 "Mumbai City FC partners with chat-based personal assistant Haptik")
Chat-based personal assistant Haptik said it has partnered with football club Mumbai City FC for the upcoming Indian Super League. The partnership will help Haptik users access on-the-go information about Mumbai City FC, including ticket-booking, live scores, players and match information and expert opinions on games.
The partnership is for the current season that starts on October 3 and concludes on December 20. Haptik claims it is the first instance wherein a player in the chat-assisted personal space has partnered to offer live updates of a sporting event to users and fans.
With increasing competition, startups in the country are leaving no stone unturned to increase their visibility among users. Mobile payments wallet cum online retailer Paytm recently won the title sponsorship rights for Rs 203.28 crore for all home matches of the Indian cricket team till 2019. Delhi-based Oxigen, another payment wallet, is driving its brand campaign by sponsoring visiting South African cricket team for the upcoming T20 tournament against India in October .
Indian Premiere League, too, this year saw a number of startups partnering with various teams to promote their brands. While online recharge portal Freecharge, e-retailer Paytm and online automibiles portal CarDekho joined hands with IPL, bus ticket booking portal Redbus joined hands with Royal Challengers Bangalore and online dating app Woo with Kings XI Punjab. The other players who were sponsoring partners of various IPL teams include online marketplace ShopClues, cab aggregator Ola and Pepperfry.
“It’s a very exciting step for both Mumbai City FC and Haptik to take,” said Aakrit Vaish, chief executive officer and co-founder of Haptik. “This is the world’s first sporting club assistant integration, and we are all excited to see what users think of it. As sports fans, we have always wanted a channel to talk about our favorite clubs, and Haptik is proud to finally offer that.”
Mumbai-based Haptik was launched in 2014 and has a user base of about 150,000. The personal assistant chat service combines search and commerce to help users get things done with a message.
“The season is almost here and with everyone having multiple things to do at the same time, Haptik as an app makes life a whole lot easier with its unique features. We see tremendous value and promise in the Haptik app for our fans,” said Indranil Das Blah, chief executive officer, Mumbai City FC. Bollywood actor Ranbir Kapoor and chartered accountant Bimal Parekh are the owners of the team.
