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Surf Stats

While running a fantasy surfing game called Fanasurf, I built a database of professional surfing contest results for players to research athletes. Since there was a demand for this outside of the game to a more casual audience, I decided to create a blog for surfer performance analysis. 

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Surf Stats was built to drive an audience of core surfing fans who wanted to analyze performance data and statistics. I saw this solely as an opportunity to build a community of prospects primed for cross-promotion of my fantasy game. But something happened that I didn't expect: Surf Stats grew, and fast. 

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I moved on to offer specific breakdowns for all fantasy surfing games that existed, wrote advice columns on athletes to pick for upcoming contests and built a predictive analysis model to add further value. 

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In the end, Surf Stats offered a subscription product that provided an advantage for legal betting internationally. Evolving my product and business model to meet new demands allowed me to monetize in a very different way than I initially anticipated, all while steadily growing a community in my niche. 

Building to cross-promote

When I saw fantasy players creating teams but looking at athlete statistics and not joining paid games, I found that the data I compiled had external appeal. The content was valuable enough to draw surf fans who wanted to see data, or already played other free-to-play fantasy games that existed at this point. By casting this net, I was able to market Fantasurf directly to them.

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Once I realized the size of this audience far surpassed my expectation, I started using affiliate marketing and placing banner ads to drive revenue.

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Unintentional: Notice the Rogue Energy banner ad (I was obviously working on that at the same time; for more about my journey at Rogue Energy, click here).

Self-serve data

At first, Surf Stats simply offered a performance average for athletes at an upcoming event. There were historic performance breakdowns by different surf and weather conditions as well (an added value layer to the database I created). 

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It was becoming popular, and so were user requests for more. I stepped up the offering by introducing predictive analysis, and combined it with the model for other fantasy surfing games. Surf Stats saw another spike in user growth.

Writing and content

Some people wanted to simply be told how to interpret the data. So I branched out into advice articles for each fantasy game. They all had different rules, so for every competition I was writing three columns, with full updates following any injuries. 

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I enjoyed this, and felt it reflected in the work. People were lively with comments and discussions and a community vibe was shared. I was even elected into the Fantasy Sports Writers Association (a neat level-up for both me and the sport).

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Some users asked to be contributors and sent writing samples. Soon there were a handful of passionate people driving content we were proud of.

Becoming a B2C SaaS

One of the most important things I learned was that many users were applying the predictive analytics tools to gain an edge in sports betting. These were mainly in Australia and Europe, where betting on surfing was legal. 

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I don't gamble, but I saw the opportunity to meet a need for those who did. I created Surf Stats Gold, a premium subscription that provided data for all surfers in an upcoming event. I used my database of performance history to create prediction odds and matched them against the odds on offer from various sports books. For subscribers, this showed them where to take more informed risks, and bets to avoid. 

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I was able to build a more accurate model by testing against completed results. I also knew it was working because of the feedback received from subscribers (some made very nice donations after winning). 

The end

My design and strategy for social media campaigns improved drastically with a wider scope of prospects (compared to Fantasurf). I started to A/B test to hone the most efficient voice and branding.

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I was active on social media during and between surf events to personally engage with the audience. It was a lot of fun to post stats and have lively discussions in real-time. I felt a strong connection with the people supporting my business and learned a lot about how to better serve the community.

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Surf Stats was privately acquired when I took a position at World Surf League in January, 2016. It was a million lessons learned in building, managing and growing a passionate online community (while developing a SaaS product) that I will always remember and value.

Next(/Simultaneous) Chapter: Rogue Energy

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