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Varanasi boy, founder of SportsApp, aspires to bring digital revolution in sports
The application already have three lakh registered users, including Commonwealth medalists and weightlifters Bindyarani Devi, Vikas Thakur, hockey player Jarmanpreet Singh, shuttler Tressa Jolly among others.
We are not yet there but the rate at which India is growing as a sports nation has been an overwhelming one. The Tokyo Olympics produced just seven medals for India, 106 less than top ranked USA, but the seven, especially Neeraj Chopra's gold, saw a surge among the youngsters getting inclined towards sports. As per a report in The Indian Express, the gold medal by Neeraj led to a surge in javelin throw at the grassroot level and the Athletics Federation of India is trying their best to give the sport an extra push.
On a similar note Shashank Mishra, founder of SportsApp, a platform which provides 360 support to an athletes with training content, community support and brand sponsorship, aspires to bring digital revolution in sports. He has been working fulltime from the past three years on the application, which already have three lakh registered users, including Commonwealth medalists and weightlifters Bindyarani Devi, Vikas Thakur, hockey player Jarmanpreet Singh, shuttler Tressa Jolly among others.
Mishra started the venture by working part time for almost one and half years while being enrolled in a full time college curriculum. Passionate about sports from his early childhood, the idea struck him back in 2016 when he was in his final year of B-tech at Dr APJ Abdul Kalam Technical University and he finally founded the platform while he was in his first year of MBA at Delhi Technological University.
“The idea comes basically from my childhood experience. I belong to the Varanasi region and in 2006-07. I wanted to become a sports professional. I was very much interested in cricket, but at that point of time there was no good infrastructure in Varanasi, coaching facilities etc. So I had to move to Lucknow or Kanpur to take information about coaches, facilities,” said Shashank about his motivation to start the platform. He then added: "The idea comes from a personal experience. At that point of time things were pretty much not digital, now things are digital."
With the technological advancements and smartphones being common in every household, the platform promises to deliver digital innovation and help the budding athletes get more clarity in their respective choice of sport.
"Through this app we are trying to cover the overall pyramid of mid and bottom tier. Top tier athletes are the ones who are representing India, mid tier are the ones who are currently playing in youth international and maybe at national level. They have a background in sport," said Mishra.
He then moves to the bottom-tier section, which Mishra is focused in catering the most through the App. "They don't have a good sporting background, they don't have resources. So that amounts to 80 per cent of the overall audience that we are chasing," he added.
How does the App support budding athletes?
Mishra explains the app helps young talent to build their network and also looks after their sponsorship requirements, which include nutrition, apparel and even academy fees. “The bottom tier athletes are fresh and want to build their sports network and if he notices a senior player is part of the app, he can follow them. He can watch his physiotherapy session, his nutrition. It tells him what to do and what not to do while playing that certain sport.”
Explaining further Mishra said: "At the bottom tier the athletes require much of the resources. They need sponsorship for nutrition, apparel and maybe an academy fees. So we have all these small campaigns running for all these budding athletes, like Decathalon. These athletes can participate in these campaign and there are top winners like 15-20 getting sponsorship for themselves. Helping them in terms of nutrition, academy fees, travel fees; so that they don't have to rely on any other resources."
In case of a higher level athlete, the App helps them to find their market value, which again helps them getting bigger sponsors. These athletes can input their data, which include the tournament they participated in, the achievements and the social media influence. All the data provided is then verified by a separate team.
"The mid and top tier athletes have already established themselves and all they need is bigger sponsorship. They are recognised and have certain values attached to it. So they can use a feature called 'my value'. So they can go there and mention what level they have played, experience, social media followers. So we collect all the information and provide them with their market value."
The App currently supports 1000-1200 budding talents with sponsorship, with the youngest being Vaolina NB, ten-year-old Taekwondo player, who hails from Madhya Pradesh.
