The latest version of SportsCastr introduced the game of the Week competition and leaderboard

We write these article not only to build awareness for our product and progress, but because we believe, ethically, that the transparent sharing of knowledge is the best way to endorse a healthy industry. If we share even one bit of information that proves helpful, we’ll know we have not written in vain.

The secret to providing an immersive platform is to build enough of the right features to make sure users always have something to do, but to do so without overwhelming them. Too much of a good thing and you run the risk of selling snow to an eskimo. And the moment a user feels like they’re being proselytized they’re gone. What’s more, it is critical to iterate. App updates that are sweeping in their scope often mar the user experience. Similarly, updates that introduce a slew of new features can lead to what we call the diner menu effect, wherein the customer has too many options, and you, as the developer, will have difficulty separating the good features from the bad. For example, a user who is made aware of six new things to do on a platform might not know where to start, and so chooses to test out one of the features pretty much at random. The developer in this instance has already lost out on a critical data point: what attracts our users’ attention most immediately? If our developer in this scenario had rolled out the features in a sequence, there would have been much more to glean. (We discuss an app’s evolutionary trajectory in a previous article.) This week we introduce a new feature that we think the SportsCastr community is going to love: The Game of the Week.

As tempting as reinventing the wheel often is, many times it’s best to offer something tried and true. The SportsCastr Game of the Week will give our users the opportunity to compete with one another for prizes by going live about a particular game selected by our Community team. Sometimes we will select a widely accessible matchup, say an NBA Playoff game. But other times we might see how our users react to us shaking it up a bit. Perhaps the #GOTW will be a women’s college basketball game, a cricket match or an MMA middleweight championship bout.

As sports fans ourselves we have, time and again, had our horizons broadened by watching new sports. Who knew our North American office could root so passionately for Korean speed skaters or Norwegian downhill skiers during the Pyeongchang Olympics? Of course, we anticipate that certain #GOTW events will draw greater enthusiasm than others and we will have to be careful not to be dogmatic in our selections, but we are also confident that sports lovers are just that: lovers of sports.

SportsCastr is predicated upon discovery and engagement. The Game of the Week is sure to reward our users while it connects them to one another, brings them closer to the sports they love and encourages them to explore the wide world of sports.