Spit, the name in it by itself may sound odd, but i.TV’s Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Brad Pelo, tells SportTechie that such a moniker intends to be “memorable” and serve numerous contexts within the user’s app experience.
As the largest consumer-facing social medium designed specifically for television, i.TV, has launched this iOS available app called Spit in time for Thursday Night Football debut on CBS. Essentially, its primary function is to allow fans the avenue to predict the outcome of plays in real-time.
Accordingly, users can challenge fellow friends during games spanning the three major sports leagues and collegiate football and basketball. Prior to the start of these games, fans peruse the app and immediately provide their take on matters like who they think will win a given game or the final score. Real-time questions intuitively present themselves thereafter, with intervals of ten seconds in between to make a choice that has varied point possibilities. A leaderboard also showcases where users stand and it’s updated shortly after the on-field play concludes.
“There’s a broad range of experiences and ours is intended to be a ‘game around the game’ rather than social feeds, tracking stats, or information gathering. It’s tailored to the competitor who enjoys being an armchair quarterback,” says Pelo.
The premise, however, tends to be quite similar to other second-screen options out there. Spogo and Buffalo Wild Wings’ platforms have started to tap into this casual, yet additive-focused environment. This format intends to be a simpler, convenient way to introduce gamification intertwined with television, sans dedicating too much time off from the sporting event. While it caters for casual fans and gaming enthusiasts alike, it’s the former that’s the larger opportunity segment. Thus, the app’s ecosystem crafts another passive form of user engagement.
Pelo asserts that “no one” has developed an ease-of-use, adventitious second-screen game like Spit–the aforementioned examples of competitors would stand as otherwise. He claims that most fans have to either partake in the fantasy sports space or gaming. The former would necessitate more time and knowledge spent, while the latter has “complex” and “technical” UX in real-time versions. A balance of these two experiences is difficult to seamlessly strike, something that Rivalry Games is attempting to create. Spit, though, takes a step back from completely funneling into one of these categories in favor for opening it up to the masses–in spite of what others are equivalently doing as well.
“We believe that when watching broadcast events, the second-screen experience should be the specific to the kind of activities suited to the genre. In the case of Spit, viewers of sporting events want to engage with the second-screen in ways that are unique from other genres–for example, dramas or reality shows,” Pelo states.
Consequently, Spit’s development derived plenty of product insights from Nintendo’s TVii property. This software enabled a cross-functional experience between the user’s television and the Wii U GamePad controller. It converged over-the-top offerings and social integration from a device used by the gaming community. Additional context, though, needed to come together in order for any community to truly embrace it and form. The behaviors tracked here shed light on cultivating something dedicated to sports fans.
What’s more, i.TV’s acquisition of GetGlue, the social check-in app, last year certainly influenced their decision to launch Spit. This move stemmed from GetGlue’s active user base, comprised of over a million of its nearly five million total at the time, and established partnerships across 75 different broadcasters. The key, though, has been to activate mostly passive users through these power ones, which would amplify messaging better. Despite the contrasting users of GetGlue and Spit, they don’t want to “shoehorn” sports fans into the former’s experience.
“The user value proposition boils down to creating the same conditions around socialization during a game, but making it easier to connect with your friends who are not in a room with you,” describes Pelo with regards to Spit’s purpose.
Although monetization and broadcaster models couldn’t be disclose by them this early, what i.TV has done so far with similar properties would fall in line for Spit, too. In fact, this app leverages a lot of the backend services from its predecessors. They will cross-promote this product’s genre and use distinct, internal case studies to solve initial scalability processes. NFL games, for one, tested out well with users a year ago, which made sense to serve as its initial launching point.
Going forward, Pelo believes the second-screen experience to continue as a first generation avenue for adoption, especially due to everything that has transpired in this ongoing climate. Sports fans, naturally, will be inclined to prefer generic outlets, like Twitter and Facebook, as their primary destination.
“Until a purpose-built platform demonstrates enough benefit, then the user will be willing to trade off breadth for relevance and engagement,” Pelo acknowledged.
So, though Spit may sound atypical for a sports app name, the same game that ends with an exit from those in this space bounds to be what’s spitted out at the end.