It is probably basketball that brought the context of the word 'shoot' away from gun games. Basketball has been steadily growing in popularity ever since the invention of the game by James Naismith. The inception of the NBA has only served as a catalyst in promoting the growth and reception of the game.

These days, most of the sports are complemented by a fantasy sporting application. In a game that has a fan following and rage like basketball, fantasy sports applications are bound to engage users and bring in profits.

At this juncture, we are called to look at two aspects. One is about the growth of basketball on a worldwide scale and the other is about the fantasy applications opening avenues for a new and lucrative business opportunity.

Basketball — Shooting to the Right Places:

In 2018, Forbes has reported that the revenue of the NBA grew by a whopping 25% and had earned an astounding 7.4 billion dollars for the teams. This would not have been big news if the NFL had experienced just 7% growth.

Basketball is the second most popular sport in America after American football. The NBA has been involved in the global community outreach program called “Basketball Without Borders”. NBA is currently promoting basketball in India, and it has also resulted in the growth of basketball fanbase in China.

All these numbers and activities establish the relentless pursuit of NBA in making basketball global and the increased fan following across different corners of the world.

Fantastic Numbers for Fantasy Sports

There are more than 16 million active fantasy sports application users in the US and Canada. It has grown from a meager 500,000 in 1988. The fantasy sport is a 7.22 billion dollar industry and it is set to grow at 41% annually.

The revenue can be generated by the entry fees for Premier or paid Leagues, in-app purchases and even advertising and selling official Merchandise of the basketball teams.

Fantasy Basketball — Opening Avenues to Lucrative Business

If we have to converge the growth of basketball and the growth of fantasy sports into a single point of profitability, it should be a fantasy basketball sports application. A fantasy basketball sport application has the attractiveness it takes to bring in a lot of users and the revenue model it takes to bring in profits for the business.

The Gameplay

A fantasy sports user will create a team consisting of real players. They are given a budget within which they will need to buy players. Each player has a certain price tag. The players should be in a certain combination — for basketball, it has to be 1 point guard, 1 shooting guard, 1 guard, 1 small forward, 1 power forward, 1 forward, 2 centers, 2 utilities, and 2 injured.

Based on the performance of the players in the real game, the fantasy team players are awarded points. The user who accumulates the highest amount of points is declared the winner.

The different types of leagues and games:

There are free leagues and paid leagues available In fantasy basketball. The free leagues are free to play but they might require credits to get players for your team. You do not stand a chance to win prizes in free leagues.

However, in paid leagues, the users will not only need to pay from the credits to purchase players but will also pay an entry fee to enter the league.

There are two types of games as well. One is prize-enabled and the other is standard free. Both the games are equally interesting to play. However, if someone is a newbie, they might want to consider playing t he free game first. This will help them get the hang of the gameplay and gain the essential experience.

Once they have mastered the techniques, they can be a part of the prize pool in the prize-enabled option. The entry fee can be anywhere between $5 and $500.

The league type can be either rotisserie or head to head. Both the league types have a maximum of 12 teams in a League and are similar in many aspects. However, in the rotisserie type, the count of maximum games per position is capped at 82.

The Essential Features

Any fantasy sports application has to have a few sets of features. Some of them should be focused on the user, providing an interactive and intuitive interface. The other set of features should be for the administrator panel where utility matters more than appeal.

The user-facing features:

• The user can sign up using their email address or mobile number or social media credentials. They can also use a referral code at the time of signing up. This entitles the referrer to some credits that they can use for purchasing players.
• Once the user logs in, they are taken to the homepage. The home screen contains all the essential information including the ongoing games, the available leagues and the progress of the matches that the user is a part of. The home screen has to be created in such a way that its facilities seamless navigation to any part of the application.
• All the information about the user is stored in the user profile. The user profile contains information about the history of the games the user has played, the prizes that they have won, and all the personal information.
• The user should also be supplied with information regarding the players. Their NBA standings and the performance of the players against specific teams would help users make informed decisions about their fantasy team.
• The lobby shows users all the contests that are available to enter. The lobby will display both the paid and free contests. The lobby is a great feature because it helps users look at all the available contests in a single window.
• When the game is on, the user should be able to see real-time statistics. This helps in enhancing the overall experience of the fantasy application and also helps the user plan for the future fantasy team.

Administrator features:

The administrator should be able to control the application in a way that the entire process runs smooth like a well-oiled machine. There are a few important features that the administrator should have.

• Dashboard

A dedicated dashboard should provide all the important information at a glance. The dashboard can have information about real-time active users, total earnings, and total games. The dashboard can also be customizable where the administrator can set the pieces of information that they want to see.

• Managing users and Leagues

The administrator of the basketball fantasy app should be able to add, remove, block, or suspend users based on their behavior. They should also be able to view all the active leagues and disable any league that possibly violates the policies.

• Reward point management

The administrator should be able to view and manage all the points accumulated by the users' teams. They should be able to see the way in which the points are redeemed or used.

Conclusion

The possibilities of revenue that fantasy sports bring is phenomenal. By bringing in expert development skills, designing intuitive user interface, effectively managing database with real-time data, you can develop a perfect fantasy sports application.