There’s this poise on the face. Perhaps the glasses play their part. Or maybe it’s the inner peace that adds that aspect. The atmosphere around, whether Kohli gets out cheaply in a crucial one dayer or whether Messi scores a hat trick of goals in an important series, does little to affect the sense of equanimity on his face.
The office based in a quiet corner of the Pink City Jaipur, Rajathan is buzzing, electrifying even, especially on IPL weekdays. There’s a creative team that sits in its corner making attractive jpegs for social media handles. There’s a team that is a master as SEO-related content and how to get the most out of its team of devoted writers.
Then, there’s HR that’s constantly on the tenterhooks, updating the main man at SportsTiger about new recruits and interviews for forthcoming candidates that are lined up sometime in the future. Amid the barrage of phone calls, he attends to guests and even Zoom E-meets without losing cool or sense of time.
Everything, it appears, in Vedant Sharma’s world at SportsTiger, is streamlined and yet multifaceted, multi-dimensional and yet, versatile. It is timely, it is honest and most importantly, it is about doing sports content in abundance.
Sheer volumes of publishing regular sports content updates and even in-depth articles define the existential reality of a platform that’s given fans- relevant knowledge and entertainment about Sports.
Today, truth be told, SportsTiger has added a new dimension to coverage of multiple sports in a country that is crazy about sports; it’s driven by honesty and a sense of purpose.
Not just Cricket and Football, but Archery, Athletics, Tennis, Volleyball, Kabaddi and even Formula 1 racing- Vedant Sharma spearheads a dedicated, hands-on team at SportsTiger whose expertise is determined by the coverage and presentation of these genres that are as different from one another as is Ahmedabad from Alaska or Jean Claude Van Damme’s movies from Owen Wilson’s.
There’s a sense of freshness and consistency about the way SportsTiger goes on about informing legions of its fans, now at a pan-India level about the various sporting leagues and endeavours and series’ that it covers.
And recently, the brilliant platform got a reason to roar in a fashion akin to its name. So what was it? Well, on Instagram, Vedant Sharma and team reached 1 million followers. 1 million and counting. Let that sink in.
And I was glad to interact with the tireless youngster behind the sports content platform especially at a time where his website was celebrating a milestone.
The following are some fascinating highlights that clearly underline the SportsTiger journey to a reasonable extent:
“When SportsTiger arrived on the scene, the market was already flooded with completion. With the likes of CricBuzz and EspnCricinfo already more than just up-and-running, there wasn’t much of a chance, or so one thought, for a newcomer like us! But, we hung in there… we stayed put,” explained Vedant Sharma, the man in-charge of running the show at SportsTiger.
That told, what might have been the realistic goals and targets that he wanted to attain given the knowledge that competition around him (SportsTiger) was immense and that, he still had to, you know, make it work?
“We always thought that we were on the backfoot. We knew that there were only a few things that could make us work and be someone in this immensely competitive space. One of which was- discipline. We knew that we didn’t have budgets to spend in marketing, so if we actually had to cater to the audience and create one, in fact, then we had to be very disciplined with what we set out to do- which was to publish all about sports regularly and in a disciplined manner.”
I could sense the studiousness in Vedant come to the fore as he’d add, “The only one thing that got us in this journey from zero to 1 million followers (Instagram) is perseverance. We were a nobody. Today, more than a million know us, consume SportsTiger’s content! How? Why? Because, we have believed in the process more than in the execution!”
“What do you mean by that, I asked” and the mild mannered youngster, the man who refuses to take the lion’s share of credit behind SportsTiger’s success, went on to clarify–
“We don’t work towards targets; we work towards making good content. And I think, in the process of making good content we ended up with this number. So, definitely really proud of what the team has done. It wouldn’t have been possible sans the efforts of the entire team at SportsTiger and importantly, the users. I would like to thank our users. The way they have responded to our content, using it as a platform to consume all news and detailed content with regard to sports has been a revelation. They wanted genuine content. And that’s why we are there. There are several players in the market who are spending lots on content and marketing it.”
But my quizzing of Vedant Sharma of SportsTiger didn’t end there; I went on to ask one more question, albeit a pertinent one.
What seems to have worked well for you despite no marketing spends whatsoever?
“So today, if we have over a million connected to us on Instagram, it could be down to the fact that we are doing something right despite not spending a penny on marketing our content. We get an update or a development, and we instantly report it with much honesty and our conscience at the right place. I reckon, we know how to keep the fan hooked onto sports. We try to understand a fan’s pain point or need which he or she doesn’t get elsewhere. However, i’d still say the journey hasn’t been all that easy. There’ve actually been days where we lost more followers than we gained them. But the growth, of recently, has been telling. For instance, last year on my birthday, circa October 2, we had 7,50,000 followers on Instagram. So to have added some 2,50,000 in just a quarter of a year since then, is quite something. We are currently celebrating but i expect for myself and my team to put in more number of hours and double the effort to constantly build on. And to not be content just yet. Maybe that’s the key to the sports content industry. That you keep changing strategies, you keep ideating and you don’t remain content even as you’re creating content – no pun intended!”
