Fancred, the social network for sports fans wants to move beyond pure social into media. Today it announced an update that lets fans post-Periscope style videos from the stadium or their couches.
To this point, Fancred has been a social platform designed specifically for sports fans to talk about their favorite teams and share content like pictures from the sporting events or fan gatherings. This announcement is attempting to advance the platform by adding a video component.
Fans tend to get most passionate during the game, and Fancred wants to capture that intensity and allow them to broadcast to fellow fans in the moment. Essentially, it lets every fan be a commentator, at least for a few moments. The videos are going to be five minutes or less.
In fact, there is going to be a countdown clock built into the software. The idea is to get in, make your point, and get out.
Much like Periscope or Snapchat, the content is ephemeral, only lasting for the duration of the broadcast. At some point, they might let people let users save the videos, but for starters they will disappear.
“It adds a new dimension for [regular users] to reach a live audience and not have to type,” Fancred CEO Kash Razzaghi told TechCrunch.
The idea is that lots of fans are engaged in the game and on the platform, but they want an easier way to interact.
They are not just leaving it to the users, however. The company has a much more ambitious vision. Instead of being the Facebook for sports, Fancred wants to be a media giant not unlike ESPN. To that end, they are also announcing a new real-time scores to the platform, which makes perfect sense, but has been missing up to this point.
In addition, they announced a number of partnerships with sports teams and media outlets alike, all in the interest of producing original content for the site. Partners include The Boston Globe, Liverpool FC and The Boston Red Sox — all of which are owned by John Henry, whose wife, Linda Pizzuti Henry, was a seed investor in Fancred. Others include the Washington Redskins, Carolina Panthers and the ACC Digital Network, all of whom will be contributing content to the app.
This is really an attempt to provide some separation from Facebook and Twitter and the personal and professional video component and live scores is something that these platforms don’t always have (at least right now).
The company is based in Boston and has raised $5.1 million. The most recent was a $3 million investment in August 2014.