A Development Fund For Fantasy Sports
I'm excited to announce, alongside partners and sponsors, the foundation of a Development Fund that will be used to bring Fantasy Sports to Steemit and the Steem blockchain. The Fund will be used to hire developers to build a third party platform based on the Steem blockchain and market Steemit/Steem as the place to go to play, learn, and talk about fantasy sports.
My current efforts have been very successful. They clearly demonstrate the potential that the platform offers us. But manually organized and administered leagues are not the way forward. In order to take advantage of the opportunity, we need to develop a platform that can scale to accommodate many leagues at once, across a number of sports.
If we can offer fantasy sports players a unique and rewarding experience, we can tap into a growth market and access an entirely new group of potential Steemit users.
The Fantasy Sports Market
According to the Fantasy Sports Trade Association, 57.4 million players participated in fantasy sports last year in the United States and Canada.
The average annual spending on fantasy sports per player over 18 is $556.
Over half of consumer spending in the fantasy sports market is spent on Daily Fantasy Sports, which barely existed as recently as 2012. The market is still growing at a robust pace, and our platform can carve out a niche and offer something new to players.
Players are more interested in sports because of fantasy. 64% say they are watching more live sports because of fantasy. •61% say they read more about sports because of fantasy. (FSTA)
Fantasy sports players become more engaged as a result of playing fantasy sports. I can attest to that fact, as I've often watched and thoroughly enjoyed games that I would have had no interest in outside of the implications for my fantasy teams.
Similarly, hosting fantasy games on the Steem platform will promote engagement within the Steem ecosystem. I've witnessed this in action, as participants in the fantasy leagues I have organized on the platform have been excited and motivated to help with things like producing blog posts.
Almost 10% of player spending is spent on associated materials, for which our platform is particularly well suited. In 2015, players spent an average of $46 on materials; a figure which grew to $54 in 2016. A more detailed look at the forms those materials take is intriguing:
The top two categories (Premium Web Sites & Magazines) represent over half of player spending. Premium web sites offer expert analysis and strategy, which can be conveyed through the blogging platform easily. Likewise, our platform is a great medium for the sorts of content that can be found in fantasy sports magazines.
The Steem platform can become a home for both producers and consumers of these related materials.
Fantasy sports present Steem with the opportunity to carve out a truly unique and novel niche in a market that is experiencing robust growth. It will spur growth of the platform itself, lead to further innovation in other markets, and ultimately result in a higher STEEM price.
Partners And Sponsors
Our community partners and sponsors have pledged their support for the project.
@ats-david has pledged to invest a portion of the proceeds from his successful series of sports games.
We will receive sponsorship of major stakeholders, such as @blocktrades.
If you would like to contribute in some way, you can find me on https://steemit.chat/.
Special thanks to @blocktrades for sponsoring this Steemit initiative!
