A Work Project, presented as part of the requirements for the Award of a Master’s Degree in Finance from the NOVA – School of Business and Economics.
SIMUSOCCER APP: BUSINESS PLAN
FRANCISCO GUILHERME BAPTISTA MARQUES DA FONSECA #2329
A Project carried out on the Finance Course, under the supervision of:
Associate Professor Adjunct – NOVA School of Business & Economics – Doctor Duarte Pitta Ferraz
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APPENDIX 1 – Other Results of the Structured
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APPENDIX 2 – Business Plan
INDICE
1. What is the problem? ... 4
2. What is our solution to the problem? ... 6
3. The business model ... 7
4. The SWOT analysis ... 10
5. Marketing & Communication ... 11
6. The competition ... 12
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1. What is the problem?
Sports betting activity has been reaching historic highs in the last 10 years. In 2012, estimates
suggested that the annual volume of activity might have reached 5.4 Billion euros1.
Nowadays, some do it for the pleasure of testing their soccer knowledge, others do it only
with the ambition of winning a good amount of money. The majority will do it for both
reasons.
But after 2015 the Portuguese executive turned the online betting market into a regulated
market, allowing licenses for other betting houses besides Santa Casa da Misericórdia de
Lisboa. The betting houses can only obtain the legalization if they follow a series of
restrictive requirements to their activity. Some of which are the payment of taxes to the
Portuguese Government and the demand to provide a series of invasive data on their
customers.
Although gamblers are not directly exposed to taxes, that doesn’t mean betting houses don’t
repass that cost to their gamblers. In brief, by means of decreasing the Odds, increasing the
withdrawal fees or creating new fees, gamblers will be after all the ones who will fund the
taxes.
By national legislation, all the betting sites that didn’t meet those requirements ended up
being rapidly banished from the country. One of those cases was (and continues to be) the
British giant bet365, one of the most frequented online betting websites, with more than 19M
gamblers, operating in almost 200 countries.
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For several months, Portugal didn’t have an online betting site that could be operated within
the national territory. Recently, the French company BetClic filled all the legal requirements
and reopened their website to Portuguese gamblers.
However, (and besides the fact that the offer is in fact low) it can be complicated, not only to
comply with all requirements so that one can open a sport’s betting house in Portugal, but also
the restrictive set of rules that a costumer-gambler has to follow to subscribe and bet on this
kind of websites.
This additional regulation, of compulsory character, might cause a significant outflow of
gamblers, not only due to the increased difficulty in obtaining the relevant information’s but
also due to the fact that some individuals are uncomfortable with exposing private
information as it is the case of tax information.
And those who like to bet by the pure pleasure of deduction, competition with colleagues and
friends, by the adrenaline of hitting the right number or by the mental stimulation of testing
their soccer knowledge – rather like the pleasure that takes millions to practice Fantasy
Football2 - but don’t have the money (or the availability) to spend on this kind of bets?
What about the ones who are simply risk-averse to bet with real money, compromising their
savings and precious time (on the “football’s universe” analysis)? What about the gamblers
who wish only to compete among friends and colleagues on a quest to know the one who
knows best about soccer, getting leisure time between the process with a good amount of
healthy competition? To all these mentioned, these is no possible solution excluding investing
some money and time on a game system more and more bureaucratized and less intuitive.
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An example of this ‘fun’ feeling of football guessing is the worldwide success of the most known Fantasy Football: a
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2. What is our solution to the problem?
SimuSoccer is a game for smartphones, able to be integrated and applicable as App of the
social network Facebook (desktop e mobile), that allows gamblers to bet on soccer’s results –
without having to risk their money, no matter their age. This way, SimuSoccer doesn’t require
gamblers to compromise their capital so that they can play but it also doesn’t give gamblers
monetary payback similarly to what happens on traditional betting houses. However, the
prices and the rewards will be the prime movers to this game’s playing. It follows the
Freemium model (the same as the worldwide success Angry Birds), i.e. although you don’t
pay to play it is possible to pay symbolic amounts to get access to new layouts, local leagues
or a series of other benefits (e.g. the purchase of extra coins for the game or the fee associated
with premium tournaments).
Who plays SimuSoccer will do it for the pleasure of competing with their colleagues, friends,
bosses, teachers or families, on a free and challenging contest’s perspective, on which there
will be prizes related with soccer (official t-shirts of their favorite teams, tickets to important
games or even free or temporary subscription of relevant sport channels). This way, the
experience gained through this game is one of fan-loyality-building, on which the care and
love for our favourite teams and leagues will be powered by the healthy taste of competition,
integrating the weekly or daily basis practice of the game. The scope for a partnership with
clubs, companies and several institutions is endless.
There will be a time-frame for each round of the in issue (similarly to the legendary online
game Ogame), assuring that all gamblers start with the same number of Spoins (Sport +
Coins) so that they can invest in a just way on the results on which they believe their outcome
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But how can we replicate the odds of a bet in a realistic way? In contrast to what happens
with successes of stock market simulations for smartphones (e.g. Investing or Stock Master),
SimuSoccer has its own internal system generator of odds, instead of depending on the
“feeding” of other websites of real betting: the odds on SimuSoccer will be the result of their
gamblers decision (on an offer/demand betting mechanic). This way, apart from sparing on
the feeding and increasing the realism and the importance of the “SimuSoccer community”
worship, a major autonomy will be possible towards third parties, in a way that the
application managers will always detain its control.
At last, and apart from the high competitive price system, partnerships and rewards regularly
associated with this game, the key to success of SimuSoccer is its great user-friendly
interface, in a way that all can play and get involved in the game in a fun, easy and intuitive
way, making SimuSoccer a Casual Game for all ages.
3. The business model
In SimuSoccer, instead of real money, players invest Spoins (“sport + coin”) – a fictional representation of money, serving as the game’s currency that the players will use to play the
game.
A Season is the time frame that lasts from the moment the first bet is made, until the moment
in which a player’s number of Spoins equals zero.
When a player’s Spoins reach the zero level, the player is considered to be Offside, and
he/she has two alternatives:
1) To wait for the Reborn;
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The Reborn is the moment in which all the Offside players are given new Spoins to invest
again, starting a new Season.
If the player opts for the Reset, he/she has to wait 8 days until the Reset is available.
During one’s Season, a player makes his/her bets. The bets are made in the available
divisions and leagues.
A player wins (or loses) Spoins given his/her success in guessing the game results (“Team A
Wins / Team B Looses / Draw”) and/or by guessing specific occurrences (for example, in a
La Liga’s match, the player is able to foresee that Cristiano Ronaldo will score a goal in the
first half of the match, or that Piqué will see a red card during the whole game).
Depending on a player’s success in guessing the matches’ outcome, he/she will move up or
down in the Ranking Table.
The Ranking Table is a dynamic table that represents the position of all the players’
performance in SimuSoccer. This may reflect in winning Trophies, if the player finishes up in
top table, at the end of a given Contest.
Trophies are the prizes that players will receive for each Contests’ achievements.
Contests will have 3 different types, divided in 3 different tabs:
1) Regular Game
2) Tournament
3) Private League
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results. Beginning with the same number of Spoins, the players’ outcome in Regular Game
will dictate his/her position in the Ranking Table of the competition. Such position will
depend, monthly, on the relative players’ payoff. Also, at the end of each civil year, a special
award will also be given to the best players in terms of the absolute number of Spoins
collected. This competition is available all time.
2) Tournament: sporadic initiatives, created by the App’s administration, that will allow
players to invest in specific challenges, like the UEFA Champions League, in a different
layout/tab other than the Regular Game’s one. First, players will accept the challenge, with all
of them receiving the same number of Spoins. Also, this type of Contest will have a sporadic
premium version: a Premium Tournament, in which players will have to pay an initial fee,
that will be balanced by better Trophies – also available for the top competitors at the end of
the competition, as well.
3) Private League: the third and last tab, in which players will be allowed to create his/her
own tournament, alongside with his/her private guests. He/she may create his/her own
Tournament-type competition, with all the rules (such as the number of initial Spoins, the
Trophies, the available leagues, the time length, etc.) that he/she defines. To create a Private League, he/she will have to pay a fee, that will vary depending, not on the number of guests
involved, but on the Private League’s time extension. Such Contest won’t change the
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Independently from the Contest that a user is playing, users will have the chance to buy, at
any time, news layouts for their apps, varying from standard colors, to the layout of their
favorite clubs.
A constant stream of revenues will arise from publicity (whenever a player enters the App,
downloads it, or shares his/her ratings with his/her friends on social networks).
Trophies will drive players to install and keep playing SimuSoccer. Such prizes will arise from partnerships between SimuSoccer and several institutions, like clubs, federations, TV
channels, etc.
4. The SWOT analysis
St
re
n
g
th
s
•Innovative product concept. •Dynamic, dedicated and skillfully completed team. •Symbiotic relationship between CEO and CFO.•Strong
community/partn ership
networking. •Easy access to
funding sources. •Company already
has key assets in its possession. •Low costs
associated with the production of the App.
We
a
k
n
e
ss
e
s
•Lack of teamexperience in founding tech ventures. •Difficulty in protecting our concept through Intelectual Property rights. •There is high
historical percentage of failure in the mobile gaming industry.
Op
p
o
rt
u
n
it
ie
s
•Nowadays real marketrestrictions in the sports betting scenario in the EU. •Portugal 2020. •Startup Voucher. •Present highly dynamic activity from Angel Investors, Incubators and VC firms.
•The business can be developed internationally, building upon its strong global brand
recognition. For example, emerging markets such as China or India, with a new generation of consumers.
Th
re
a
ts
•Other (more mature) organisations may attract employees and business away from us. •As any otherdisruptive idea, the market may not validate our concept. •Heavy
dependence on marketing success in order to prevail. •Possible losses
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5. Marketing & Communication
SimuSoccer, just like any other App, has its best chance of being a great success, by using digital marketing tools.
To monitor and verify our user’s within our mobile app, we intend to use another App called
APPmanago. This also mobile application APPmanago, allows for app users identification,
individual users behaviour tracking and automated real time 1-to-1 personalization of
marketing in the context of the phone and mobile app.
Also, we will use Google’s Search Engine Optimization, which will help in our placement
strategy, since we intend to have a supporting website, which will lead directly to our selling
points, Google Play for Android and Apple Store for the iOS environment.
Social marketing as facebook, instagram and snapchat are also in our list of digital tools to
make the App known. This tools are very accurate since they allow us to filter our target by
interest as well. We can filter our add choosing words like “futebol”, “jogos”, “apps”,
“telemoveis”, “iphone”, “android” and so on. This will lead us directly to potential users.
When it comes to press and media, a Press Release will be launched when the product is
released so it can be tested by online and physical newspapers and magazines related to IT
and gaming world. This is very important to us, since our market is directly related to users
who are always updated in the technology world.
Price is free. SimuSoccer is going to be free on an initial bases, and as it gathers more users,
will become freemium. After that we shall decide the pricing, depending on the cost for
keeping the app on the placement channels.
Our motion designer and developers team have already developed our logo and digital
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6. The competition
In the Real Market
Presently, in the Portuguese market, there are only a few betting houses available,
and all of them have many restrictions and they do not respect their users’ privacy.
When a player begins the registration process, he needs to fill in a quiz with
information, such as tax number, employment situation, real age with documental
support, etc.As a case in point both BetClick and Bet.PT (the only ones already
licensed) have a quiz (shown below), that are required submission in order for an
13 At present, there is only one Betting House that is not licensed but is available for
transactions in Portugal, “BETRALLY”.
BetRally has almost all the features that Betting Houses used to have, it’s accessible,
easy and confidential, but the main problem with placing bets through this House is
that, at any time, there may its access may be blocked by Portuguese authorities, a
situation that makes it too risky for gamblers to keep their money there.
Simulation Market
The simulation market is still largely unexplored, and the few existing examples are
still very little known, less intuitive and not very attractive.
The nearest and similar APP currently existing in the simulation market is " bookie –
sports betting game ", which offers a very attractive layout, but does not have a
system for generating internal odds, it does not have much in terms of entertainment,
contrary to what we propose on SIMUSOCCER, not having partnership with sports
entities, preventing teams, from increasing their fan base or arrangements that would
provide prizes for possible internal and external competitions.
“bookie – sports betting game” is only available for android and IOs smartphones, as
it doesn’t provide users with a desktop website experience like a real Betting House.
Here are some reviews from some of the players:
“Unclear how this app works, hard for newbies I'm new to the whole sports betting
but would love to get some practice in. I would so rate this app 5 stars if it were to
14 the other things. Please add a tutorial and I will happily rate this app 5 cause right
now it's too confusing as to who I am even betting on.”
“Confusing. It’s confusing to know which team I'm betting on! I don't know a what a lot
of it means and the way you pick who you are betting on is too confusing. I don't
know which team I'm betting on?!?!"
The remaining simulation market is made of APP created in order to follow just a
sporadic competition. An example is "kiss my score", whose purpose was to guess
the end results of the EURO 2016 games.
7. The Team
Duarte Franco Teles, CEO & Co-Founder.
Duarte holds a BSc degree in Economics from ISCTE Business School, and he is currently
finishing his MSc degree in the same subject, at the same school). He has experience in
managing small teams due to his two-years experience in managing the International
Relations Department at the Mises Institute of Portugal – a market leader Non-Governmental
Organization that promotes Free Trade and Free Markets in all the Portuguese speaking
countries - in which he is also the Vice-President of the Fiscal Committee. Duarte also has
experience in the Audit & Tax areas, as he is currently working as Audit & Tax Associate at
the multinational firm Andrade Gutierrez EAA, where he assists all the portfolio companies in
terms of market analysis, accounting and internal control issues. He has high interest in
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Guilherme Marques da Fonseca, CFO & Co-Founder.
Guilherme holds a BSc degree (with honors) in Economics from Catholic University of
Portugal, and he is currently finishing a MSc degree in Finance at Nova SBE. In 2014, he
co-founded the Mises Institute of Portugal, having been its Executive Vice-President since then.
While working for such NGO, Guilherme was able to fundraise the money needed to cover all
the Institute’s expenses. He is currently working as Investment Associate for Startup Braga
(one of Portugal’s main startup incubators & accelerators), where he serves as the main
bridge between investors and the Hub’s portfolio companies. Between 2014 and 2015, he
worked for RSG Partners (an investment boutique) where he reported to Mr. Pedro Rodrigues
(former partner of Grupo Alfasom, until the company’s LBO took place). Guilherme has great
passion for Entrepreneurial Finance and Venture Capital.
Nuno Firmo, CTO & Co-Founder.
Nuno is the Founder and Manager of NTW – Web Technology, a tech firm that specializes in
programing online platforms such as Apps and websites. Nuno worked as an analyst for PT –
Comunicações in the division of International Business, where he conducted deep research on
the analysis of international investments related with technological products. He holds a BSc
in Economics and a BSc in Finance, both from ISEG.
Joana Baptista, CMO & Key-Employee.
Joana is a marketer who holds a BA in Marketing from IADE, and a post-graduation from
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participate in the firm’s ownership through the issuance of call options, as she will be a key
member in order to address the company’s future go-to-market strategy and marketing issues.
