Back in 2016 when Facebook first opened up their chatbot platform on Messenger there were some immediate early adopters in the sports industry but probably the first really big breakthrough happened when NBA released its Messenger bot just in time for the Finals between the Golden State Warriors and the Cleveland Cavaliers the same year. Ever since then, sports teams all around the globe implement the technology at an impressively fast pace and introduce their own bots and chat channels.

First examples were concentrating on to show highlights of specific players, top plays and condensed action from games but as the technology evolved and more and more possibilities got implemented, chat channels grew out to be a must have marketing tools for sports teams.

In fact, this is exactly how multichat.ai was born. The team was working on a complex sports backend system at the time, we were looking for new ways to engage fans and immediately saw the brilliant opportunity that conversational marketing brings. So, this is the field where we have the most experience as we were there right from the very beginning. We built countless different sports chat experiences from Ferencvárosi Torna Club (Fradi) for football to Panathinaikos B.C. for basketball and even a dedicated Viber channel for eSports just to name a few.

Based on our years of hands on experience:
Here are our (not so) 101, ten plus one best conversational use cases for the sports industry that we saw bringing solid results to our teams!

 

1. Ticket Sales
   The ticket and merch sales process can provide a good branding opportunity for the game/team: users open up the corresponding instant messaging app, get in touch through the Facebook page of the team or open the webchat in the webshop
   The bot automatically promotes the games and the user can discover the lineup, highlights, shedule, locations and all other details in the chat conversation. The conversation is enhanced with rich media content types (videos, cards, GIFs..etc.), navigation is mainly built on a decision tree, users pick their preferred pathway by clicking on chat buttons or sending short texts
   If the user is not immediately interested in purchasing any items, the goal could be to sign them up for further marketing messages.
   If a user is ready to purchase, there is an instant buy option inside the chat, the purchase can be fully completed in the conversation. In the process the system can prompt for more user data (with the consent of the user) for after-sales activities
   Items are listed on cards with their price, the bot can recommend additional items and upgrades
   Once the payment is completed, the chatbot also confirms the order. Users coming through the webchat are asked to sign up with their Facebook Messenger or email address
   Different conversational elements and blocks can lead to different customer journeys (weekly pass vs daily ticket)
   Ticket Sales Assistant can be added to the website or subpage for transaction support

The rest of the collection is organized into a comprehensive eBook that you can download and use by clicking below.

If you need a custom built solution for your team or want a highly integrated lead generation bot in the team’s official shop, don’t hesitate to get in touch with us.