ESPN and mobile social platform fanatix launch social-first mobile app for cricket lovers and fans
fanatix cricket – powered by ESPNcricinfo, a new social mobile app for cricket lovers, gives fans a new way to come together online to discuss and debate the sport, players, matches and news of the moment.
The social-first application brings news, scores, blogs, images, video and social media content from the world’s #1 digital cricket brand – ESPNcricinfo – on to fanatix, the leading mobile social network for sports.
Says Will Muirhead, chief executive, fanatix: “By combining ESPN cricinfo’s first-class content with the social functionality provided by fanatix, we’re making it easy for fans to stay on top of the imminent Ashes Series. Cricket is perfect for a social environment; it lasts for hours, is full of controversial decisions and has a significant global diaspora that can be connected via the fanatix platform.”
fanatix cricket – Powered by ESPNcricinfo lets ESPNcricinfo users, members of Facebook, Twitter and Google+ gather digitally and debate the latest cricket talking points in Huddles – either privately with friends or publicly with everyone else following the game.
Celebrating its 20th anniversary this year, the collaboration sees ESPNcricinfo add further to its position as the leading global voice in cricket.
In the UK, between July and September, the average audience on ESPNcricinfo at any given minute was nearly double the number two destination (BBC Sport Cricket). ESPNcricinfo had three times more page views than the number-two destination and visitors spent nearly twice as long with ESPNcricinfo (online and on mobile devices) – highlighting the engagement with the brand’s unmatched breadth and depth of content.
In Australia, ESPNcricinfo is the #1 cricket destination digitally (online and mobile), in both unique audience and total minutes.1 In October, on mobile devices alone (mobile web and apps) Australian fans logged nearly 40 million minutes of time.
fanatix has also enjoyed recent success, growing from 150,000 active users in January to more than four million in September. The app has also proved popular with the valuable 13-24 male demographic, with average users visiting ten times a day, three sessions more than even Facebook.
Says Charly Classen, senior director of digital, marketing & commercial – ESPN EMEA: “For 20 years, the combination of great content and commitment to innovation have helped drive ESPNcricinfo to the leadership position it holds today. We’re excited about this new platform for showcasing our content and passion with fans, and letting them do digitally what they do offline – discuss, debate and share the experience with each other and with us.”
The app features native advertising in news streams, delivering contextually relevant and engaging ads to users, similar to formats and presentations seen on Facebook and Twitter.