2.1 Improving the Fan Experience

Fans want more personal engagement with athletes.

Athletes interact with fans primarily through social media, which can be repetitive and impersonal. Thushe value of being a follower on social media has been diluted, and there does not exist a way to identify “superfans.” Moreover, fans have expressed the need to interact with their favorite athletes on a more personal level. In a study conducted by Verizon Media, roughly two-thirds of the fans would spend more to feel more engaged with athletes, especially during periods where the players are not competing such as the off-season.

Ticketmaster found that fans spend over 46 hours a month engaging with their favorite NFL team. Moreover, the total handle of sports betting has reached an all time high of over $100 billion as of February 2022. Fans are willing to put both time and money into engaging with their favorite athletes, but athletes themselves capture very little of this revenue. VO2 believes that improving the fan experience comes with creating digital assets that let fans transition from observers of a game to stakeholders, and get rewarded for engaging and backing their favorite players.