Scoring a perfect '10' with a sports app

dubai - It allows users to discuss, react, capture and share content about key sporting moments with friends

Andy Meikle, founder and CEO of 10, has been a passionate sports fan his entire life. In his efforts to combine the thrill of sporting events with the joy of social connectivity, he launched a new app on August 10, coinciding with the return of the English Premier League.

The free app, 10, offers fans a fun and safe space to share their emotions about the sporting moments that matter to them. It also allows to discuss, react, capture and share content about key sporting moments with friends, while getting real time personalised news and score updates. While chatting about their favourite moments, fans can also share and edit pictures and videos as well as add quirky sports stickers and filters.

Meikle recognised a shifting landscape in the way fans were consuming sport and felt the digital experience was too fragmented and far from engaging.

"There are many sports apps which allow you to stay updated with news and scores, but they're very passive and lack a fun or social element. Alternatively, there are many social apps which lack relevant sports information to drive the conversation," Meikle explains.

"Our goal is to provide the simplest, most convenient and fun way for fans to stay up-to-date about the sports they love and for that to be coupled with a great social experience. Our strategy is to innovate and look at not just how fans are consuming sport today, but also try to cater and even guide them towards a new consumption behaviour for the future," he continues.

In early 2012, Meikle co-founded Sportlobster. In just three years, his business exploded onto the app scene, bringing together over three million registered users and forming partnerships with Cristiano Ronaldo and the NBA.

Constellation Sports Ltd (the parent company of 10) acquired Sportlobster in 2016. The acquisition was aimed at refocusing the business and launching a platform more in line with fans' shifting behaviour, engagement and technological advances.

"The acquisition and restructuring was quite a challenge. Building a product that holds a lot of functionality and detail, but making it appear and function as a very clean, simple, user-friendly app was a daunting task. However, I think we've done a great job achieving this," he claims.
10, headquartered in Dubai with an office in London, has the backing of Dubai-based Daman Investments, which has invested Dh9.56 million ($2.6 million) in the company.

"We've just opened a $4 million [Dh14.72 million] Series A round, of which we've already secured $2 million [Dh7.36 million] from our existing investors in the UAE. Initial discussions around the remaining $2 million have gone very well and we'll be using September to expand our discussions to close the balance with investors that are right for us," says Meikle.

Shehab Gargash, chairman of Daman Investments, says the emergence of value in users engaging in online communities is both rapid and significant.

"Considering the number of people around the world who passionately follow sports every week, there is an opportunity to drive major value if you can create a platform which builds sports fan communities. 10 is targeting the shift in online fan engagement and sports content consumption to capitalise on a global opportunity at just the right time. We believe Andy and the team have the necessary experience and passion to successfully execute the plan," he says.

Meikle believes that having grown up in Dubai and previously founded a multi-million dollar tech company put him in an advantageous position to focus on this region.

"10 will cover every major sporting event that is hosted here, for example the Dubai Desert Classic, or the Dubai Tennis Championship. However, the main reason 10 is relevant in this region is because the UAE fans are more passionate about sport," he says.

"This coupled with high smartphone penetration and time spent on social media makes 10 - as a sport social app - something that we feel will be very welcome in the UAE," he continues.

Currently, the app focuses on 10 sports i.e, football, tennis, cricket, golf, rugby, Formula 1, NBA, NFL, NHL and major boxing events.

"The ultimate goal is to make sport available on demand to all fans, and for that to be a very simple, fun and engaging way to consume sport. I believe we're on the right track to achieve this, but we're also very agile, just as one must be in order to succeed in a digital world," Meikle claims.  
Revealing his future plans, Meikle says 10 plans to unveil many developments in 2018.

"There are confidential product developments in the pipeline, which we will be working on and releasing in stages from now until then. It's at that time that we'll look to begin the scaling of our audience, using the 2018 FIFA World Cup as the catalyst to accelerate our growth," he says.

Meikle is confident that over the next five years, 10 will be one of the world's leading platforms for fans to access sport on demand.

"We will see a major shift in sports broadcasting, sports consumption and fan engagement, particularly as social media disrupts the traditional sport broadcasting model," he concludes.

- riaz@khaleejtimes.com