NBA players providing free daily mobile updates

By Dan Butcher

March 11, 2009

MogoTXT's homepage

A number of NBA players have agreed to post daily text messages that fans can sign up to receive on their mobile phones or computers.

Mobile messaging company MogoTXT Inc. launched the mobile blog. The initial group of
NBA stars on the MogoTXT platform are Shane Battier of the Houston Rockets, LaMarcus Aldridge of the Portland Trailblazers, Jordan Farmar of the Los Angeles Lakers, Eric Gordon of the Los Angeles Clippers and Spencer Hawes of the Sacramento Kings.

"MogoTXT's mobile content is valuable because it is timely, with hot news, authentic -- straight from the athlete or celebrity -- and exclusive to MogoTXT," said Andrew Won, CEO of MogoTXT, San Mateo, CA. "Because of this, we have the potential to revolutionize print and online sports-oriented and celebrity-oriented journalism.

"Our alerts, while short, will arrive much faster than all other news and can make other news stories obsolete in the time that it takes for a journalist to write longer stories," he said. "While we can disrupt print and online media, our preference is to work with major sports and celebrity publishers in content syndication deals that will generate content revenues for MogoTXT and provide our partners with fresh, new and unique content.

"Of course, such deals will increase MogoTXT's reach -- we want this to be a win-win for MogoTXT and our content partners."

MogoTXT has signed aggreements with various NBA players

MogoTXT's target demographic is early teens and up, essentially anyone who wants up-to-date information about sport stars, musicians, well-known bloggers and other celebrities.

The text messages written by these star athletes are fresh, authentic and unlike anything that is currently available, according to MogoTXT.

The messages arrive much faster than traditional news stories, often right after a game.

The Houston Rockets' Shane Battier has a mobile blog

The athletes will reach out and share their daily lives with the fans that follow them on MogoTXT.

Fans can join any or all of MogoTXT's public texting groups for free and they will not have to wonder about whether the athletes and celebrities they are following on MogoTXT are the real deal or imposters.

Sports stars and celebrities will be able to build their mobile audiences on MogoTXT in a manner that will provide targeted advertising opportunities for major brands.

"Regarding monetization, we are also going to have brand sponsors on our service on an athlete-by-athlete and celebrity-by-celebrity basis," Mr. Won said. "A given athlete may have an exclusive athletic shoe sponsor, an exclusive sports drink sponsor, and so forth.

"These are already in the works although I cannot go into any details at this time," he said.

Sports stars and celebrities will be able to build their mobile audiences with assurance that their mobile audiences will not be improperly used by the company that hosts their mobile groups.

MogoTXT is going to be building WAP sites for many of its athletes and celebrities, which will enable them, celebrities and MogoTXT to together offer and sell various types of content from these sites. There will be advertising on these sites as well.

MogoTXT currently supports SMS text ads, including banners with clickable links, and very soon everything that is possible via WAP.

The basic service is free, but MogoTXT will not rely exclusively on advertising to monetize.

"We are considering the possibility of premium services, especially services that are coupled with other popular services such as fantasy sports," Mr. Won said.

"We want to partner with other companies, with best-of-breed fantasy sports and other capabilities, and try to come up with new services that are amazing and that people will enjoy and be willing to pay subscription fees for," he said.

The SMS service will be available on all handsets.

MogoTXT has planned both online and mobile advertising campaigns to get the word out about its NBA mobile micro-blogging via SMS.

The company is also working on an iPhone application.

MogoTXT will soon launch texting groups for other NBA stars, Major League Baseball players and other celebrities.

"We expect to launch a second wave of NBA players within a couple of weeks," Mr. Won said. "We will then proceed to launch a group of Major League Baseball stars as the baseball season gets underway and then proceed to NASCAR.

"We are also looking to get some UFC fighters on our service as well," he said. "We think this will be interesting."

Comments on "NBA players providing free daily mobile updates"

1. Obii Chuku says:

   March 11, 2009 at 1:05pm

   2 syllables: Twitter.

2. Jim Sofranko says:

   March 11, 2009 at 11:59am

   It's called Twitter...