SportsWonks looking to provide new home for diehard fans on the internet
One of the places where sports are consumed and discussed most heavily is on social media platforms like Facebook, Reddit and Twitter. A new platform aimed just at sports fans, SportsWonks, aims to invade that space.
Communities of sports fans on social media abound, and the revenue they bring to the platforms is vital to the success of brands like Facebook. SportsWonks is looking to take that part of the social media experience and isolate it for fans.
The diehard fans are not only the target demographic, but who the entire experience on the site was designed for, according to founder Jason Malki.
“We chose the name ‘SportsWonks’ because we want true sports fans to make up the majority of our community,” Malki explained. “We want to attract fans who know their starting lines, what colleges their favorite players went to, what those players are averaging per game, etc. A wonk is basically someone who knows everything about their specialization or field.”
With the recent launch of the desktop and mobile-responsive site, several features are provided to users who register for free. Users have the ability to share general posts that they think of themselves (like a Facebook status update). They can also share links and upload photos. In addition, fans have access to video highlights curated from YouTube by the SportsWonks team.
Malki says that he hopes to make a mobile application available this summer, and that other features like events, groups and polls are in the works. It’s all aimed at competing with the more-established social media networks for the attention and time of sports fans.
“We believe that true sports fans have a big appetite for sports news, content and social interactions with other fans,” Malki added. “When they go onto these more established, more general social networks there is so much noise that it’s rare that a sports fans gets to interact with the type of content that they’re looking for.”
While SportsWonks may be the latest, they aren’t the first to attempt launching a sports-focused social media platform. Others have failed to grab a significant share of the market, but Malki believes his product can succeed.
“This is my second venture together along with my colleague,” Malki said. “We founded StrtupBoost together three years ago which is New York City’s leading startup event series. We have a heavy emphasis on retention and propagation features on our development road map. One other reason we’ll succeed is timing. Over the last few years ESPN has lost over 10 million subscribers and in the last few months they’ve laid off hundreds of employees. The way sports fans are consuming content is rapidly changing and we’re positioning ourselves to capitalize on the fall out from traditional media.”
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Malki’s belief in the product is proven by the fact that the financial backing has all been in-house thus far.
“At this point we are totally self-funded, but we are in talks with Angel Investors and VC Firms in NYC,” Malki elaborated. “We would like to get a lot of users before we consider accepting a check. Promoted content is definitely a route we’re considering. We’re also collecting user data so that we can target our users with relevant sports tickets and merchandise options. Our main focus right now and for the foreseeable future is to grow a strong, active user base which will give us the ability to either generate revenue and/or attract investors. That will allow us to create an incredible user experience. Another part of the long term vision is to become the heart of the online sports experience, not only for fans, but also for athletes, sports news outlets, sports teams, and sports leagues.”
Whether SportsWonks will succeed in its mission to become the web destination for diehard sports fans remains to be seen. What’s certain is that Malki and his team are invested in doing all they can toward that end.