We want to be lean, yet grow fast: Porush Jain, Sportskeeda

The implementation of the lockdown on account of Covid-19 saw all sporting events – including the Olympics and the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2020 – cancelled or postponed. The lack of sports content impacted both the revenues and traffic of sports news websites such as Sportskeeda, forcing the company to be agile and innovate at a quick pace.

Recounting how Sportskeeda responded to the situation, Porush Jain, Founder, and CEO, Sportskeeda says, “We were a little worried after sporting events were cancelled as we thrive on sports news. We saw a 70% decline in our audience and revenues in the month of April. However, we quickly switched focus to esports and gaming.”

This move showed quick results, as Jain says, “The results we got were surprising. We got nearly a 200X jump in the daily esports audience, making us the no.1 esports media and news site in the country in just three months. We have grown pretty well, both in terms of users, revenue, and profitability.”

Commenting further on the revenue front, Jain says, “The revenues were down for us only in the month of April and May and post that we have done well. We have nearly quadrupled the revenue that we got in April. Our wrestling section is a major revenue driver and we will keep investing to improve our offerings.”

Advantage: eSports

The Indian market has a lot of potential for growth and is one of the fastest growing markets for esports. High-speed internet, increased usage of smartphones and access to hardware has helped the growth of esports.
Jain highlights that a Newzoo report states that the global Esports market is expected to generate revenues of $1059.3 million in 2020 and $1598.2 million in 2023. With the internet and smartphone penetration deepening every day in India, this could mean a significant share of the global Esports revenue. The Esports audience is over 500 million across the world, and India has contributed a significant amount over the past few years, thanks to the growth of mobile Esports.

“We get close to 32 million monthly unique users from across the globe and across sports. The mix keeps changing the basis of the events and tournaments. Servicing multiple sports like cricket, Esports, football, WWE etc. are like running different sites. User behaviour for sports like cricket and ESports is completely different. However, on average, we get over 3.5 minutes of average session time. While the median age for a wrestling fan in the USA is 35, the median age of the cricket audience at Sportskeeda is 25 and has a higher inclination towards playing fantasy cricket,” he says.

Game Play Post Nazara Acquisition

Last year, Nazara Technology acquired a 67% stake in Sportskeeda for Rs 44 crore. Nazara has stakes in multiple sports and gaming companies like Nodwin Gaming, Hala Play, WCC2 and Top Quiz amongst others. According to Jain, “It has been a great experience working closely with Nitish Mittersain, Founder & MD, Nazara Technologies, and Manish Agarwal, CEO, Nazara Technologies. Their experience in gaming, esports, and global reach helps a lot.”

For Sportskeeda the biggest synergies are with Nodwin Gaming – an Esports and Gaming company, HalaPlay – a fantastic sports platform and WCC - a cricket simulation game. Nazara also brings in expertise in common direct sales and with a presence in 61 countries Nazara has helped Sportskeeda scale up its operations globally.

Commenting on what sport drives traction, Jain says, “The major categories in India are cricket and Esports. We are expecting 45 million monthly users this cricket season, up by 40% from last year. Football, wrestling, and basketball attract a lot of international audiences on Sportskeeda.”

eSports, a sixer but PUBG bowled out

According to Jain, “Currently, we receive 12 million monthly users on our Esports section. The major contribution of traffic comes from FreeFire, GTA, Volarant, and COD. Seeing the trends, we believe a lot more people will start following Esports and we shall keep adding more games and tournaments at a brisk pace, as we go along.”

However, PUBG was a major contributor to this traffic and the recent ban has impacted the entire Indian Esports ecosystem. Jain says, “There’s no denying that the PUBG Mobile ban will affect Sportskeeda and the Indian Esports ecosystem. PUBG Mobile was what cricket is to the country from a traditional sports perspective, and it constituted a major chunk of the website's Esports traffic as well.”

“When the initial list of banned apps was announced (TikTok list), we pre-emptively decided to scale operation in other mobile Esports titles,” he added.

According to Jain, post PUBG’s ban Free Fire and COD Mobile in the mobile Esports ecosystem saw a spike in player base and indirectly viewership. From the PC side of things, Jain says that Valorant has shown standout spectator numbers.

IP Content, Videos & IPL to drive traction

WWE was one event that was not interrupted by the pandemic as the sport continued behind closed doors. As the situation improved in Europe, football and smaller cricket tournaments, which get good traction with fantasy cricket fans, resumed on the continent. On its part, Sportskeeda covered the above extensively.

Besides Esports, another change that Sportskeeda implemented during the lockdown was switching focus to video pieces in March and April, investing heavily in creating Video IPs. The company recently launched two video series Freehit and SKlive.

Launched in July 2020, Free Hit is an interview series with sports legends shot at homes of sportspersons. The series has featured cricketing legends Sourav Ganguly, Kapil Dev, and Yuvraj Singh and the three videos have garnered over 10 million views. New episodes are now being lined up for the second season.

On the other hand, SKLive is a daily web interview series with current and past sports legends. In 100 days, Sportskeeda has interacted with over 100 sports stars such as cricketers Ravi Chandran Ashwin, Javagal Srinath, Mhd. Azharuddin, boxer Vijender Singh, athlete Anju Bobby George, footballer Baichung Bhutia, tennis players Leander Paes and Sania Mirza and chess Grandmaster Vishwanathan Anand amongst others.
“The response has been overwhelming and this has boosted our confidence. Users can expect a few more engaging video IPs from us very soon,” says Jain

With all eyes now on the Indian Premier League, scheduled for September 19, Sportskeeda is optimistic on the annual T20 cricketing property. According to Jain, “We are expecting close to 45 million unique users/visitors during IPL which is a good 40% increase from the last year. We are expecting anywhere between 800 million to 1 billion ad impressions available for advertisers to market their offerings. We have also added a few innovative ad properties along with the high impact and elite ad properties that we had earlier.”

The Future Game Play

Sportskeeda’s focus has primarily been on its website and the company ‘never really focused much on the App’. The company now plans to launch sports specific apps for Sportskeeda with unique content and also expand the Esports vertical both in India and abroad. Videos IPR will be a major focus along with widening and deepening its content play, adding more sports and deeper coverage for the existing sports. Sportskeeda is looking to expand rapidly and also strengthen its direct sales teams.

“We might open an office in the USA/Canada. We are looking at doubling the revenues in the next year. 2021 as of now, looks packed with major sporting events like Olympics, IPL and the T20 World Cup falling in that same year.”

On a final note when asked about the challenges looking ahead, Jain said, “The biggest challenge will be to focus on the right things at the right time. We don’t want to get carried. We are less than a 50-member team currently, we want to be lean, yet grow fast.”