Recast sports broadcasting video platform
January 18, 2021
A new video platform has been unveiled in a bid to transform the sports broadcasting landscape. Recast’s unique micropayment solution will allow fans to turn their attention directly into revenue for the sports they are passionate about on a non-subscription basis.
Instead of buying rights itself, Recast will connect rights’ holders directly to fans, allowing an exchange of value through in-app credits called ‘Casts’.
This provides a solution to sports which struggle to monetise their content effectively. It also offers sports a place to generate revenue from their content without any of the costs associated with building their own Over-The-Top (OTT) platform.
Despite still being in beta, this shift has seen rights holders – particularly across sports such as cycling, parkour, obstacle course racing, rugby and many more – gravitate to Recast to enable them to monetise the future fan.
Recast CEO and Founder, Andy Meikle, said: “There’s a clear shift in sports’ fans’ consumption and payment patterns, which has only been exacerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic. Fans want more affordable access to their favourite sports, so they’re moving away from traditional broadcasters towards social media, illegal streams or unofficial feeds.
“Continuing to persist with what is clearly a broken model will inevitably kill many professional sports. In an attempt to maximise revenue and reach we’ve seen rights holders move from linear to social and then more recently to owned OTT. The latter has its own limitations as only diehard fans are prepared to go beyond the paywall.
“Aggregation and micropayments are inevitable but a viable model has never existed to support this – until now.”
Recast’s leadership team comprises some of the most highly regarded names in tech and sport. Andy, who founded Sportlobster and took it to a $60 million valuation, is joined by Simon Clegg CBE, former Chief Executive of the British Olympic Association and Ipswich Town FC, as the company’s Founding Investor and Executive Chairman.
Co-Founder JC Oliver, a former Global Head of Innovation at Microsoft & Global Chief Creative Officer at AOL, takes up the role of Chief Marketing Officer. Leading the engineering team as Chief Technology Officer is Chris Stafford, who co-founded FanDuel.
The direct-to-customer platform operates as a three-sided marketplace that brings fans, brands and rights holders together in one place. Recast’s unique proposition does not purchase any sports rights, following the success of other exchange models such as Airbnb and Uber in not owning supply but generating value through connection.
Recast is already working with several high-profile rights holders and bodies using its ground-breaking technology to help maximise their earning potential from highlights, in-play clips and live events ahead of its full UK launch this year.