Imran Shaikh and Albatross Media: Spearheading the fantasy sports marketing scene

Among all the up-and-coming innovative businesses, fantasy gaming can, without doubt, be called a game-changer. It has managed to amass lakhs of users within India, hundreds of thousands of rupees flow as user deposits as well as capital investments, and more start-ups are springing up, launching fantasy sports websites and apps. The fantasy gaming sector is set to value at around 18,700 crore Indian rupees by 2022, according to a report by FICCI-EY. This is an industry that has vast potential for businesses as many in the population are yet to register as users in fantasy sports platforms- Indian population is known for being ardent fans of various sports such as cricket, football, kabaddi, etc. and businesses are looking to translate this potential into lucrative money-making opportunities.

Even in this heavily congested ecosystem, many players have managed to come out at the top-like Dream11, which made its presence felt in the industry thanks to its heavy marketing campaigns, as well as partnering with IPL as its official title sponsor. Other major players include My11Circle, MPL, MyTeam11, Ballebaazi etc. which are vying for supremacy is a competitive market. With the IPL resumption just around the corner, many aspiring start-ups are getting ready to launch their respective fantasy sports platforms, in the form of websites and apps, with the objective of harnessing the love of the Indian populace for sports, teams, and clubs. 

However, the new entrants into the arena of fantasy sports and gaming face a multitude of difficulties, especially when it comes to gathering reach, a steady user base and marketing. One of the major issues that these operators face is that search engines and social media platforms like Google and Facebook do not recognize Real Money games and fantasy sports games, on the grounds that these platforms promote gambling and are games of skill. For instance, Google Play Store bans hosting apps that involve gambling and depositing real money. Due to this, the major fantasy sports apps in India right now are not available in Google Play Store. Because of this, garnering a massive user base is not a walk in the park for these operators. To bypass this difficulty, businesses have realized and harnessed the potential of aggressive marketing strategies to reach more sections of the population and gather an active user base. Things have become easier for fantasy games operators with the proliferation of accessible mobile data services as well as lots of recreational time, partly thanks to the pandemic and the work-from-home culture. Despite the vast potential of marketing to increase the user base and reach, many operators do not know how to effectively manage this. For instance, in a scenario which figuring on the search list on Google play store is zero, appearing at the top of the search list in other search engines like Google is key to reach more potential audiences.

To solve many of the travails of marketing fantasy sports apps, Imran Shaikh and his marketing firm Albatross Media and Entertainment have gained considerable experience and is designing solutions to address and guide operators to tackle these challenges. Apart from assisting fantasy sports operators in their marketing strategies, Albatross also guides these platforms in advising them on how to sustain and evolve their business model, especially in an environment when new operators are enthusiastically setting up shop and the market is getting highly competitive. One of the domains whereAlbatross works to assist fantasy sports operators is SEO marketing, which helps these platforms to figure at the top of the searches in prominent search engines.

Of the plethora of fantasy sports games coming up in the country, only a handful manage to gain popularity, reach and become lucrative. Even then, many among them continue to report losses. A majority of fantasy sports operators profitably flourish during exciting and heavily-followed sporting events like the Indian Premier League, World Cups etc. This is when people begin to deposit their time and money heavily on fantasy sports app, seeing the potential presented by the platforms as well as the chance to follow their favourite players while in action. The operators also introduce various offers, perks and benefits during this season to attract more visitors and garner more users. Unfortunately, the footfall ends there. Once these sporting events come to a close, the revenue stream for the operators also come to a standstill. Albatross Media and Entertainment and its head Imran Shaikh have devised marketing strategies to sustain user activity on the apps and websites as well as the revenue stream. The firm has realized the importance of retaining the active users even after the competitions conclude, as only then can the fantasy sports platforms continue to function and rake up the cash registers lucratively.

Albatross’s expertise of marketing fantasy sports platforms is evident in their involvement in key decision-making organisations like Federation of Indian Fantasy Sports (FIFS). Their contributions include devising effective marketing campaigns for fantasy sports platforms and other real money games and providing inputs for sustaining these platforms in a competitive climate.

By guiding fantasy sports operators to garner more users with effective marketing strategies and advising them on how to sustain their revenue and engage the users, Albatross has risen up to be one of the major players in the fantasy sports marketing landscape.