Since Neanderthals were painting hunting pictures on the walls of their caves, sports has “always been able to carve out a very big vertical for itself by any way of communication that is available,” says Fancred CEO Hossein Kash Razzaghi

Radio and television aside, it’s probably not surprising to learn that the Internet is the sports communication medium of the moment.

“What we saw in the trend in data [is that] over half of the content that was being communicated was sports-related,” said Razzaghi. An incredible sum, but also a fragmented one, occurring across emails, text messages, blogs, websites, Facebook posts and millions of other fibers making up the tissue of online connectivity.

Razzaghi, a former sales executive for the online video platform Brightcove, hatched Fancred as a way to tie those fragments together, across a single social network devoted to nothing but sports-related communication and interaction. Born in Iran and raised in Mississippi, his upbringing was shaped early on by sports and the remnants they leave us with, both literally and figuratively.

“Whenever I’d go to games, I’d save the ticket stubs, programs, the pictures I took, whatever [memorabilia] I had, in this shoebox,” he said. Fancred is like that shoebox, but for the digital age, wherein sports fans’ game takeaways are defined by videos, images, articles and other forms of media. “From that, a very deep community begins to converge around the content you’re saving and sharing,” said Razzaghi.

Designing Fancred and its app, which is currently available for iOS, Razzaghi’s team sought to present an easy-to-use, highly visual product that makes its value proposition clear from the get-go: capturing and sharing favorite sports moments. To that end, new users are asked to do nothing more than enter their favorite sports team. Fancred takes it from there, immediately connecting the user with a slew of likeminded profiles ranging from individuals to publications to brands, ensuring their nascent feed comes pre-populated with plenty of links, tweets, videos, gifs and other relevant content.

Engaging with Fancred’s content is as important as the content itself and sports fans have a particular way of engaging that Fancred has worked hard to tap into, and that separates it from other social networks. Instead of the typical “Block” button, for instance, a user must select “Block That Fool” in order to stave off a fellow member who chafes them. Should that blocked member attempt to continue the interaction, they will be treated to an animated gif of Gumby swatting away a shot on the basketball court.

“We’ve tried to create a product that has its own personality,” said Razzaghi, a mindset that extends all the way into the structure of Fancred’s user experience.

A crucial ramification element of the app is Fancred Score, which rewards users with points for interacting with the app. This, explained Razzaghi, represents the core of Fancred’s business model, offering teams and leagues “a better way to engage with fans and a better way to monetize them.”

In the short term, Fancred Score is a way for sports organizations to reward its best fans for loyalty and consistent connection. Friends of a stadium’s Fancred profile, for instance, might be gifted discounts at the next game for their high Fancred Score.

“For a team,” said Razzaghi, “it allows them to target their most influential and active fans, [who are] doing things every single day that aren’t rewarded or acknowledged.”

In the long term, Razzaghi sees the data pulled in by Fancred Score as becoming a valuable asset to not only sports teams and leagues, but to sports networks, publications and other media organizations. The platform could even become a CRM for these groups, letting them better understand the engagement patterns of their customers, and helping them form better, strong relationships.

“The biggest difference between us and, say, Twitter,” said Razzaghi, “is with Twitter you’re watching the game and you’re in the read-and-lean-back mode, getting additional information that you might not have gotten from your TV set. Fancred has really been able to create more of a virtual stadium where you have tens of thousands of displaced fans watching the same game but really interacting together and going through the ups and downs of the game together. It’s a much more engaged and active audience, so if you are a big brand or publication, you can learn more about your audience by working with Fancred.”

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