Artificial intelligence can closely analyse user behaviour on your app to identify actionable patterns and insights that help make each user’s experience on the app more personal. This improves the quality of time they spend on the app by preventing anything irrelevant for them from showing on their feeds. Look at any widely used app around you, such as Instagram or Spotify, and you will notice your feed on each app is different from your friends using the same app. This happens because the machine learning algorithm deployed by these platforms learn from your app usage habits, likes and dislikes for content on the app and bring you what’s most relevant for you.

AI in fantasy games works exactly like that. For example, AI in a fantasy cricket app↗ catering to users in India as well as the UK can show each user content within the app based on their location. So, while users in India see content about IPL, those in the UK see more content about the Hundred.

It can also help users pick a team of players based on their past activity, and specific player attributes by identifying which players with those attributes are more likely to play well. This can be a game-changer for fantasy sports app businesses, most of which are looking to capitalize on the user interaction final 30 minutes before the real match begins because that is when the users’ excitement is at its peak and user experience on the app has to match up to it.

The combined potential of AI and fantasy sports is set to re-define gaming experiences with enhanced engagement. As this industry progresses towards accommodating more and more games, and niche formats by way of establishing the complete ecosystem for sports lovers, AI presents an opportunity to re-envision how they play and make the most out of your fantasy gaming app.

Daniel Ek, the Founder of Spotify, in one of his letters to shareholders said that giving users access to everything was not enough. Users want more, and this can only be provided through personalization, the easiest tool in the hands of app businesses today to make users claim the app as their own.

Machine learning algorithms in gaming can facilitate this level of user loyalty, without which no app can hope to become like Dream 11, Draft Kings, FanDuel and the like. These fantasy sports apps around the world have managed to captivate and retain users with their experiences and unique appeal. Mentioned below are reasons why a personalized gaming experience is non-negotiable-

Relevance

AI in Game Development allows fantasy game owners to make each of their users feel understood. This isn’t just a benefit for attracting users irrespective of their location with specific content, but also accommodating their unique needs to make your app relevant to one and all. This relevance is not just a matter of what features your app has, but how distinctive and immersing an experience it can provide.

With AI in gaming, you can give each player tailored recommendations based on their past behaviours, suit game formats to meet individual user preferences (such as daily sports, or season-long games), and provide tailored insights based on their app usage patterns. For example, AI can identify and highlight patterns like not benching subpar players and provide strategies for optimizing users’ teams in their playing style. Additionally, it can also help you incentivise users with tailored rewards for them, ensuring consistent engagement and retention. You can easily reward a user who consistently participates in daily sports by offering an incentive of lowered entry fee to them (this won’t be just another benefit, but something that matters for them).

Accessibility

Fantasy sports games involve a layer of complexities for the unseasoned player. They can find it overwhelming to select players, create their teams, or even understand game rules and point calculations. Without a clear understanding of the essential steps to play a game, they cannot be expected to enjoy the gaming experience, leave alone come back to it for more. This limits the number of people who can access your fantasy sports app.

Canva, the most popular graphic design platform, once faced the same issue. Designing as an activity was limited to a select few only and others stayed away from the app thinking it wasn’t meant for them. The Canva team found an answer to this initially by gamifying the onboarding process, and ultimately by personalizing it according to each user.

AI-driven game customization can help you do exactly that. Just by segmenting seasoned and new players, you can give each user group tutorials and guides that make sense for them. By doing so, you can expand your game’s access to all sports enthusiasts alike, irrespective of the experience they have in playing. These custom onboarding journeys can eliminate barriers for non-seasoned players and invite them towards a fulfilling gaming experience like the seasoned ones.

Competition

The fantasy sports app market is full of endless options for users. With so many fantasy sports apps in the market, each trying to incorporate multiple games or formats, the competition for user engagement and loyalty is fierce. Users have all reason to switch their preferences in favour of a better option if their existing choice does not meet their expectations.

This phenomenon is well-known and dreaded by nearly all app-based businesses. Users typically churn out when they find an app difficult to use, can’t decipher its technicalities, or receive constant notifications that are not relevant to them. These factors affect the overall user experience, compromising user engagement, and retention.

AI in fantasy sports can help fantasy game businesses gain a competitive edge by providing users with an experience that works best for them, enhancing every aspect of it. This could start from tailored onboarding to data-driven suggestions for player-drafting after analysing their performance and injury risks to suggest who would be the most likely to win, optimizing users’ teams, forecasting player performance to minimize the guesswork from users’ decisions, and so on.

Revenue Opportunities

Stable revenue generation is the major driving force behind fantasy sports apps. It is this very potential that attracts billions of sports fans across the world to explore monetization possibilities through their favourite sport. A crucial part of this depends on how users engage with the app and find it valuable enough to spend their time and money.

However, revenue is also generated from ads, in-app purchases and promotions. When targeted right, these maximize the chances of conversion and directly reflect on revenue. Users are most likely to engage with promotions that align with their interests and AI can help you identify patterns from user habits to serve targeted promotional material.

When it comes to using AI in the gaming industry, it’s not just leveraging the latest tech available. It is a step towards making a distinctive mark for your users, enabling them to play the game better with data-driven decisions and have an immersive experience while at it. It enhances your USP and makes the time spent on your app worth remembering.

Fantasy sports fans turn to fantasy sports apps with a lot of excitement, strategic thinking prowess, and cognitive reasoning ready to be applied to the game. Their psychology and context of playing are crucial factors determining the quality of experience they have on your app. AI can augment users’ psychological and strategic prowess and give them a personal experience that appeals more to them. Mentioned below are ways in which AI personalizes the fantasy gaming experience for players-

Onboarding

The role of the onboarding process goes way beyond just letting users in and access your app. It is the very beginning of the interaction a user has with your app. It is a crucial aspect in helping you win the initial trust of the user, so they will consider trying your offering. Its role is, therefore, decisive in winning or losing a user based on their experience.

Now consider the context of your user coming to sign up on your app. Either they are seasoned sports fans who want to enjoy their favourite games in their digital avatar, or they’re new to gaming but want to embrace its joy through the comfort of a digital medium. Either way, their sign-up experience should be devoid of all friction to ensure their excitement is not lost, or they are not overwhelmed by the process itself to miss out on what the app has to offer.

AI in gaming can ensure the onboarding process is frictionless by enabling you to tailor it for each user. Not only can you send them custom recommendations on specific games, or tailor their guides, but you can create unique onboarding flows for every segment of your users. The possibilities range from segmenting them according to their skill level at the outset and directing them to leagues and contests they will most likely enjoy, to giving them an option to opt for custom push notifications at the outset (like opting for a notification alerting them on how close they are for topping the leader board, or when they need to optimize their line up based on player predictions).

Home screen and dashboard

Fantasy sports fans are sports enthusiasts with an additional expectation of being active participants in the game, rather than passive spectators. The home screen and dashboard are central to this expectation as they give users an idea of how they can take control of the game they play.

Users today expect transparency and clarity for every minute they spend on an app, irrespective of whichever industry it is. They appreciate it when they have all relevant information at their disposal and know what to do next. A lot of irrelevant information to a particular user may hinder with smooth experience and confuse them altogether about what matters. This is as much a question of relevance as it is of a well-designed UX.

With AI in your fantasy sports app, you can ensure users of transparency, clarity and relevance right from the outset. You can give them relevant information optimally, while the AI recommendation can learn from user behaviour to give relevant suggestions on leagues and challenges users would like. Additionally, an AI assistant can also help users with strategies for upcoming contests while comparing each of their moves and results they have generated in the past.

Also read: Which AI-Driven Strategies Are Dominating the Fantasy Sports Platform↗

Joining a contest, selecting players based on past performance

This is one of the core activities within a fantasy sports app. Users should be able to join a contest according to their preference of entry fees, complexity, and so on. Their next step is building their fantasy team by selecting players on their past performance. Users’ experience at this stage directly reflects on your fantasy sports app’s defining metrics.

Any friction at this stage can result in user churn because users are likely to miss out on the strategic advantage it gives them. This is an opportunity for them to apply their skill and strategic prowess to get ahead of fellow players.

AI-driven fantasy sports predictions can eliminate the guesswork from this stage and simplify it with personalised draft tips based on injury possibility, opponent strength, and predicting who is most likely to win by analysing large sets of historical performance data.

The accuracy it can bring to predictions is invaluable after analysing performance variables such as venues, weather, team combination and so on. Another possibility of enhanced prediction is the ability of artificial intelligence to provide an accurate weather analysis. It can suggest to users which player has a better track record at a particular stadium, that they can readily use to their benefit.

Progress Tracking

Progress tracking is as much a part of the core gaming experience as are team and player selections. This part of the game witnesses maximum excitement with users glued to the leaderboard to see how their players are performing under defined conditions, and where they stand among others.

The basic expectation at this stage is to understand one’s points according to rules set by the admin for a particular game. But how can that experience of waiting eagerly for the game’s outcomes be made worthwhile?

This is where the role of artificial intelligence in fantasy sports platform customization comes into play. Users experience while tracking progress can be enhanced with customized push notifications conveying where they stand or conveying important rank changes at specific events (for example, when their selected player hits a boundary). Additionally, AI can also personalize performance summary beyond numerical statistics to give users a detailed view of their success rate over time, top contributors to their success, and choices which previously compromised match outcomes.

Social community engagement

Community engagement within fantasy sports apps plays a crucial role in translating the real game experience to its digital counterpart. Sports enthusiasts are competitive by nature and community engagement only fuels their excitement further. Seeing how they are performing vis-a-vis fellow players in each of the games excites and engages them like nothing else.

AI can make this experience more personal for each user to ensure they truly enjoy their time on your app. From analyzing users’ past activity and preferences to give them tailored content suggestions, and providing interaction prompts to make this engagement more meaningful, AI can enhance the way users connect with each other in the context of their favourite games and create a hook for more in the future.