A Fantasy Engine for Decision-Making – Interview with Karan.S. Kumar,

A real-time & responsive fantasy engine that brings value to every second of the player, is what matters when it comes to being a trustworthy and fulling gaming platform OpenPlay Tech just happen to have the right ingredients to be a real differentiator in the market. By Manthra Koliyer

ne of the industries

Othat have progressed massively during the COVID-19 pandemic would be the fantasy sports sector. By conducting league tournaments worth lakhs and lakhs every day, fantasy sports have grown from a humble beginning into a big industry today.

Cricket is a religion in India, and fantasy sports proved to be a way to capitalise on the same massively. Gutshot has always been intrigued about what went into making the perfect fantasy sports platform that has the strength to see the soaring IPL days and function even.

We got in touch with Karan S Kumar, Leadership at InnoPark Pvt. Ltd, to know more about OpenPlay Tech, a leading skill gaming company that offers fantasy sports. OpenPlay Tech uses technology at every step of the way for user retention on their platform.

Kumar mentioned, “We use an automated customer success platform to understand our user behaviour and to analyse all their interactions with the platform. With the insights, we build out user journeys that are fulfilling for the users and remove any roadblocks that we find through the data. We further quizzed him to understand the process of how OpenPlay Tech uses technological advancements.

Having a solid customer success platform, understanding the issues and roadblocks that users face, and addressing them to provide a superior user experience impact the cost of user retention. Building a strong customer-centric platform itself, where technology is used as a tool to provide a great gaming experience, helps.

Our fantasy engine is one of the most responsive and real-time engines around. Being a fantasy product based on live sports, every second count, and getting it as close to real-time as possible provides a unique edge to our users in terms of decision making. The other area where technology makes a difference is security. Being a real money wagering platform, our users’ information and money must be always

secure. Security is a part of our development process, and we ensure that the platform and the user’s interests are secure across multiple touchpoints.

We are a fantasy gaming platform with the users’ real money at stake; so, security is one of the most crucial parts of our product development. There are checks at every touchpoint to ensure a secure gaming experience. From a server standpoint, we use the latest security paradigms to ensure that all the communication is secure and encrypted. We have stringent fraud checks on the platform and employ comprehensive suspicious behaviour matrices to flag inadvertent user behaviour. Our payment services follow the best industry safety standards and our 24\/7 customer support to address any customer issues immediately.

AI-powered fantasy sports platforms enable users to make more informed decisions regarding their team selections. They are guided by AI-powered analysis that considers everything from the weather to the competing teams and even the historical player data. By providing this information, even novice users who are not hardcore fans can stand a chance to win by competing.

Using cricket simulators assists in exposing users to patterns and decision-making factors that they have not previously been exposed to and gives them a chance to compete more seriously. This helps in user retention. However, when it comes to cricket, I believe that we have hardcore fans that are as good if not better than the simulators.

We offer a transparent and secure platform to compete on, using technology to ensure a brilliant customer experience. By providing users a frictionless user experience with real-time data as possible when it comes to fantasy scores, we make sure that we cater to a hassle-free experience that users wish to have.

Our app has been designed with our users at the center of the experience. Our team has over 5 decades of combined experience in the gaming space. This has led to a deep understanding of customer needs and how we can provide as frictionless a user experience as possible. Apart from that, the design aspect also considers the gamer’s persona and uses a combination of design patterns and visual guidelines that are familiar for the users to feel comfortable while using the application.

What we see right now is only the tip of the iceberg in the fantasy sports industry. There is a massive potential for this industry in India, considering that this is a sports-crazed nation. There is potential for new formats of fantasy sports to emerge. We are already seeing a few different formats being tried out by new start-ups. Also, our fantasy sports industry is majorly focused on cricket for now. There is also an opportunity to focus on other sports followed in the country; for example, new and upcoming sports like MMA and Boxing are gaining popularity right now.

Currently, various sports leagues in India are attracting a more significant number of audiences than ever before. This breakthrough has mainly come through due to the evolution of digital infrastructure, smartphones’ availability, and the massive penetration of internet services.

Fantasy Sports has bloomed like never before during this digital era, and this fad is here to last.