New fan engagement platform launched to drive new revenues for African Cycling
PROTOUCH AFRICA, Johannesburg South Africa today announced the launch of its new fan engagement platform for African Cycling.
Using a swiss-based platform developed by Blocksport, PROTOUCH has created a mobile application (for iOS and Android) where cycling enthusiasts can find aggregated African cycling news, live and on demand videos, enjoy team and rider stories, view the latest UCI Africa Tour rankings and rider profiles and, engage directly with these athletes’ social media channels. Enthusiasts can also support African teams and their riders, by purchasing virtual merchandise and digital collectibles, supporter gear in the various Team shops and participate in auctions for signed memorabilia.
“Our vision is to revolutionize professional cycling in Africa, by building a sustainable business [beyond sponsorships] that supports high performance and unlocks value for athletes, brands, cycling enthusiasts and investors” commented Rebecca Eliot, Impact Engineer for ProTouch Africa.
Professional Cycling is one of the oldest professional sports, with deeply-rooted origins in tradition and passion, for over 100 years. However, it is still commercially underdeveloped, with a massive reliance on sponsorship as its only source of revenue. This model has not evolved and impacts heavily on its future. Spearheaded by ProTouch Sports – owners also of the top UCI-ranked Continental Team in Africa – ProTouch Pro Cycling – this project, has been two years in the making.
“We began assembling and investing in an ecosystem of commercial initiatives in 2019, while building a winning team around a core of South African riders. Our team has been the top ranked Continental Team in Africa and, as the primary funders we realised quickly how dependant this sport is on sponsorship. With limited broadcast opportunities, seeking sponsorship was proving more and more difficult. We started assembling our ecosystem, with the aim to remove the reliance that the professional sport of cycling has on sponsorship, as its only form of revenue” added Eliot.
The PROTOUCH AFRICA platform can be found in the iOs and Android stores.
Here are some of the key features:
– View the latest UCI Africa Tour rankings and rider profiles
– Get 10% off thousands of products in our official online store and, between 10-15% of all sales will be donated to The Phil Liggett Foundation.
– Find official African Team and Fan merchandise and, participate in auctions for signed memorabilia.
– Soon, you will also be able to purchase digital collectibles like rider and team cards.
– View LIVE and ON-DEMAND content as well as incredible storytelling about Africa’s top athletes.
– Connect directly with other cycling enthusiasts, set up your own groups and, arrange events and fundraisers using our integrated fan messenger.
– Join our Executive Cycling Network – encouraging healthier, more active ways for people to live and connect and support top performing athletes.
– Soon, we will be adding the ability to crowdfund and play fantasy games too.
Download the official PROTOUCH AFRICA App and discover everything there is to know about African Cycling, for the ultimate cycling enthusiast experience.
For more information please contact Rebecca Eliot on +27 83 656 4632 or email rebecca@protouch.africa
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