Q&A: Wisden Cricinfo - July 2004  

As part of a series of questions and answers with companies influencing the digital sports space, Sport and Technology spoke to Alex Chamberlen, head of sales for Wisden Cricinfo Limited, who is responsible for all Wisden Cricinfo's revenue generation in the UK and for advertising sales globally. The Cricinfo website (www.cricinfo.com) was launched in 1993 and the company merged with cricketing publisher Wisden 10 years later.

Source: EMPICS

"Cricinfo is a clear market leader, as it has been for nearly 10 years. There is no other cricket website that offers anything like the same depth of live coverage, statistics, historical data and editorial. The depth of the content and the breadth of international coverage has allowed the site to dominate in its niche and has secured a loyal audience that is truly international. Cricinfo reaches over 15m users in 200 territories. Cricinfo is a focused offering and is created by passionate cricket fans for passionate cricket fans and this combination is at the heart of its success."

How has the Cricinfo website changed/improved since the merger with Wisden?

"The merger with Wisden in early 2003 saw some significant changes to the company as well as the product itself. The site was completely overhauled and we launched the new-look site in October. The previous site was inconsistent in its look and feel with individual country sites varying in degrees of style and design and we also ran a number of third party websites, which were also inconsistent. We rationalised a number of relationships that we had with counties and cricket associations and created uniformity throughout the main pages of the site, which allows users a better experience throughout and raises the quality of the product for sponsors. The content itself is still as mind-blowing, but is better presented and easier to navigate. Cricinfo now has a stronger brand identity. The quality of the editorial on the site has been dramatically improved with the addition of the Wisden brands. Not only do we have access to the Wisden Almanack reports and archives, but we also have their writers on the site, offering credibility, authority and informed opinion. This has greatly strengthened the product and has seen the introduction of a number of features, such as Indian View, All Today's Yesterdays, The Numbers Game, as well as excerpts from the Wisden Cricketer magazine (another market leader)."

How have Cricinfo's aims/business model changed since its early days as a non-profit enterprise?

"Cricinfo's business model is built around advertising, betting, e-commerce and content syndication. The model is constantly evolving as new technology develops and as individual market conditions dictate. For example, in India we see that mobile access is growing considerably faster than web access, so we have a number of content syndication deals with individual operators. In the UK, the emphasis is more on advertising and betting. Subscription is an area that we will move into in the medium term as we recognise that people are prepared to pay for quality content and that the concept is maturing in Europe as well as the US. Streaming was previously part of the wisden.com business model, but we realise that it makes more sense to work with rights holders to allow them access to our user base. We are not a broadcaster as such and cannot compete in the same rights acquisition market, but we can deliver the audience that they need."

What is the most popular section/content on the site?

"The most popular content on the site is our live coverage. We offer live scorecards for all major international and domestic cricket and we generate huge traffic during office hours when major games are being played. Our scorecards have always been noted for the live text commentary that has offered our users greater involvement, and at times some amusing and irreverent opinion. Any serious cricket fan is interested in individual player stats, team records and in establishing a view on the form of the two teams involved in a particular match or series - some of these users may even be risking a few hard-earned bucks as well. Stats Guru, which is our searchable stats database, provides users with the ultimate weapon in this area. The Cricinfo homepage and the individual country homepages for the major cricketing nations are also extremely popular as they provide tailored news and features from each of the 10 Test playing nations."

What are your main revenue streams?

"The main revenue streams are advertising and sponsorship; betting; e-commerce and content syndication. Cricinfo's three major revenue centres are UK, India and Australia. Advertising continues to grow strongly in all of these markets, with telcos, airlines, financial, cars and cricket sponsors being the main sectors. We can deliver an affluent male audience and also provide the opportunity to target ethnic communities within the UK; expatriate users in North America, Middle East and South East Asia. We also know that we deliver users during office hours which is important to many advertisers. We have a partnership with a fixed-odds bookmaker (bet365) and another exclusive partnership with Sporting Index, the leading spread betting firm in the UK. Both of these partnerships benefit from the depth of content on the site, and are further fuelled by our dedicated betting section. Betting is a significant part of our current model and continues to grow. E-commerce is largely driven by the purchase of replica shirts and DVDs of particular series or innings - such as Brian Lara's 400, which is currently selling well. Content provision to other websites, newspapers and mobile phone operators is an area that is also growing - perhaps most notably in India."

If you could secure the rights, would you show more video streaming on the site?

"We are not in the business of bidding for rights for video streaming, but we will continue to provide live audio of certain series, possibly as part of a subscription package. We are happy to work with rights holders to promote their services, so as such users will always know that they can access video streaming through the site."

Do you think cricket is a strong sport for internet coverage and if so, why?

"Cricket is ideally suited to internet coverage as it is a game that is played during working hours and it is a game that involves a wide range of statistics."

What are the demographics of the site's users in terms of geographical origin?

"Our largest markets are North America (users mostly Indian ex-pats; West Indians; Pakistanis); UK; Australia and India - between them these countries are home to about 10m users. In New Zealand we have over 300,000 users and we also reach hundreds of thousands of users in the Middle East, Pakistan and South Africa."

Do you have any plans to develop the site further or add any new features?

"We do have plans to develop the site further and will be looking at making some improvements later in the year, but I cannot reveal too much at this stage. Whatever we do will be designed by cricket fans for cricket fans, so the user experience will be our primary consideration. There is no room for complacency and we realise that we need to adapt the site from time to time to reflect change in the wider market."

The next Q&A will feature David Jamieson, head of media solutions at BT Broadcast Services

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