The virtual game environment was a replica of the arena where games were played. The design of the game was to mirror the look and feel of the tournament. To develop the game, the team had to decide on a look, a concept and way of marketing it to fans. Creating a Championship-Centred GameĮHF worked with Infront Lab to create a hyper casual game for the tournament. Thus, establishing an entry point to the world of handball which is likely to be also very appealing to women, looked like the right choice,” says Schöneich. “Looking at the EHF’s existing digital channels, our followers are predominantly male. Nowadays, nearly everyone can be considered a ‘gamer.’ Hyper casual games attract nearly an even number of male and female players, and a third are over the age of 45. It also offered the opportunity to appeal to more women and age groups. This meant there was “a huge audience to potentially dip into.” By mid-2020, some 650m people of various ages were considered hyper casual gamers, and hypercasual downloads reached 11.8bn. While hyper casual gaming had already grown in 2019, the pandemic skyrocketed its popularity. Hyper casual games are easy-to-play, minimalistic, mobile games which are usually offered for free. “To give them a glimpse of handball and, in an ideal way via the game, bring them into our ecosystem.” “We saw the hyper casual game as one possibility to reach out to new fans, and in a very casual way,” says Thomas Schöneich, EHF Director of Media and Communications. Due to restrictions, the tournament was to take place without crowds, prompting the EHF to consider new ways of reaching and engaging supporters, and in particular appealing to new fans. This is true also for the European Handball Federation (EHF), who in the autumn and winter of 2020 was preparing for the Women’s EHF EURO 2020 in the shadow of the pandemic.
The Covid-19 Pandemic forced many sports organisations to rethink their strategies over the last two years, opening the door for new ways of engaging fans, appealing to new audiences and monetising their assets.
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