Title: How always-on fan engagement turns loyal fans into revenue

URL: https://www.infobip.com/blog/how-always-on-fan-engagement-turns-loyal-fans-into-revenue

Is there a more devoted group of consumers than sports fans?

Some watch nearly every game, check the score at midnight, and consume every scrap of news about their team. Others can't keep up in real time, but they support their team just as passionately and look for ways to stay connected between games.

It's the kind of loyalty most brands spend years trying to earn.

And yet, according to Infobip's Sports Fan Engagement Report, 66% of fans are disappointed with how their teams engage them. They feel left on the sidelines, treated more like customers than as valued members of the fan community, and underwhelmed by the communication they receive.

## What we learned from gamifying the fan experience for a major professional hockey league

If sports organizations rethink how they engage with fans, there's an entire community ready to reward them. We experienced this firsthand working with a major professional ice hockey league on the redesign of their Bracket Challenge Platform.

It's built around a simple idea: let fans predict playoff outcomes, compete with each other, and win prizes. When they came to us, the goal was to reimagine that experience for a mobile-first world.

It's built around a simple idea: let fans predict playoff outcomes, compete with each other, and win prizes. When they came to us, the goal was to reimagine that experience for a mobile-first world.

But before we dived into wireframes and prototypes, we restructured the entire Bracket Challenge concept by introducing Bracket Leagues. This feature allows fans to register, build a profile, and create groups to compete with friends and rivals for bragging rights, even before postseason matchups are set. This enabled the client to engage fans on the platform earlier, well before the end of the regular season, when the playoff predictions take place.

Throughout the project, we made sure fans had a voice in shaping the experience. According to Infobip's Sports Fan Engagement Report, 69% of fans haven't been asked for their opinion in at least two seasons, leaving many feeling sidelined. We took the opposite approach and brought interactive prototypes to major hockey games across New York City, testing them with real fans in real environments. The results followed: year-over-year increases in the number of players and brackets created, along with an increase in social sharing and fan engagement.

## Engaging fans with an interactive experience worthy of a Webby

Not every fan wears a sports jersey. Whether people are rallying behind a sports team or binge-watching a global hit series, the same principle applies: when you make them part of the story instead of passive spectators, engagement follows naturally.

We saw that firsthand while promoting a reality competition based on a 2021 smash hit series. The show is known for its life-or-death stakes and critique of capitalism, but fans who loved the original's message wanted nothing to do with a reality version of it.

Through a combination of creativity, technology, and a deep understanding of what fans actually care about, we've turned one of the streaming platform's most hated spin-offs into a #1 hit.

Ahead of the show's launch, Your Majesty, part of Infinum, worked with BBH New York on an integrated campaign called The Price of Morals. BBH ran a nationwide study to find the average ‘price’ for nearly 50 immoral acts. Using those insights, we built a campaign site where visitors could explore the survey data and take a quiz that placed them on the moral spectrum. The creative direction mirrored the show's iconic style, while layered interactions and animations brought the experience to life.

The campaign successfully sent the show to the streaming platform's number-one spot in the US and globally for six straight weeks. It also received countless awards, including recognition for best use of data-driven media.

## Strengthening a legendary basketball team's bond with fans through a UX-led digital platform

Eight out of ten fans want to feel more connected to their team, according to Infobip's Sports Fan Engagement Report. Getting updates isn't enough. That was our guiding principle when the legendary basketball team asked Your Majesty, part of Infinum, to lead the strategy, design, and development of their new website.

We started where every good fan experience should: with the fans themselves. Through interviews and surveys, we discovered that a new generation of basketball fans wasn't just passionate about the sport itself.

They cared just as much about everything surrounding the game, the culture, the fashion, the music, and the lifestyle. This became the strategic frame: "Serious about the game, crazy about basketball."

Instead of building another sports website focused on reporting game results, we designed the team's digital flagship to tell a story, using an energetic, enthusiastic visual language. The result is a platform that blends game stats, lifestyle, and culture to deepen fans' emotional connection with the team.

In the three months following the launch, the team’s new website earned an NPS score of 48/50, site load time increased by 23%, and the site roster page and team bio saw an increase of 26% in page engagement.

## Engaging fans before, during, and after (not just on game day)

The basketball team's website, the bracket challenge platform, and the reality competition microsite all show that a great digital experience does more than get fans through the door. It makes them feel like participants rather than spectators and turns engagement into measurable business results.

The right message at the right time can do the same. Here's how to keep the conversation going before, during, and after the game.

### Turning anticipation into action

The run-up to a game or season is when fan excitement peaks and conversions come easiest. Announcing ticket sales, launching a new kit, offering early access: messaging channels turn that excitement into action.

Take the Los Angeles Rams, for example. They launched the 2025–2026 season schedule to 10k+ fans who were given the opportunity to purchase game-day tickets via Rich Communication Services (RCS). The team saw 60% growth in ticket sales and a 70% lift in engagement compared with traditional SMS.

With RCS, fans can complete a purchase in a single tap. The shorter the journey between "I want this" and "I bought this," the more likely fans are to convert.

### Real-time moments that make fans feel closer

During a game or event, fans want to feel part of something. Live score updates, in-match polls, prediction games, behind-the-scenes content, and interactive quizzes all create moments that bring supporters closer to the team, wherever they're watching.

That's exactly what Infobip delivered for the TGR Haas F1 team during the 2025 Monza Grand Prix. Through a click-to-WhatsApp campaign, fans tested their team knowledge in an interactive quiz for a chance to win signed merchandise. Everything happened inside a single conversation. No separate app, no friction, just an experience that felt immediate and easy to join.

[ ![](https://cdn-web.infobip.com/uploads/2025/12/tgr-haas-color.svg) 

    TGR Haas F1 Team: Bringing interactive game experiences to fans over messaging channels .

 80%

 lower cost of ad conversion . 

 76%

 engaged user rate . 

 74%

 quiz completion rate . 

 ](https://www.infobip.com/customer/haas-f1)

### Keeping the relationship alive when the final whistle blows

Conversation does not have to end when the event does. Research shows that more than 80% of viewers use a second device while watching TV, and for sports fans, that second screen is where the conversation lives: commenting, debating, and reacting in real time and long after the final whistle.

Post-match messages, player reaction content, loyalty rewards, and merchandise recommendations based on what the fan has already engaged with are a great way to keep the relationship alive between matchdays.

## Meeting fans where they already are

Message timing matters, but so do channels, and fans have already made their preferences clear: 77% want their questions answered by a chatbot at any time of day, 74% want to enter contests through messaging, and 78% want exclusive content delivered the same way.

In other words, fans aren't asking teams to invent new habits. They're asking them to show up in the apps they already open dozens of times a day.

### The channels making it happen

RCS, Apple Messages for Business, and WhatsApp are no longer secondary options. According to Infobip's Messaging Trends data, RCS grew from 1% to 13.1% of the global conversational channel share between 2023 and 2025, while WhatsApp continues to dominate, accounting for 77.3% of conversational traffic. And fans rarely stick to just one channel: 97.7% of all 2025 platform traffic came from customers using two or more.

### Gamification: the future of fan engagement

Beyond information and commerce, messaging is becoming the arena for fan play. Voice-note gaming (Vocalize), AR scavenger hunts, and AR selfie filters are turning passive audiences into active participants, all without leaving the message thread.

### Personalized fan engagement at scale

Only 30% of companies are truly omnichannel today, according to Infobip’s Conversational Maturity Index. To close that gap, Infobip's AgentOS lets sports organizations deploy AI-powered agents that handle fan queries, purchase flows, loyalty rewards, and live support in real time, without a human team behind every reply.

Picture it: a fan messages at 11 p.m. asking about premium seating for Saturday. Instead of a contact form and a callback on Monday, they get availability, a seat map, and a checkout link on the spot. The sports brands that close this gap first won't just improve the fan experience. They'll build the kind of loyalty that pays off across the entire season, and the one after.

## Sports organizations doing it right

### Haas F1

Click-to-WhatsApp ads drove fans into a conversational quiz journey built on WhatsApp Flows, and fans were retargeted across races with prediction games, polls, and exclusive video content, all inside the same thread. The results: 80% lower cost of ad conversion and a 76% engaged user rate.

### Claro

For a global sporting event, Claro launched "Paris is Yours": an AI-powered chatbot built by Infobip that delivers live scores, athlete insights, and real-time notifications via RCS, SMS, Apple Messages for Business, and Messenger. The campaign reached over 11 million people in Mexico and drove more than 34,000 fan interactions.

## A partnership for next-level fan engagement

What fans want is simple: to feel included and informed, all the time. The organizations that deliver won't just create better fan experiences. They'll earn loyalty for life.

That's why Infinum and Infobip joined forces. Infinum designs and builds cutting-edge digital products and experiences that fans love. Infobip adds the conversational layer, enabling personalized, real-time interactions across the messaging channels fans already use every day. Together, we help sports organizations build lasting relationships with fans and turn that loyalty into new revenue.

## About Infinum

Infinum is an end-to-end solution provider and AI-native delivery partner with two decades of experience working with global brands.With eight offices in Europe, the UK, and the United States, and a team of more than 400 experts, Infinum designs and develops innovative digital experiences for clients worldwide. Its work has been recognized by Red Dot, Webby Awards, iF Design, and other leading industry authorities.The company is also known for its people-first culture, having won Croatia’s Best Employer title multiple times.

## Keep reading:

## Get the latest insights and tips to elevate your business

By subscribing, you consent to receive email marketing communications from INFOBIP. You have the right to withdraw your consent at any time using the unsubscribe link provided in all INFOBIP’s email communications. For more information please read our Privacy Notice