The NFL and MLB seasons last about six months out of the year, with NHL and NBA seasons lasting for about eight. So on average, that leaves major league teams with five months out of the year when they aren’t packing their arenas or stadiums with fans. So how do they engage with their fanbase when they aren’t in the building, rooting for their team? Sure, teams often do charity events in the off-season where fans can interact with players while contributing to a good cause. Take Tom Brady’s Best Buddies for example. But just like during the season, fans have to come to wherever the event is to engage with their home team. Surely there has to be a way to have dynamic engagement between fans and their team without having to hop on a plane or take a road trip, right?
The answer has been yes for a few years now, but only in pretty basic methods. “Like our Instagram post for a chance to win a free jersey!” or “Subscribe to our Newsletter to enter our home-opener ticket raffle!” are all things we have heard before. While these are effective to a small degree, they only generate excitement for a brief moment. 99.9% of people who don’t win were engaged for the time it takes to tap a few buttons – then they keep scrolling and forget about it. So how can teams create and maintain fan engagement, virtually? Well, ePaymints and DropIn Gaming has your fan base covered.
The great thing about sports is that even if fans can’t watch a game from the comfort of their own home, they can still play it. Madden, NBA 2K, EA’s NHL, MLB The Show, and FIFA each have millions of active players in the U.S. and worldwide. Assuming each player has a favorite team, this represents a massive opportunity for organizations to engage with their fans. They won’t even have to travel in order to participate in official contests, play with athletes and coaches, and compete for prizes they can redeem virtually, or in person.
This eSports inbound strategy can offer prizes as small as discounts at your online store or pro shop, even free concessions. Prizes can scale up as large as you want, to free merchandise, meet-and-greets, tickets, autographed balls, really anything you would like to provide for your fans. Even NFTs are on the table. ePaymints offers a full NFT marketplace package for your organization, taking you through the process of creating your marketplace, creating a strategy, minting, and launching NFT campaigns. The possibilities are really endless.
Another reason to jump on this now is that it will be the standard for major sports organizations in a matter of years. eSports is already a billion dollar industry, and NFTs are as well. Both are here to stay, so businesses big and small have to adapt to keep up with the times.
If crafting an eSports strategy for your organization seems like something you or your organization would be interested in, contact sales@epaymints.com to have a conversation about it with us! And if you want to see more content like this, follow us @epaymints on social media! See you soon!
