Executive Summary. As sports organizations shift toward year-round digital engagement, Infobip North America President Ethan Gustav explains how conversational AI, mobile messaging, and unified fan data are transforming teams from event-driven brands into always-on fan platforms.
As fan expectations move toward continuous, personalized digital experiences, sports organizations are rethinking how they engage audiences beyond game day. In this conversation, Infobip Group President of North America Ethan Gustav outlines how conversational AI, mobile messaging channels, and unified data platforms are enabling teams to build always-on relationships with fans at scale. He explains why one-to-one communication is replacing broadcast-style engagement, how leading franchises are measuring loyalty impact, and what it takes to deliver real-time personalization across global audiences.
AITJ: Ethan, the Super Bowl marks the peak of fan attention—but for most teams, the real challenge is what happens after game day. How are sports organizations rethinking fan engagement beyond the live event?
Today’s digitally-native fans expect their favorite sports teams to go beyond traditional broadcasting and in-person touchpoints. They want to feel more connected to their teams and crave personal content that establishes connections, like behind-the-scenes players stories, film breakdowns, coach interviews and fun, fan-friendly mobile interactions that go beyond match-day updates and team merch sales, like Augmented Reality (AR) enabled scavengers hunts, interactive quizzes and direct marketing campaigns.
For today’s fans, it’s about conversation. Instead of pushing out general information through more traditional channels like email, sports teams and associations are creating two-way, real-time dialogues on the channels fans are already using, like text messaging, WhatsApp and iMessage.
Fans today live on their phones, especially during the offseason. What changes when teams move from social media broadcasts to direct, one-to-one mobile messaging channels like SMS, WhatsApp, and iMessage?
Personalized mobile interactions excite fans and grow loyalty beyond gameday, which can drive business for sports teams - especially when you’re communicating to fans in the channels they’re most comfortable with. In the NFL, the Los Angeles Rams used modern RCS text messaging to announce their 2025/2026 season schedule to more than 10,000 fans who could purchase game day tickets, and saw an immediate return on investment. Not only did the Rams see a boost in overall engagement (70%), but they also saw an uptick in ticket sales (60%).
Infobip works closely with sports franchises across leagues. What patterns are you seeing in how teams are using conversational AI to stay relevant year-round?
Through our own research, we’re seeing a growing demand from sports fans for always-on, personalized engagement, with more than 70% of fans wanting ongoing communication during the off-season. One great example of how sports fans can use conversational AI to stay relevant year-round is by inviting fans to participate in chatbot-based quizzes to win exclusive memorabilia.
We’re seeing teams experiment with mobile quizzes, AR scavenger hunts, and AI-driven updates. Why are interactive, conversational experiences proving more effective than traditional push notifications or email campaigns?
Today’s fans expect a deeper, two-way relationship with their teams that keeps them engaged throughout the year, not just on match days. With AI and other new technologies, such as Conversational AI Gamification, sports organizations can create personalized, real-time fan experiences that build loyalty and drive participation. AI-driven chatbots on platforms like WhatsApp and Rich Communication Services (RCS) messaging enable fans to instantly ask questions, access exclusive content, learn about their favorite players and receive updates 24/7, while AR scavenger hunts can be especially successful during longer format events like the World Cup. For example, fans can be invited to hunt for soccer balls at different team events, matches and official retail stores while a virtual leaderboard is updated in real time for continuous engagement. Winners can earn prizes like merchandise, discounts or loyalty rewards. Ultimately, these more interactive methods amplify team loyalty and encourage fans to be fans.
NFL teams like the LA Rams and organizations in F1 are using messaging to build always-on fan relationships. How are those teams thinking about engagement differently than even a few years ago?
Today’s sports fans can’t always be in the crowd or catch every game on TV, but they want to connect with their team in other ways. They want to shape their own fan experience, see what’s happening behind the scenes, and be actively engaged all year round.
Typically, when sports teams do reach out, fans are left underwhelmed and unimpressed. Per our fan survey, two-thirds of fans say they’re disappointed with their team’s attempts to engage, mostly because they feel the communication is too transactional, too infrequent and too generic.
Conversational AI often gets framed as automation—but in sports, emotion and loyalty matter deeply. How do teams strike the right balance between automation and authenticity in fan communications?
According to our service, eight out of every 10 fans want to feel more connected to their teams, but to do so in a personal, effective way, sports teams need to understand fans’ interests, preferences and behaviors. Sports teams need to build out their ability to create fan profiles and successfully track engagement from all channels and touchpoints. Having a great data platform is key.
By combining this level of insight with the right automation capabilities results in completely new opportunities to engage. For example, if a team identifies fans that stream every post-game interview, they can personally share exclusive behind-the-scenes content and even a discount code to celebrate their loyalty!
From a technical perspective, what does it take to support fan engagement at scale—millions of messages, real-time moments, global audiences—without losing personalization?
Global communications partners, like Infobip, can help support teams looking to boost engagement at scale without losing personalization. The right partner should unify fan data, enable truly omnichannel engagement and enhance fan interactions with AI and automation. By combining in-house conversational experience expertise with the ability to implement solutions quickly, sports teams can rely on communication platforms to not only address existing engagement pain points, but create new, fresh and memorable journeys that bring fans even closer to the game.
How are teams measuring success with AI-driven messaging today? What signals tell them that these experiences are actually strengthening fan loyalty, not just driving short-term engagement?
By creating AI-driven digital experiences that are interactive, personalized, and aligned with what fans truly want, teams can turn routine engagement into meaningful, lasting connections. Signals to look out for include greater emotional loyalty from fans, boosted revenue streams improved event-day experience, 24/7 engagement opportunity and data insights that can drive business success.
As messaging ecosystems mature, do you see sports teams evolving into year-round digital communities rather than seasonal entertainment brands? What enables that shift?
Yes! In fact, our survey found that 59% of fans want group chats with other fans and supporters, proving there’s an appetite for year-round digital communities. What’s enabled this shift is the evolution of mobile - with smartphones now ubiquitous, mobile platforms are what we’ve become most comfortable with, so it only makes sense that it's where we want to communicate.
Looking ahead, how do you think conversational AI and mobile engagement will redefine the relationship between fans and sports organizations over the next five years?
We’re already seeing F1 teams and other sports organizations use AI-enabled gamification, like quizzes and scavenger hunts, to boost fan engagement, and we can only expect that to proliferate as it becomes more commonplace. Additionally, we can also expect more voice-powered interactions that will allow fans to participate in challenges and interact with teams in fun, innovative ways - all without leaving their preferred messaging platform.
