With football season underway, fans of both pro and collegiate teams once again undertake their annual rite of passage by migrating toward their favorite platforms, which are in turn sprucing up their capabilities, offerings and integrations to welcome the flocks. One platform in particular is bracing for a big year, as Yahoo Sports looks to deliver its “most immersive” experience ever for football fans on mobile after seeing upticks a year ago, and offering a full season of live games on the Yahoo Sports app. Cynopsis caught up with Yahoo Sports General Manager Geoff Reiss about expectations, coverage plans and strategy for the new football season.
Reiss on goals: At Yahoo Sports our focus is on shaping the future of sports and fandom on mobile, and we’re doing that by offering exceptional and differentiated experiences that give fans the opportunity to engage how and where they want. For football season we accomplish that a bunch of different ways – through our NFL Live games, our best in class fantasy football product, our original content and our live data. We know fans like what we’re offering, because we had more than 68% growth in mobile visitors year over year according to the ComScore data that just came out And with kick-off right around the corner, we are continuing to build upon the strong suite of products and content that we offer to users, and we believe we’ve created one of the most immersive football experiences on any platform. We hope to continue to drive growth on September 5th.
On data: Our NFL Live game experience has helped drive significant traffic growth on our Yahoo Sports App. We’re seeing growth in both season-long fantasy and in daily fantasy. We’re not just reaching more fans; NFL Live on the Yahoo Sports app consistently broke engagement records throughout the season last year, and drew a new record number of streams in Week 15. More than half—close to 60%–of the livestream audience on the Yahoo Sports app last year were age 39 or younger, and we’re helping provide next gen fans with a way to watch their favorite teams no matter where they are.
On the new football season: Our approach is always to lead on mobile by providing the most immersive experience possible. We do that with live game streaming, original content, editorial leadership, and the best fantasy platform anywhere. We think we’ve built our solid reputation by providing such a complete experience every year, and we’re projecting that our audience will continue to grow again this season.
On new offerings: Yahoo Sports is going to provide an even more immersive experience this season, including some new original shows that we’ll be announcing shortly that will break some barriers. We’ll also be making some additions to our fantasy platform, including a new game called Best Ball, a simplified version of fantasy football that removes the week-to-week roster management for a streamlined experience, as well as our second season of college fantasy football, which was a big hit last year.
On evolving: We’re a brand built for sports fans on mobile, so we have to be constantly evolving—sometimes in real time. We’ll continue to listen and iterate to meet them where they are, and to give them what THEY want, not just serve up what we want to give them.
