Sports App Development Guide: Trends, Ideas and Key Features For Mass Growth

The fan base in the sports industry continues to grow due to the availability of smartphones in every hand. Audiences rely on mobile apps for sports news, watching live sports, fantasy games and more, bringing the sports industry into the trend. Play Store and App Store are very flooded with sports apps. Entrepreneurs are constantly showing their willingness to understand the latest app trends, cutting-edge ideas and key features that they can incorporate into their sports apps to capture the attention of sports enthusiasts. New startups are constantly exploring new ideas to create an effective app that intentionally differentiates itself from the competition. The article below will guide you in understanding the important trends in sports apps, the best ideas for developing sports apps and the key features that your sports mobile app must have to ensure massive growth and victory in the sports market.

Before we dive deeper into sports mobile app development for the sports industry, let’s understand the statistics associated with sports enthusiasts using sports apps.

Sports app market statistics

• Users spend about an hour on a sports app every day, which is a good amount of time they allocate from their normal day.
• According to Statista data from 2019, 64% of users in the 18-27 age group consumed sports content through mobile apps. 65% of users aged 28-35 have enjoyed sports content through apps on their smartphones. And 62% of users in the 36-43 age group relied on sports apps to learn about the sports industry. This suggests that when you target the sports industry, you end up targeting a large 18-43 audience base.
• The average revenue will reach USD 3,959 million in 2022, which proves that the sports app promises massive growth in terms of revenue.

According to the statistics above, targeting sports app development is undoubtedly a smart choice in 2022 due to steady growth and a stable future. Now the question arises “what are the current trends and app ideas in the sports app development industry” that you need to know or include in your app to provide the best sports mobile app?

The latest trends and app ideas in the sports industry

The trends mentioned below will help entrepreneurs or the general public to understand what the sports mobile app industry requires. By reading these trends, you can better understand the sports market and integrate some or all of the trends to provide your audience with a fantasy sports app.

Below are some of the latest trends that sports apps are focusing on to provide the best experience for sports lovers.

Gamification of applications

Gamification is a trending term that every entrepreneur wants to integrate into their mobile applications. Gamification can be defined as a group of elements that motivate users to engage in gaming activities in a mobile application for a long time. Gaming activities may include scoring, competing with others, placing bets, giving opinions on certain activities, and other incentives. Gamification is also done by integrating social elements into apps where users can connect with other people who have similar interests. Cricket betting apps are already booming after the start of IPL 2022.

Social media integration for social engagement

Not just sports fans, but each of us has one social media platform that we love to explore on a daily basis. The same is undoubtedly happening with sports fans who like to share their activities with their contacts on social media platforms. Die-hard sports fans appreciate the feature of sharing real-time updates directly to their social media handles. Live to tweet and send questions and answers directly to Instagram is a trend where users can instantly share their activity from the sports app to their social media accounts.

VR and AR make the stadium feel like home.

Augmented reality and virtual reality are setting new trends in the sports industry. Users love to enjoy their favorite sports matches at the stadium, but not everyone can join the action live. With virtual reality equipment, users have the opportunity to experience sports matches as if they were sitting in the stadiums. Immersive experience through VR is the demand of sports app users, making it a trend. Similarly, amazing experience is provided by 3D systems like Hawk-eye used in tennis, cricket, football and others. Imagine if users could directly experience Hawk-eye in front of them through AR technology on their smartphones. Not only for sports broadcasting apps, but you can provide users with AR and VR-based games and let them play their favorite sports using their sports apps.

Smarter apps with AI and ML

Machine learning makes apps smarter than ever before. When you embed machine learning algorithms into your sports app, you provide users with an artificially intelligent experience. Your app can learn from user activity and deliver personalized content. News apps can provide relevant sports news that users enjoy reading, or broadcast apps can provide relevant highlights or live matches that users are more likely to engage with. AI further supports users in answering frequently searched or asked questions by pre-suggesting the best answers without any human interaction or support.

The best ideas for your next sports app

Now that you’ve explored the highly anticipated trends in the sports industry, it’s a great idea to explore the best app ideas that you can implement into your next sports app.

Fantasy sports app

Not all players are physically fit. Since sports are also about strategizing, fantasy sports apps are driving them in 2022. With fantasy apps, users prepare their teams and bet on selected players to showcase their prediction quality and sports strategy. The winners enjoy top positions in the leaderboards and earn a nice amount. IPL 2022 has seen a significant increase in cricket betting apps and users are getting more involved with existing apps like Dream 11 to reveal their cricketing skills.

Sports streaming app

Broadcasting has been present in the sports industry for a long time. We started from radio to TV and now we enjoy our favorite sports right on our smartphones. You can consider developing an app that can provide live streaming of events from around the world. You can also add features like in-app discussions, match highlights and engaging push notifications to attract your target audience to your eSports app.

Online ticket booking application

It is not important to always add graphic content such as live matches. You can create an app that can book tickets for popular stadiums online. You can also target a range of sports like football, cricket, tennis, badminton and more to create an all-in-one ticket booking app for upcoming sports events.

Management application for coaches

Communication is one of the key advantages of the Internet, and communication through applications makes it easier to communicate with people on the go. Sports coaches care about players and constantly need to manage their coaching players. 

Key Features User Experience in Sports Application

Although the features below provide an enriching experience for each application, they are equally implemented in the development of sports applications.

The UI/UX offers a sporty feel throughout the app

User interface and design play a key role in providing interaction with your app. If your app looks bad in design, users will immediately hit the uninstall button and look for another app. Targeting the sports industry requires providing a sporty feel to your app design. The use of colors that energize users from sport to sport becomes an essential part. Additionally, the background images used on the app’s screens must be related to the sports they are researching. Social media integration should look attractive with eye-catching social network icons and social engagement must look like a social media application where users can create their accounts, post and interact with other users through exciting animations and chat features.

Payment gateway

Providing a payment gateway is one of the must-have features that most apps integrate. And this feature becomes a must when your motive is to create a sports e-commerce app where users have to buy or sell sports equipment. Provide users with a smooth and out-of-the-box solution during payment processing. Your app also needs to support different payment methods like debit and credit cards to ensure a seamless experience.

Offline mode for streaming apps

Streaming sports apps are the key apps and are gaining a wide user base as most sports lovers enjoy their favorite sports directly on smartphone apps. So to give them the best experience, embedding offline functionality will add positive feedback to your app. Allow users to download favorite moments or live shows to watch later when they are free from their busy schedules.

Smooth news feed and chat

Newsfeed is where a user spends hours exploring and engaging with new content. If your news feed is flawed and contains errors, you will lose customers. So focus on providing users with a smooth reporting experience without glitches. Finally, give extreme importance to the chatbox. Integrate features like GIFs and stickers to give users an enriching experience.

Manage server congestion in fantasy sports applications

Sudden spikes in traffic affect the servers and sometimes cause your fantasy sports app to crash. Make sure your Fantasy Sports App Development Solutions provider prepares robust server overload algorithms to handle exceptions smartly.

Instant chat support and intelligent chatbots for critical queries

Although intelligent chatbots can resolve most queries, it is important to provide a quick channel to connect with a customer executive if users have critical questions. The traditional process of getting tickets or emailing a company no longer exists with the advent of mobile apps. Therefore, ensure that your sports app has a quick chat solution during critical queries of your valuable customers.

Conclusion

That’s what the article offers, covering everything you need to know about sports app development. The statistics in the article will help you understand the promising growth rate that sports app development will provide you. In addition, the trends will give you an idea of ​​the new technologies and demands that the sports industry is constantly trying to provide. The sports app ideas in the article will give you a diverse range of options related to sports app development ideas and you can choose according to your choice, whatever field you are interested in. And the key features will help you a lot during the sports app development process.

You can ask your sports app development agency to embed the most important features and smartly solve common errors like server overload. Now that you are fully informed about the topic of sports app development, we are happy to offer you our top-notch sports app development service to jump-start your idea. Turn your idea into a sports app with a custom mobile app development company and get on the road to becoming a brand.