The Micro Fantasy Sports app changed the face of traditional online sports game

 Sports crazy people do not only watch sports, they live with the match. They express excitement, anxiety and agony with each and every movement. With this thought, Sam Jhones introduced a platform where fans get to play their own share of the game. The huge base of sports community,  inspired Sam Jhones to make sports reachable for the frenzy fans out there. Alongside live sports, fans can predict game results. Champions are created and skilled audiences are rewarded in Ballr (ballr.com)

The App Ballr

It’s a Singapore based micro fantasy mobile app. India has been the launching pad for Ballr’s  operation in Asia. The app hasn’t limited itself to those repeated conventional games. Instead it has the rapid fire guessing moments like guess the next wicket,  guess the runs next over. The prize is not always cash, but rewards to die for. Winners get to meet their favorite sportstars in person. They get a chance to do one on one session, or they get the opportunity to dine or go coffeeing with their sport stars.

On asking Sam Jones as to how the idea of Ballr came to his mind, here goes what he has to expound.

Before coming into this micro fantasy app, I was in headhunting business, where I placed bankers based out of Hong Kong. It was then that I noticed this huge penetration of mobile phones among Indians and Chinese. There were about a billion mobile phone account, out of which 30% was smartphone. I saw that Indians did not only use phone for business or personal work. Smartphone users often used their phones for recreational activities. They played games like Temple Run and Candy Crush in their mobile phones.

The third thing which intrigued me was their interest in sports.  India being a land of diverse culture, sports had the inertia of unity. I started researching more on this trend. The US sports fantasy was a massive hit both in response and revenue. I thought how about penetrating the Asian market in the same model. I knew that the micro fantasy sports app will only be a hit if the connectivity is smooth. Apps like Tinder or Uber connects with users in single swipe. So the design had to be pretty user friendly.

How do Ballr brings in more players?

As discussed above, it’s more about the design. Users will  accept or reject app in the first 8 seconds. We tried to crack that by making Ballr simple, easy, smooth and fast.

Secondly all smartphone users are not rich or hold an online account. So we have kept this app free to download and play. Everyday players get 20 token free to play 10 games.

Sharing games in social networking sites is in raves. Players get bonus 50 tokens extra if they share the app with friends in social networking platforms.

We have launched in Facebook over few weeks backs and our community is over half a million. We are targeting five million though. We enroll online ambassadors like Harbhahan Singh and Chris Gayle to achieve the target.

The Brand Image

Ballr is in no way into gambling. That’s the only reason big brands like Microsoft,  Tag Heur and Oakley are on board with Ballr. This app is more about fan engagement in live sports. Sam Jhones is looking at 50 million players on board, once it spread its base from India to China.