Carlos Molina del Rio is a Madrid-based games developer and founder of independent studio 89bits. After years of working at Telefonica creating mobile infrastructure for one of Spain’s most important telecom companies, he decided to start his own games and entertainment company to combine gaming and live sporting events with the mobile experience. Read about his experience in launching a new entertainment category in fantasy sports management.
Second-Screen Formula 1
Q. Can you briefly tell us about your project?
A. Pitlane Manager was a “second screen” companion app for Formula 1 that put players into the shoes of the racing manager, allowing them to create their own team and compete in live events against professional teams and drivers from around the world.
Launched in the second half of the 2014 season, Pitlane Manager was selected by Spanish broadcaster Movistar as the official Formula 1 pilot in second screen entertainment. It was the first of its kind for this audience. The game let F1 fans become managers of a virtual team of two cars competing against real teams and drivers. The experience was synchronized with what players watched on TV.
Studio Origins
Q. How did this all begin?
A. I have always been a huge board game fan. One of the very first board games my friends and I made as a teenager was a game about managing a cycling team. We called it Perico Delgado, named after the Spanish former professional road bicycle racer who won the 1988 Tour de France. As we played, we realized that we could compete against live races, managing our favorite athletes and map out courses and results for points.
I eventually became a telecommunications engineer, and my co-founder Adolfo became a computer scientist, but we never lost the dream of starting our own company and creating a whole new category of gameplay based on live events. As mobile technology, access to real-time game data and user habits evolved, the opportunity to plug into live events has become a reality — today over 80% of consumers use a second device while watching TV. We knew the time was now right, and we formed 89bits to take fantasy sports management gaming to the next level.
Q. What does 89bits mean?
A. We chose the name for a number of reasons. 1989 saw the launch of the first handheld video console, the Gameboy. The 80’s was also a golden era for video games in Spain, a magical time of growth and new technologies. Finally, we love 8-bit games! Our name brings all of those concepts together.
A New Way to Play Fantasy Sports
Q. Tell us more about the gameplay. Did anything surprise you about connecting a game to the live event?
A. Each player manages a number of pit stops — calculating which lap to take a pit stop, the pace of their drivers, the overall strategy of the team, etc. — like a real racing manager would. The game introduces variables that reflect real conditions in the race, for example, the moment it starts to rain, or if a safety car is on the track, or if one of the top drivers crashes. These live situations completely change the strategy of the professional teams and the strategy of the players.
We were both surprised and pleased to see how the game fulfilled the need of the really hardcore F1 fans, those that can’t miss a second of the race. If you know a lot about F1, then Pitlane Manager was the ultimate experience. We received some impressive direct feedback from the players about it.
Q. How is this different from today’s fantasy sports games? What did you learn about fans through this experience?
A. This is not about betting or stats — Pitlane Manager is part of a new breed of mobile-optimized fantasy sports apps that gamify the live TV experience so that fans can interact directly with matches or races as they happen using live game data. What makes it different compared to today’s fantasy gaming is that the data and interaction is happening in real-time — this goes beyond just match prediction and instead gives sports fans the opportunity to coach their own team and make decisions about technical play and tactics in real-time. It is real skill-based play — aimed at fans who understand the game.
We learned a lot about sport fans in developing this game and the type of interactivity they want. Some want a niche professional experience, while others are interested in more casual gaming. But ultimately, every fan wants to be a central part of the sporting experience. Giving them a key role in making decisions about their team or players creates greater engagement with what is happening; instead of scrolling through Facebook or WhatsApp — they are glued to the game.
Understanding Clients
Q. Can you talk about working with telcos and broadcasters as an independent game developer? Any tips for our readers?
A. Learn how to understand what drives these companies and what matters to them. For us, it was consumer engagement and data. With Pitlane Manager, we measured how over 7,000 gamers interacted with the live race. To give you an idea of the type of interaction, Pitlane users spent an average of 33 minutes per race using the application.
Enhancing the live TV experience for sports fans via second screen apps not only increases viewer engagement, but also provides valuable customer insights and creates new channels for advertisers. As a game developer, the success of our engagement is about synchronizing what we do best, ie. designing games, with what fans experience live. We needed to understand how to work with broadcasters and telcos and prove we can help them retain and grow their audiences, while at the same time never losing focus on the player experience.
Telcos with quadruple-play offers present a huge opportunity to engage with customers across platforms — but they need quality content and unifying experiences. As a small studio, we know that our games are more successful when tied to large, well-known brands. We also offer these companies something they want — engaged fans. You need to be passionate, offer great gameplay, real-time engagement and have accurate data to back it all up.
Tips and Triumphs
Q. What was your biggest challenge?
A. For us, it was developing a roadmap that reflects the market. In the beginning, we had to decide if we were going to develop small, easy-to-create games to increase our visibility and reputation, or focus on our dream project of competing in real-time with live events. You need to learn how to manage your resources and balance your time while also proving to people that you can create great games.
Our first forays into gaming began with porting traditional board games that people loved and grew up with into a mobile format — our success with that led us back to the whole concept of competing in real-time. Now we are working on a very exciting project that is focused on blending virtual fantasy games with live football matches.
Q. What advice do you have for other game developers?
A. Stick with it — there is nothing like the experience of creating something you believe in and seeing people enjoy it. Three memories that I will never forget:
Playing live in the first races (during testing) and feeling extremely excited that engagement with the live event was exactly as we had envisioned it.
After launch, feeling really nervous (in a good way) during each race, and then preparing for the following weekend’s race to deliver the best in-game experience possible.
The first emails and positive reviews that came in from players who understood what we had just built.
Q. What are you or your team most proud of?
A. As an independent studio with less than 10 people, we created a whole new experience blending live sports, videogames, second screen and fantasy managers. No one has done this at this level before in Spain, and it works. It’s an incredible feeling.
Down the Road
Q. So what is next?
A. The shift from passive to active viewing that live events and mobile gaming apps encourage will become increasingly significant. Real-time apps empower fans to become managers and decide what the best setup for their car is, or what players/tactics to have on field during the game. The fans’ experience then becomes much more interactive, mobile and social. And this is just the beginning.
Now we’re taking the knowledge of what we learned in Pitlane Manager and applying it in exciting new ways to fantasy management in other sports. We’re hard at work on an exciting new football game, due this summer, and we invite any developers and football fans out there to get in touch with us if they are interested in collaborating or testing the game. We’d love to hear your feedback!
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