The Canadian Football League (CFL) is launching a few different products with Genius Sports that are aimed at viewer integration or "gamifying" the league.
The partnership between these two was announced in December, however, products are just beginning to roll out. The official roll-out is under the moniker of the CFL GameZone, serving as a central hub for fans to play games and contests.
Chief Revenue and Marketing Officer of the CFL, Tyler Mazereeuw, said that this is part of a multi-year plan to change how the league connects with fans.
Mazereeuw said: "The definition of fandom doesn’t have to be one size fits all. Fandom can be playing fantasy, we’re good with that. It can be going to the game, it can be sports betting … the definition of a sports fan has changed... it makes sense because everyone’s tastes are different."
During the Grey Cup Week in December, CFL Commissioner Randy Ambrosie officially announced the partnership with Genius Sports. However, exact details of the partnership have been hard to come by since then.
After the announcement and launch of CFL GameZone, it's become clearer that Genius Sports and the CFL will accumulate data on its customers and tailor more personalized content and marketing.
Mazereeuw continued: "We knew we needed to move in that direction, but how do you do it? That’s really complicated and really expensive, that’s where Genius came in to say: ‘We do this for a living, we do this for other leagues, this is our craft’."
GameZone will be the hub for the league’s fantasy football game, along with the Preseason Futures predictor where fans can predict multiple season-long outcomes and the CFL Pick’Em game. More games are expected to be released in the future.
In closing, Mazereeuw stated: "It’s really about engaging our current fans, finding new ways to engage new fans, but also non-fans who haven’t considered us."
