Importance of time and location in fan engagement

Most popular leagues in the world have a global presence with fans spanning across various geographies part of different time zones. So it is a challenge to keep all fans engaged and updated irrespective of their locations. It is imperative to serve fresh and exciting content to fans on almost daily basis and with the onset of multiple fan engagement platforms and social media networks reaching millions of fans worldwide in their own time zones has become possible.

Early days

Before the technological boom, it was difficult to keep pace with all the live matches, their schedules, timings and any other update about the game. With fans residing in different locations and time zones, many a times watching games at odd times became really difficult which resulted in loss of viewership for live games. Even on certain occasions it became difficult to catch up with highlights and practically fans were losing the best of the matches and moments. Traditional media services like newspapers and magazines again carried news that was probably old by a day or two and did not help in keeping up the spirit of sports enthusiast.

Impact of digital Fan Engagement platform

Now with the advent of powerful technologies various social media and fan engagement platforms have come up that are available round the clock. Popular sports league and teams have also identified the potential and are actively working on these platforms offering fans best of experience on daily basis. Now no matter what the time zone is and the location you can watch matches, pre and post-game shows simply on your smart phones and tablets and in case you miss any of the matches you can watch highlights of those games wherever and whenever you want.

Digital media sources via internet have also eliminated television’s monopoly. Since internet is available round the clock and can be utilized via smartphones and tablets, it helps cater needs of sports fans who don’t have access to television while they are travelling, or somewhere in a place with shortage of electricity.

Through some amazing fan engagement features depending on their time zones, fan can now set alert for match schedules, live match updates and many other things that has really helped personalize fan engagement and has brought sport within the reach of a sports enthusiast. 27% fans in Asia watch Premier League football matches live either on TV or internet.

What does the future hold?

Given the success of such platforms over a short period of time it’s hard to imagine that this trend will be done away with in near future. Personalized fan engagement is the need of the hour and with fans spread across multiple geographic locations such platforms are not time and location bound which is the biggest advantage. One small update about the fixtures or a big one about the match reaches a fan faster sitting in any corner of this globe. Now no fan can be deprived of their favorite sports and live games which was not possible few decades back.