BENGALURU: Indian Premier League (IPL) franchise Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) has confirmed a strategic, digital partnership with Interacting Technology Sports, an innovative online digital community platform based out of Israel, Business Standard reports.
The firm will help RCB build a special technology platform to engage with its fans on a much greater and personalised basis than its rival franchises.
Interacting Technology will power RCB’s mobile app where fan groups, influencers and communities will unite across India to have one-to-one or group discussions over the team not just during the IPL season but throughout the year as well. Fans will also get access to exclusive content like behind-the-scenes, players training programs and their lifestyle.
In a complete e-commerce package, fans can not only follow their team’s performance but also purchase match tickets and merchandise with special offers on it through updates and notifications.
“I met RCB months back and we discussed a lot about their values, what they wanted to promote and how they wanted to (engage) with fans as a brand and I felt it is a nice project,” Interacting Technology Sports CEO Liav Eliash told the publication.
“The sport is moving to the palm…we would like millions of RCB fans to be able to feel connected to the team,” RCB chairman Sanjeev Churiwala added, while claiming that India has over 400 million smartphone users, many of whom are millennials who follow sport on it the most.
Eliash added that the firm is also aiming to offer data analytics and machine learning to help RCB’s support staff coach their players and strategise ahead of matches.
With this partnership, he hopes that cricket becomes even more popular in Israel.
The brand value of the IPL spiked up by 19% to reach $6.3 billion in 2018 vis-à-vis $5.3 billion in 2017, backed up by its broadcasting rights fee surging at a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of 18.9%, according to a research done by American consultancy firm Duff & Phelps.
