NEW YORK, NY and MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA — (Marketwired) — 04/14/15 — , the first right-time communications platform company, today announced its inaugural Sports Fan Analytics Report which analyzes communication via personal digital calendars as indicators of fan engagement. ECAL works with pro and amateur teams to deliver a direct and trusted line of communication between fans and their favorite teams via their personal digital calendar. The Super Bowl Champion New England Patriots, the Chicago Bears, Washington Redskins, Major League Soccer, USA Volleyball, The Boston Celtics, Duke and UConn Athletics, the LPGA and over twenty eight international soccer teams use ECAL for a direct in-calendar link to their fans. Fans choose what information they would like to receive from their favorite teams, including match schedules, events, team and athlete appearances, gear sales and other information. Over 600,000 fans worldwide use the ECAL dynamic calendar service to interact with their favorite sports teams.
The ECAL March Sports Fan Analytics Report revealed that the most popular digital sports schedule download in March was the Australian Grand Prix followed by the Seattle Sounders with the Major League Soccer master schedule coming in third.
When it comes to in-calendar communication, 73% of sports fans sampled prefer to connect to their favorite teams via desktop computers, 26% connected via mobile devices, while the rest connected either via Facebook or other methods. Of the fans who connect via mobile devices, iPhone remained the most popular platform with 49% of users connecting via iPhone. Android came in second place at 46%, 3.7% of fans connected via Windows phones while just 0.7% connected via Blackberry.
The analytics also revealed that fan engagement varies by sport, additional analytics included:
According to demographic data, men are more interested in connecting to their favorite sports teams via their personal calendars. 68% of U.S. soccer fans are male while 77% of NFL fans are male.
While sports fans in general preferred iPhone over Android, 17% of NFL fans synced their favorite team–s schedules to Android with 12% connected via iPhone.
iPhone and Android devices were equally as popular among soccer fans.
With soccer fans: 70% connect via desktop calendars, 28% via mobile devices, 2% via Facebook.
With NFL fans: 67% connect via desktop calendars, 30% to mobile devices, 3% to Facebook.
With college sports fans: 73.5% connect via desktop calendars, 25% via mobile devices, 2% via Facebook.
“The ECAL platform gives us valuable insight into how sports fans prefer to receive events-based communications, what calendar programs they use, who they are, and how they behave within the calendar space,” said Patrick Barrett, Founder and CEO of ECAL. “We see very high levels of engagement from the calendar space (via click-throughs) for generally high value items (such as buying tickets). We also expect to see the continued rise of the mobile device as the primary way to manage your important life schedule.”
is the first right-time, event-driven communications platform that forges closer, more influential relationships between consumers and their favorite event-based organizations.
Over 300 major sports and entertainment brands rely on ECAL to increase revenue streams, acquire important customer data, and develop deeper levels of engagement and trust with high value customers. Over 600K people rely on ECAL-based communication to stay connected to the teams, people, brands and organizations they care about. Flagship customers include The New England Patriots, Chicago Bears, Washington Redskins, Boston Celtics, Major League Soccer, USA Volleyball, Ladies Professional Golf Association, UCONN and Duke University athletics, plus major sports across Australia, New Zealand and United Kingdom.
The management team has played key roles in prestigious organizations, including The British Horseracing Board (UK), Carlton Football Club (Aust), SecurePay (Aust), Real Estate Group, and iSelect. ECAL Directors include Patrick Barrett (Founder & CEO), Larry Kestelman who founded Dodo Internet (sold $220M), Matt McCann (former Director / CEO at iSelect, Shazam, and Allens Arthur Robinson lawyers) and Ilya Frolov, Founding Partner at Oxygen Ventures (ECAL–s lead investor). ECAL Advisors include Chris Bernard of Microsoft, David Riemer formerly of Yahoo and JWalter Thompson and Simon Raik-Allen, current CTO at MYOB.
ECAL was founded in 2010 by Patrick Barrett with the platform built and launched in 2012. ECAL is globally headquartered in Melbourne, Australia with a U.S. Headquarters in New York, New York.
Cameron Smead
Karbo Communications for ECAL
415.255.6506
Julie Karbo
415.255.6505
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