Function is layered into the DFS app; players can copy fantasy lineups of influencers
Sports betting and daily fantasy sports companies continue seeking new ways to keep customers lingering on their apps, with social interaction a trend that’s likely to continue.
To that end, PrizePicks on Thursday announced the launch of The Feed, a social function built into its DFS app that allows patrons to copy the parlay lineups of successful players, social media influencers or friends.
“Our goal is to really be serving the next gen customer,” PrizePicks Senior Vice President of Product Dylan Cooper told InGame during a demonstration of The Feed, “essentially be the Robinhood of this industry for the everyman to have a really easy experience. And we think this just makes it even easier.”
Cooper said PrizePicks’ research revealed that users, critically those in the crucial 20-to-35 demographic, prefer to follow or fade friends or popular players rather than shop pre-made lineups. Other gaming apps, particularly DraftKings, have leaned hard into social interaction within apps, hoping to drive interest as groups coalesce around bets or fear missing out on the buzz.
“If you have a smart friend, follow him, follow people he follows. All of a sudden, you’ve got 25 options on your screen to go pick from really easily,” Cooper said.
“We’ve heard a lot of feedback through our research. People don’t love the pre-made stuff. We’ve played around with it. We have a little bit in the app. But it feels like the house is kind of putting that in front of you. So, we thought it’d be more valuable to really just essentially let the community create everything.”
How The Feed works
The Feed’s features include:
- The ability to follow other users who’ve set up player profiles. Players can create unique user names and track lifetime stats.
- Copying and reacting to lineups. Players can peruse other players’ lineups and make them their own with a tap.
- Shareable lineups and profiles. Players can share their lineups across other social media platforms.
“We’re going to invest really heavily into social and really the identity of a person to really drive that experience and community forward and really build a long-term connection with PricePicks and with your friends through the app,” Cooper said. “We’ve created this concept essentially of a profile, where it’s going to show all the people that follow you. You can follow whomever you want. People can follow you as well.”
During the InGame demo, Cooper swiped over to “BookitwithTrent” – gambler/social media influencer Trent Attyah, who boasts about a million followers combined on X, Instagram and TikTok.
“This is a big one,” Cooper said. “He’s popular. He has 20,000 followers [on The Feed] already. For this lineup that he placed 38 minutes ago, he has 260,000 copies that fast. Scroll down. I can like, I can dislike, or I can easily hit copy, submit. And all of a sudden, I have Trent in the back of my feed.”
A copied lineup immediately arrives in the digital wallet so players can monetize it to their comfort level. The wager amount on the original play is not shown to those copying it.
There are multiple ways to find users to follow, which may eventually include personalized avatars. PrizePicks counts on influencers like Attyah to spread the word on their social channels, but there’s also a search function. So far, though, this requires the searcher to roughly know the handle of who they’re searching for, unless they use their real name.
The company is unlikely to leverage its brand ambassadors such as retired NFL player Marshawn Lynch to make the interaction feel organic, Cooper said.
“I think in the future we’ll have some suggestions,” Cooper said. “Like, if you’re following these guys, you probably also might like these people.”
Category: General Sports
