FanCode is an online sports destination committed to giving fans a highly personalised experience across content and merchandise for a wide variety of sports. Founded by sports industry veterans Yannick Colaco and Prasana Krishnan in March 2019, FanCode has over 160 million users. It has partnered with domestic, and international sports leagues and associations across multiple sports. In content, FanCode offers interactive live streaming in industry-first subscription formats with Match, Bundle and Tour Passes, along with monthly and annual subscriptions at affordable prices. Through FanCode Shop, it also offers fans a wide range of sports merchandise for sporting teams, brands and leagues across the world.
Medianews4u.com caught up with FanCode co-founder Yannick Colaco to find out about the company’s plans.
Q. FanCode has scaled to over 160 million users in five years. Was going deep into sports beyond cricket and big events the key reason for this?
I think going deep into all sports, including cricket played a key role for us to reach the milestone. Even when it comes to cricket, there’s a huge gap in terms of access to events, and we ensured at FanCode that we give cricket fans the best of action from countries like West Indies, Bangladesh, New Zealand, Ireland etc – be it through leagues like CPL, The Hundred, Super Smash, Lanka Premier League or international cricket. Even domestically, we’ve some of the top leagues like TNPL, Andhra T20 which have a strong following and helped us acquire users.
Now, almost 50% of our content is non-cricket. Sports like Formula 1 have over 60 million fans in India – similar passionate following exists for football, golf, mma, rugby and these are some of the sports that we plan to go deep into. Other sports will play a key role for us in acquiring the next 100 million fans for FanCode.
Q. What goals has FanCode set for itself in 2024 in terms of profitability, number of downloads etc?
Our user base grew by 5 times in the last three years and the aim remains to double our paid subscriber base in 2024. We have also now crossed 50 million app downloads across android and iOS. We will continue focusing on building a product that sports fans can relate to and are constantly interacting with our users to fine tune our app and web experience.
Q. How is the revenue model being finetuned? How important is sacheting to grow a property like F1?
Our core focus has always been in building a direct-to-consumer product whose key revenue drive is subscriptions. We’ve also started providing limited advertising opportunities to brands that want to reach out to a premium consumer base.
I think what sachet pricing does for F1 is it helps take the sport to newer audiences – someone who hasn’t seen F1 before but wants to experiment with it can buy say a couple of race weekend passes and start following the sport there. We’ve seen that someone who watches one or two races, is likely to buy a season pass given the sport itself is so exciting to watch. This will help take F1 to casual and curious fans, further strengthening its fanbase in the country. And now we also have F2, where Indian racer Kush Maini is competing as well as F3, DTM, F1 Academy in our motorsport portfolio – so there’s a lot for a fan to look forward to.
Q. What trends are being seen in terms of how an Indian sports fan consumes sports on FanCode so far?
I think one of the interesting patterns is how sports like golf, rugby, MMA, baseball have a passionate fan base, who are deeply engaged into the sport as a community. What has been missing all this time is comprehensive access to these sports and that is what we are facilitating. Earlier you could maybe watch a one-off marquee event, but now we have a constant year-long supply of different sports. This means fans have something they can watch and it’s also an opportunity that brands who want to associate themselves with a particular sport can take advantage of.
Q. Is the whitespace for you the tier two and three towns and cities?
Almost 50% of our users come from tier 2, and tier 3 cities – so I won’t call it a whitespace. Sports like cricket, and Kabaddi do really well in tier 2, and 3 towns and cities, and we plan to continue serving them with our offerings.
Q. From a P&L perspective given that the large sports like the IPL are free what is the challenge for a purely subscription service? Our mission is to provide sports fans access to the sport that they love and
We believe that consumers will pay for a product that delivers value. With affordable pricing and flexible options like match pass, tour pass, we’ve seen a very strong uptake on paying fans.
We continue to work on innovations and ensure that we are providing a world class experience to all fans.
Q. What role does AI play for Fancode when it comes to data, analytics and pricing?
As a sports-tech company, we are focussed on constantly finding ways to innovate and making data-driven decisions. From personalised content, to data driven packaging and pricing, AI continues to help us rapidly scale our abilities.
Q. On the e-commerce merchandise side how did the platform fare during the IPL?
This year we ran Mega Stores for 7 out of the 10 IPL teams, up from 4 last year. We also had merchandise from all 10 teams available on FanCode Shop. One of the interesting trends has been the growing adoption of fan merchandise. Our sales also indicated that and I hope that it’s a trend that continues
Q. What potential do you see in the ICC deal?
We’ve been working with ICC for a while now, and they’ve again entrusted us this year with two major World Cups. The response for the Men’s Cricket World Cup that was held in India was outstanding and saw a sea of blue take over the stadiums. Our range has already proven to be a hit with the fans and with our affordable and trendy designs, I think we can take fan merchandise to a whole new level this year.
Q. What has the response of advertisers been so far for sports streaming?
We’ve had brands like Emirates, Vivo, MRF showcase their faith in our product – I think one of the key benefits that any advertisers get is access to authenticated paying audiences, which not a lot of other platforms offer. Also, all our users are sports fans and brands have benefitted from a long-term association with different sports.
