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Today we speak to Shashank Mishra, Founder & CEO of SportsApp to understand how SportsApp is shaping the sports industry through its innovative product offerings.
Read the complete interview:
TechGraph: Could you help to give a sense of how far SportsApp has come since its existence? From when it began to where it is now?
Shashank Mishra: Since its launch, we have gone over 350K+ MAUs across all sports in India. In FY22 we supported 1000+ athletes with sponsorship support and in Q1FY23 we already supported 500+ athletes with sponsorship out of which 10 are going to represent India in CWG ’22.
TechGraph: How is SportsApp utilizing its sectorial expertise and technology to provide quality sports training and consultancy services for athletics?
Shashank Mishra: Top professional creators on SportsApp in the field of Coaching, Fitness, Physiotherapy, Nutrition, etc are creating content on the app. Our Suggestions and preferences algorithm is helping users to consume their interest-based content and connecting athletes with professionals to bridge the gap.
TechGraph: What is the state of online sports and training platforms in the Indian market, especially for Gen Z?
Shashank Mishra: Covid’19 has taken everything towards digital, it has helped us to pivot towards online content in sports with our professionals. But since we deal in physical sports an offline connection is also required for which we provide a solution to connect with the same professional for offline training via an app.
TechGraph: How do you ensure a personalized training experience for each athlete?
Shashank Mishra: Our in-app algorithm is a key enabler for this, with which the content created by professionals is being fed to interested athletes for a personalized experience.
TechGraph: How is SportsApp leveraging technology to enhance the athletics experience?
Shashank Mishra: We have developed a post-score algorithm that acts as a mini-ML and improves the suggestions and preferences on the app for the users concerning engagement.
This ML algorithm maintains the quality experience for the users and keeps the platform interactions healthy. At the same time, we have developed a ‘Market value’ ML algorithm that helps athletes to generate their market value and get brand sponsorships.
TechGraph: What are the new career trends in the sports field?
Shashank Mishra: Being in India, a most career in cricket is explored and followed compared to other sports. But recent Tokyo Olympics have changed this trend and parents are now letting their children follow different sports as their career options as per the latest research.
Government support is also something that is enabling career growth in different sports, an update was made in education policy 2 years back which made sports a part of the curriculum.
TechGraph: SportsApp has been collaborating with different industry experts and technology partners to enhance the athletics experience. Going forward, do you see more such engagements?
Shashank Mishra: Yes, we are planning to implement ML for better preferences and suggestions for the users. Currently, we see 50-70K+ content being generated per month on the platform.
TechGraph: How do you see technologies namely Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, and Cloud, with regard to their relevance across the sports industry? What does the future look like?
Shashank Mishra: These are already used by many companies to improve the sports experience. AI & ML is being used by many companies which enables them to track their athletes’ performance on the field build performance reports on opponents to compete etc.
Cloud is used by sports academy management software to help manage inventory for their academies.
While statistics have always played a central role in sports since the beginning, AI has significantly impacted the level of audience engagement, creating a strategy for games, and the way they are played today. We see that data analytics and artificial intelligence are being used in sports in a substantial amount.
The application of AI in sports has become a common sight in the last few years. And considering the positive impact brought by the precision of technology into sports, there is not an iota of doubt that it will continue to flourish in this domain.
AI is being used as Augmented coaching which helps coaches to make strategic decisions before and after the match. Player Performance improvement, AI is also being used to enhance the performance of players. Apps like HomeCourt make use of Computer Vision and Machine Learning to assess basketball players’ skills, giving them a good medium to improve.
TechGraph: What is the roadmap for SportsApp going forward?
Shashank Mishra: Currently we have 350K+ MAUs with 5000+ Professionals and 1000+ Academies registered on the app from Delhi-NCR we are planning to move to Mumbai, Pune, Bangalore & Hyderabad with our new fundraise and take our numbers to 2Mn+ MAUs, 10,000+ Professionals and 3000+ Academies.
TechGraph: How SportsApp has bridged the gap between the urban and rural sports divide
Shashank Mishra: The training content has connected professionals from Tier 1 to many athletes in Tier 2,3 cities which is also enabling these professionals to increase their visibility and boost sales. Community features are removing the divide and helping users explore and connect on the platform.
Sponsorship features are providing equal opportunities to athletes from all regions to avail much-needed support for them.