SSE App Launch 3

SSE Airtricity has reached into the world of gaming for its latest attachment to its sponsorship of the SSE Airtricity League.

A new Fantasy 5 App was launched at the weekend giving fans the chance to win prizes for selecting five players to score points for them in each Premier Division match.  It’s free to download and play, with weekly prizes and a grand prize at the end of the season to win a year’s supply of electricity.

The App has been developed in Ireland by Fantasy5Live and has been used preciously in GAA and Rugby. Its aim is to provide content for clubs that will drive engagement with fans that can ultimately be turned into increased loyalty and revenue.

The connection between the gaming developers and the sponsors came about through Fanaticus, another Dublin based agency helping technology providers and sporting clubs to come together to deliver fan or member based offerings.

The opening weekend of the SSE Airtricity League saw promotional activity at a number of games and over 500 fans have downloaded and played in the first two rounds of matches on Friday and last night.

Few of the clubs together would be in a position to launch such a venture on their own and it is interesting that it should be the sponsor rather than the League that has taken the lead on making it happen.

That is indicative of the value which sponsors already and will increasingly in the future place on knowing fans and making connections with them through data driven activity primarily on mobile phones.

Allianz have done similar work around predictor games for the Allianz Leagues in hurling and football, while media companies like the Irish Times have had success in Fantasy games running over longer periods of time in golf and rugby.

The Premier League has over 2 million players on its Fantasy Football site while in US Sport the area of Daily Fantasy games has generated substantial heat and profit over the course of the last 12 months.

Read our interview from last October with Nigel Eccles, CEO of FanDuel one of the biggest players in the US Fantasy Sports market