Case Study: Stick Cricket -December 2006  

The following is an edited extract from The International Journal of Sports Marketing and Sponsorship, published by International Marketing Reports. The case study was written by Paul Kitchin, course leader MA Sport Management - Business and Service Sector Management, London Metropolitan University, England. Stick Cricket is a website visited by more than 2m unique users every month, with each user averaging more than 20 minutes per visit.

A Sydney based web-developer, Colin Rowe, designed a Flash-based online cricket game in 2003 in response to dissatisfaction with the amount, and quality, of existing games. Early versions of the game were developed using office colleagues as product testers. Upon the initial online launch of Version 1 in March 2004, the resulting costs from server usage (a variable cost based on the capacity of a host server) made Rowe’s website economically unviable. This forced Rowe to offer the game to a multi-games hosting website, as this is a much cheaper than hosting a standalone website. However, the downside to this is that these websites contains numerous other games and the competition for attention and resulting visitors was difficult due to the inherent clutter.
Advergamer is a London-based company that designs and creates Flash-based games and graphics to meet clients’ online marketing communications objectives. After the initial launch of Stick Cricket, this organisation noticed Version 1 of the game on the multi-game site. After discussions between Rowe and Advergamer’s directors Chris Berry and Paul Collins, a joint venture agreement was drawn up in August 2004 to develop the game further with an aim to launch it on its own website. Advergamer believed that money could be made from the game as a standalone website, as all the revenues would flow to the developers.

The business models

An advertising revenue and sponsorship model was deemed the best method to finance the website. The business objective of maximising revenue from the website was even communicated to users on the website. A strong ethos of irreverence characterises the developers and the website, which governs the strategy behind all developments. However, rather than put off customers with this approach, the opportunity to play the game without common user ‘barriers to interaction’, such as registration or subscription, proved popular. In September 2004, the website was launched at www.stickcricket.com to coincide with the ICC Champions Trophy held in England. The game is characterised by improbable big hitting, where the aim is to attempt to score a six off each delivery, which, although unrealistic, represents some cricket fans’ utopian cricket game.
There is little consideration and understanding of the consumer demographics for entertainment-games sites. The developers had difficulty in convincing brands to advertise on the site, and this proved a drain on the organisation’s human resources. Attracting and managing the accounts was deemed beyond the strengths of the developers, and the process is now managed by an external agency that uses the collected statistical information gathered from the site. This has allowed the developers to manage the existing game and work on extensions to the site to attract and retain further users. This reallocation of resources is important for web developers as it allows them to focus on their IT strengths without having to perform tasks that may be outside their skill set. Nevertheless, the management of B2C and B2B relationships is just as important for the online business as it is for any other.

Effective B2C and B2B partnerships

For the launch of Stick Cricket Version 2 (the updated game), it was decided to examine opportunities for supporting the launch through partnership and sponsorship deals. A partnership with Cricinfo was negotiated, whereby the websites would gain the attention of, and access to, each other’s unique users. This deal focused on database information sharing and cooperative promotion on each site (for instance, the boundary of the game displayed the Cricinfo banner and advertising/sponsorship banners of Stick Cricket’s homepage respectively). Although the partnership created initial awareness for the Stick Cricket website, increased traffic generation through viral means meant that the deal was not renewed. The existence of viral marketing meant that the developers did not require database sharing as they were generating a sufficient amount of their own traffic. However, these initial links may have gone some way to developing the viral means from which they subsequently benefited.

Barriers to interaction

The key attractions to this website are the simplicity and brevity of the game. Office workers were accessing the website, having a quick game and then returning to work. One of the most important aspects that encouraged visitors was reducing the barriers to interaction with the site. Initial visits to the website require no log-ins, subscription fees or registration processes. This made it easier for users to interact. For those users who wanted to interact on a more committed basis, a registration process allowed the user to record and post their scores and to access some extra features. The benefit for the developers is the collection of valuable demographic data – there were approximately 800,000 registered users as of December 2005.
The feedback the developers received from their users provided ideas for development of the site. To capitalise on this, the website was equipped with a forum from April 2005. This enabled users to post their feedback and comments to the wider Stick Cricket community.

Further partnerships

Since the initial partnership with Cricinfo, Stick Cricket has entered into agreements with a variety of organisations. These deals have provided support for the operations of the website and have spread the sources of revenue, avoiding an over-reliance on advertising.
The ECB entered into a sponsorship deal with Stick Cricket as a form of promotional tie-in to the 2005 Ashes series held in England. Given the rather limited capacity of the English cricket arenas for international matches, it was deemed important for the ECB to capitalise on the rise in game-related interest. The deal enabled Stick Cricket to gain sponsorship on its website through the cricket series to allow the ECB to promote their ‘Cricket-in-the-Park’ scheme.
During the Australian summer of 2005-06, a partnership with a global fast food chain enabled the site to consolidate in another important market. The Australian market represents over 25% of the site’s total unique users, with similar office-based demographics. The deal involved the establishment of a link from the Stick Cricket website to a sponsored game window. The game involved virtual play-offs between the teams competing in the ‘physical’ Australian summer series.
The objectives for the fast food chain were two-fold. The first was to use Stick Cricket as a media vehicle to leverage its association with the Australian summer of cricket, in which it sponsored a real Twenty20 match (noted for its big hitting and similar to Stick Cricket). The second was the promotion of a lunchtime meal, which allowed for a direct product tie-in.
The competitive rivalry between online-betting exchanges is growing as more firms enter the online market. Online betters are younger and more affluent than traditional betting consumers who generally use agencies on high streets (Morris, 2004). Bet365 saw the potential in the demographics of the Stick Cricket website. Stick Cricket entered into a betting partnership with Bet365 that allows the agency to place logos on the homepage and on virtual in-ground advertising signage, viewable while Stick Cricket users are playing the game. Although the deal enables Stick Cricket to gain revenues similar to those from their normal advertising banners, increasing the click-through rate by users to the Bet365 website provides a financial bonus. This addition to the Stick Cricket website allows the developers to offer users another service that intends to satisfy their needs.

Leg before wireless

The launch of Stick Cricket on mobile phones is designed to take further advantage of the strong brand loyalty exhibited by its more committed users. This also allows the developers to cater for shifts from computer-based entertainment to portable entertainments systems such as MP3 players, PSP and 3G mobile phones. The mobile development by Stick Cricket is progressing, but was in the initial stages at the time of writing. Regardless of the breadth of the general mobile phone market, mobile gaming is still a niche speciality. If it rises to a more widely accepted form of mobile entertainment, Stick Cricket could be in a good position to exploit this development knowledge.

Conclusion

For Stick Cricket, the success of the online product has enabled the developers to progress the website from an entertainment-games site to a cricket portal that offers a range of related services to its unique users. The use of an online forum has tapped into vital customer feedback and created a positive environment for product testing which engages with the online users and involves them in the development of the business.
Hence a small Flash-based game has enabled the creation of a multinational internet business centred on user needs. Consumer brands, agencies and sporting organisations all need to be aware of the valuable consumer segments that these sites have. There are opportunities for all of these parties to benefit through partnerships that can achieve a number of business objectives.

The International Journal of Sports Marketing and Sponsorship, published by International Marketing Reports, publishes peer reviewed research and commercial case studies in sports marketing and sponsorship. Go to www.imrpublications.com for more information including abstracts and executive summaries of all papers.
The latest edition features six globally sourced papers on the impact of technology on sports marketing. The papers are:
An analysis of the willingness to pay for soccer reports on the internet
An exploration of motives in sport video gaming
Analysing the effects of advertising type and antecedents on attitude towards advertising in sport
Media technology in ice hockey
Stick Cricket – A case study
Moneyball as a supervening necessity for the adoption of player tracking technology in professional (ice) hockey

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