What inspired you to found SportVot and delve into the sports streaming and talent discovery industry?
We came with the concept and idea of SportVot in 2019. It all started when I (Sidhhant Agarwal) and Mr. Yash Bhagwatkar used to do a performance review of IPL players and one cricketer from Bangalore approached us to review his performance and his stats. That’s when we realized the absence of a structured talent discovery and scouting process at the grassroots sports ecosystem in India.
Digging deep into the subject, we realized that the absence of digitisation and the lack of resources to broadcast and digitise the games at the local or grassroots level, bringing zero to none visibility to the athletes, thus leading to lack of availability of accurate data. That’s when the idea of SportVot – an innovative platform offering real-time, precise statistics and video data for grassroots sports by providing affordable, simplified live streaming solutions for local matches and comprehensive player data tracking, came into existence.
The genesis of Sportvot was from the need to empower and digitize the grassroots sports ecosystem to discover the talent that lies there. Enabling the source of real-time sports data, we wanted to build a data-backed Moneyball-type talent discovery and scouting platform especially for a vast and densely populated country like India.
About your personal journey and how it led to the creation of SportVot?
I am an engineer and I have worked with Oracle, Fintech startup CashCare in the past. I also used to run a gaming platform prior to SportVot. Always had a passion for sports and data which led me to create SportVot.
How does SportVot leverage technology to simplify sports video capture and democratize access to sports technology?
SportVot’s production and broadcasting tool which is the SportVot Cloud Studio is essentially a cloud based, ie. weeb-based streaming tool. We realised that over 99% of the games taking place at the grassroots level do not have any form of video coverage and the primary reason for it was the heavy investment required in hardware for broadcasting sports and thetechnical difficulty of broadcasting a sports event.
Thus, we built the SportVot Cloud Studio in a way that gives us a solution to both the above mentioned problems. The cloud studio offers convenient and accessible streaming with minimal resources and upfront investment. Setting up and getting started is quick and easy. The cloud studio enables live broadcasting for 20+ sports with detailed scoring, data-driven graphics, interactive commentary and sponsor cue integration in real-time and much more via a simple smartphone.
While the cloud studio supports broadcasting and sports production using the premium hardware such as the professional video cameras or even AI cameras, it does not restrict itself to it. In addition, the affordability of SportVot’s Cloud Studio is an added USP, that helps us democratize access to sports technology
What specific innovative technologies does SportVot offer that set it apart from competitors?
There are quite a few features that we have built to enhance or simplify the production as well as the viewing experience. With respect to the tech and the cloud studio side, apart from its adaptability to all kinds of video capturing devices right from a simple mobile camera to International level heavy broadcasting devices to an AI camera, the feature that we believe has generated the most demand amongst our current clientele is our automated customised highlights generation tool.
The tool basically creates match highlights or even player specific highlights in real-time using our smart technology, thus, providing broadcasters with an added layer of short form content or even branded customised content to enhance their stream anf the tournament.
On the B2C and OTT platform side, we offer detailed player profiles for all the players with their career stats, highlight moments from each match listed to it. Additionally we also have shareable player cards that help players as well as sports bodies with bringing in visibility and fan engagement.
Could you share some success stories of how SportVot has contributed to promoting grassroots sports and nurturing talent?
As I mentioned earlier, the affordability and accessibility of SportVot’s Cloud Studio is its key USP and the Brahmaputra Volleyball League has to be the biggest example of it. A local volleyball league organised to support and empower the emerging talent from Assam and bring together the community of Assam and promote the culture of sports within them, BVL digitised its tournaments for four consecutive seasons via SportVot’s cloud technology, and no longer remained confined to the geographical limitations.
Through the digital platform and the technology that we have built here at SportVot, the games happening in remotest villages of Assam are digitised and broadcasted, reaching audiences far and wide across the world. The digitisation has not only helped the aspiring players to take up the sport or brought together a community but it has actually given birth to innovations and experiments to embrace modern technology.
The local kids from Assam developing their hand-made tripods using bamboo shoots and creating hand-made rain covers to protect their mobile phones, these young kids have become the innovative , tech-savvy broadcasters for the Brahmaputra Volleyball League.Today, 3,000+ matches featuring 6,000+ athletes from remote areas of Assam have been streamed using the SportVot Cloud technology on the SportVot OTT. Thus, primarily, these local heroes powered by SportVot are striving to give visibility to the next generation of athletes from their community.
What indicators do you use to measure the impact of SportVot’s platform on the sports community?
The key indicators that we consider to measure the impact of SportVot on the sports community are the number of matches that we streamed in a given period of time, the number of players that were profiled or featured in those matches and of course the viewership that we are able to draw for these local level games, further leading to the generation of new opportunities for the emerging athletes at the grassroots.
How does SportVot engage with local sports communities and organizations to foster a culture of sports and promote a healthier lifestyle?
SportVot makes playing more fun and engaging with a rich layer of tools on top of video. We make analysing one’s performance through video simpler thus helping people get better at sport or for someone who is just playing casually give tools to share videos of them in action across various platforms. This increases participation in sport in general
Are there any notable Collaborations that SportVot has established to further its mission?
We have partnered with some of India’s top sports bodies such as the Maharashtra State Kabaddi Association, Boxing Federation of India, Rugby India, Football Delhi Association, Nashik District Cricket Association, Hockey India and many more.
In addition to these, SportVot has also been collaborating with industry giants such as the Reliance Foundation Youth Sports, Sports For All, Chennai Super Kings Junior, Sportz Village, Padukone Sports Management for various projects. With respect to associating brands for grassroots sports, we have carried successful projects for over 18 brands including Probo, Oziva, Muscleblaze, Nexus Day Surgery Centre, etc.
What are SportVot’s future plans ?
We have been extensively covering grassroots sports events across 65+ cities in India and prominently in Maharashtra, Delhi and Rajasthan. So now, we look forward to building solid partnership with sports federations from newer geographies across India and collaborate with more brands to invest in local sports and effectively commercialize the grassroots sports ecosystem
We have also recently launched a new initiative at SportVot – SportVot Play which is a casual playing platform for casual, amateur level players. We strongly believe that it is high time that India develops a sporting attitude and culture of sports at the very grassroots level. Developing the culture of playing and promoting a healthy and fit lifestyle at the local level by enhancing the casual playing experience is our next focus.
Challenges has SportVot faced in its journey and how company navigated these obstacles?
One of the major challenges that we have faced is hiring the optimal resource for a particular profile. Because our industry is still very young and what SportVot is doing at the grassroots level is quite different, the skills required to work in this ecosystem are very niche. So, we have learnt to keep our team small and be patient with the hiring process instead of hiring bad resources.
Aspiring entrepreneurs looking to enter the sports technology sector ?
One crucial advice or rather suggestion would be to have a very narrow focused approach in the beginning: Product market fit, revenue and scaling. If they get the basics right, the sky is really the limit as the industry is a growing industry.
Key lessons learned about running a successful sports streaming and talent discovery platform?
Firstly, educating the audience about Live Sports Broadcasting was a challenge. Not every tournament organizer is aware of the benefits of broadcasting or how it can have a deep impact on their functioning and their economics. So a lot of our team’s time went in educating our target audience about the need for adapting a digital and modern approach.
While our tech team spent a significant amount of time in research and development to come up with an affordable and accessible solution that can help the local sports community. So the key to this was having patience and perseverance on both the fronts with the product and technology developments as well as with our target audiences to get them to a point where they realise the impact of live streaming and digitising their matches.
Can you share any memorable moments building SportVot that have had a significant impact on you personally?
One significant experience definitely has to be our association with Brahmaputra Volleyball League. The kind of impact that we always envisioned and hoped to create with our technology, we experienced it come to life and transform the lives of so many young talents from Assam. Our association with the league and our technology was able to develop the next generation of not just players but also sports broadcasters, sports industry professionals.
Another memory or experience was when Nexus Day Surgery Centre partnered with 4 of Maharashtra’s national level women athletes to support them in their journey of sports and became their official Healthcare partner for 2023-24. One of the four athletes unfortunately unjured herself severely in one of the Kabaddi matches.
The partnership with Nexus Day Surgery Centre got her top quality medical treatment in a state-of-the-art facility at zero cost and she was back on her feet and on the field in less than 5 months. These memories/ experiences just make all of us realise the bigger impact of the work that we do on a daily basis.
As the owner of SportVot and what drives your passion for this industry?
I think my primary objective in the company today is to motivate and drive people to do their best, help them get better everyday and support them in making crucial decisions. I think we have a fantastic team that is highly motivated and committed to make sports more accessible to everyone.
