthan Royals has tied up with sports streaming and merchandise platform FanCode, operated by Dream Sports, to fuel their content game.
The IPL franchise, which already has a following of 25 million fans across social media platforms, is tapping into the FanCode user base of 160 million with non-live content including podcast and behind the scenes takes, among others.
“Fans love watching the journey of Sanju Samson or Riyan Parag. They want to dig into their story. So the fans may start with an individual player story that turns into a love for the franchise. There are fans who might want to dip in to a bit of Dhruv Jurel’s life, like where did he come from? His dad was in the army. What did that lead to in terms of his story? Then fans also fancy a podcast. Then the fans start building that fandom through these longer-form premium pieces of content. And that’s where the differentiation is because on social media, there is more short-form content and it’s more for fans who are wanting stuff almost like every hour of every day,” said Jake Lush McCrum, chief executive officer (CEO), Rajasthan Royals.
Samson, Parag and Jurel are all members of the Rajasthan Royals IPL team.
McCrum said that on FanCode the sports audience is anyway actively looking for such premium content.
FanCode will introduce an exclusive ‘Royals Corner’, offering behind-the-scenes content including practice session and training videos, podcasts, exclusive interviews, player profiles and other non-live content. The digital hub will provide fans with access to their favourite players, deepening their connection with the team beyond the matches.
“The Royals have got this extremely loyal fan base across the country and we have built this one-stop destination where any Royal fan who wants to consume content which is relevant to them could actually come and get exposure on the digital zone. We are looking to expose this to the 160 million-plus users on FanCode, who may be cricket fans, may be fans of other sport, and give them an opportunity to see some of the great content that the Royals have put together from the likes of Sanju Samson, the coach Rahul Dravid, and all their players. The content will be exclusive interviews, videos, podcasts, practice sessions,” said Yannick Colaco, co-founder of FanCode.
He added that the content on the platform will be a great way for Royal fans to interact with the franchise all through the year and not just when the IPL matches are on.
McCrum pointed out that last IPL season, the team had the highest engagement rate. “We got close to 3 billion video views across our content. So, there’s a massive hunger for content,” he said.
While cricket drives a lot of traction on FanCode, Colaco said that other sports are also seeing significant viewership gains.
“We used to have about 10,000 live games in a year two years ago of which 85-90 percent was cricket. This year will probably be about 20,000 games of which 50 percent will be cricket. So the amount of coverage is growing and we are also investing a lot more in other sports including motorsport like Formula One, MotoGP. We are investing a lot more in football because there’s obviously a big fan base of those sports also in this country,” Colaco said.
FanCode collaborates with brands such as FIFA+ and Real Madrid TV to bring fans premium non-live content from the world of sports.