The daily fantasy sports (DFS) and online sports betting industries in the US have experienced significant growth over the last few years. And that growth shows no sign of stopping, with more states changing and dropping restrictions on DFS and more customers demanding “second-screen” products to further engage with sports and entertainment.

While it’s now easier than ever to use DFS to engage with your favorite sports teams and athletes, the learning curve can be steep. Enter PrizePicks, the largest privately owned DFS operator in the US, offering sports fans the simplest, fastest, and most exciting way to play daily fantasy sports. To get underway, all users need to do is pick their favorite stars, choose their over/under, and immediately start experiencing their favorite sporting events in a whole new light.

So when PrizePicks wanted to enhance their customer engagement strategy by consolidating all of their communications and customer data tools, they began their search for a comprehensive, user-friendly platform. That's when they found Braze.

All-In-One Customer Engagement

Prior to Braze, PrizePicks used several different platforms to engage with bettors. But in the world of fantasy sports, things move fast. PrizePicks wanted to consolidate their customer engagement strategy and ensure they could get in touch with users in real-time as player performance and statistics rolled in.

Through the Braze platform’s advanced segmentation and multivariate message testing, the PrizePicks team established a culture of experimentation. Their cross-channel Taco Tuesday campaign was a fun and effective way to establish their brand voice, and is one of the main reasons they have such high message enablement rates, including a 90% push opt-in rate.

Taco Tuesday Campaign

When adopting Braze, PrizePicks wanted to continue leveraging a few of the tools that were already in heavy use in their technology stack. The first was React Capacitor, which is the native run-time for cross-platform web apps with a powerful plug-in system that they used to build their app. When they discovered that the React Capacitor SDK did not initially work natively with Braze, Braze leveraged their team of onboarding managers and engineers to help fill in the gaps. This integration led to faster, more cohesive web-to-mobile journeys for customers and less engineering time for PrizePicks.

The next tool in PrizePicks’ tech stack to integrate was Braze Alloys technology partner Segment, which allows marketers to track users and route data to a wide variety of user analytics providers. Luckily, Braze and Segment work together seamlessly to send customer data with a real-time, bi-directional integration via the Braze Currents high-volume export tool.

PrizePicks Results: Fast Delivery and Higher Conversions

Since adopting Braze, PrizePicks keeps customers around for longer by leveraging a cross-channel customer engagement strategy that reinforces their fun brand voice. They’ve achieved a 30% lift in app-based first time depositors and have seen a 60% lift in those first deposits converting into a first entry. What’s more, they’re retaining customers better, too: PrizePicks has seen a 40% lift in second time depositors converting as well.

Final Thoughts

In industries growing as fast as the fantasy sports and sports betting vertical, it pays to have a customer engagement strategy that keeps users in the know with up-to-date stats, outcomes, and promotions. With Braze, PrizePicks consolidated all of their channels into a platform designed to scale as they grow, with built in personalization to support even stronger relationships with their customers.

Want to know how you can step up your customer engagement game? Check out how leading brands are boosting customer lifetime value.