The Long Game is an Aotearoa New Zealand athlete transition and performance platform designed to support high-performance athletes before, during and after their competitive careers.
TSE is an independent sports and entertainment agency shaping how brands and fans connect through sport. Since 1994, they’ve helped brands, organisations and rights holders grow their audiences, their businesses and their impact.
Strategic Collaboration
A new elite domestic competition is a rare opportunity to design the fan and commercial experience alongside the sporting product itself.
Rather than inherit fragmented digital systems and traditional matchday engagement models, the competition can establish a connected approach from inception.
The proposed collaboration brings together The Long Game, TSE, SHAPE and iSPARX™ to support this opportunity.
The Long Game leads the programme and wider stakeholder relationship.
TSE leads agency, brand, commercial and activation strategy.
SHAPE leads fan experience and technology strategy.
SHAPE powered by AR+IQ provides the white-label fan engagement layer, supported by the underlying AR+IQ technology and implementation capability of iSPARX™.
The objective is not simply to introduce another sports app.
It is to help establish the fan engagement and commercial infrastructure around the new competition.
Opportunity
The development of a new elite domestic netball competition creates an opportunity to build a modern fan relationship from the beginning.
Netball already has deep connections across athletes, schools, clubs, families and communities throughout Aotearoa.
The opportunity is to connect this existing participation and community foundation more directly with the elite competition.
This means designing for more than spectatorship.
Fans can participate before, during and after matches. Athletes can build stronger connections with supporters where permissions allow. Commercial partners can become active contributors to the experience. Venues can become interactive environments. The competition can progressively develop a direct, consent-led understanding of its audience.
The result is a stronger relationship between the elite game and the wider netball community.
The opportunity is therefore not another destination for watching sport.
It is a connected fan engagement layer around the competition.
Disclaimer
This webpage and its contents are provided for design, demonstration, and concept purposes only. All information, visuals, and interactive elements are illustrative and may not represent final products, services, or experiences. iSPARX™, SHAPE, and associated companies make no warranties, express or implied, regarding the accuracy, completeness, or suitability of any content for commercial use. Nothing on this page constitutes a binding offer or agreement. All intellectual property remains the property of its respective owners. Any reproduction, redistribution, or commercial use without prior written consent is prohibited.
The Problem – Gaps in Live Sports and Entertainment Engagement
Sports and live entertainment remain powerful cultural forces, but current engagement models face persistent challenges:
Fragmented Fan Journeys - Audiences navigate disconnected platforms for tickets, schedules, content, and merchandise, leading to frustration and reduced loyalty.
Passive Experiences - Fans remain observers rather than participants, with limited opportunities for interaction, immersion, or personalisation during events.
Operational Inefficiencies - Teams, promoters, and venues rely on outdated systems for managing data, scheduling, and communications, creating unnecessary complexity and costs.
Revenue Leakage - Traditional ticketing and merchandising channels impose high fees and restrict direct-to-fan opportunities, limiting reinvestment in players, teams, and communities.
Lack of Spatial Integration - Venues and live events underuse spatial computing and real-time engagement tools, missing opportunities to connect physical and digital fan experiences.
These gaps weaken fan loyalty, reduce financial sustainability, and prevent sports and entertainment organisations from meeting the expectations of a new, tech savvy audience.
Our Solution - The Fan Experience Platform: Technology, Spatial & Engagement
The Fan Experience Platform
SHAPE powered by AR+IQ is a white-label sport fan app and matchday engagement layer.
For the new competition, it can connect four elements of the fan relationship:
GAME
Teams, athletes, fixtures, competition stories, polls, predictions, challenges and participation.
VENUE
Maps, arrival information, location-aware check-ins, missions, rewards, wayfinding and sponsor activations.
PERSONA
Supporter identity, preferences, behaviour and consent-led personalisation.
COMMUNITY
Clubs, schools, families, supporter groups, shared challenges, leaderboards and recognition.
The platform complements the competition’s existing ticketing, media, broadcast and commercial relationships rather than seeking to replace them.
Its role is to connect the fan journey around live netball.
How the Experience Works - Technology, Spatial & Engagement for Sport and Entertainment
The experience follows the fan through the complete matchday journey.
Before the Game
Fans enter through a competition or team-branded experience.
They can:
select their team
create a digital supporter pass
set preferences and consent
discover fixtures and athletes
plan their visit
receive their first mission
invite friends or family
During the Game
The venue becomes a live game board.
Fans can:
check in at locations
complete team and sponsor missions
collect player cards
participate in trivia and predictions
vote in live fan polls
earn points and badges
join team or supporter leaderboards
complete interval challenges
unlock sponsor rewards
After the Game
The relationship continues beyond the final whistle.
Fans can:
view achievements
see voting results
redeem rewards
maintain supporter streaks
receive relevant partner offers
discover the next fixture
continue community challenges
Each interaction can contribute, subject to consent, to a progressively richer understanding of the supporter relationship.
Designed for the Netball Ecosystem
The platform should recognise that New Zealand netball is an ecosystem rather than a single professional audience.
The experience can progressively serve:
competition supporters
individual team supporters
families
junior players
school communities
clubs
coaches and volunteers
athlete followers
commercial partners
venues
event organisers
This creates opportunities for the elite competition to connect matchday engagement with participation, community and supporter identity.
The same foundation can support competition-wide experiences while allowing teams and venues to maintain their own identity.
The Venue Becomes a Live Game Board
The physical venue is one of the competition’s strongest engagement assets.
SHAPE can add a digital participation layer around the live match without interfering with the sporting contest or broadcast product.
Fans can discover locations, check in, collect digital assets, complete challenges and unlock rewards as they move through the venue.
Examples include:
Team Quest
Player Card Collection
Venue Trail
Fan Pulse
Match Prediction
Supporter Streak
Sponsor Challenge
Quarter-Time Challenge
Half-Time Rush
Crowd Unlock
Mission design should remain simple.
The objective is to add participation and utility without distracting from the game itself.
The “stadium as game board” approach is already central to the SHAPE sport concept.
Competitive Advantage
The competitive advantage does not come from individual app features.
Features can be replicated.
The longer-term value comes from connecting supporter identity, behaviour, venues, teams and commercial partners through a common engagement infrastructure.
Competition-wide, locally branded
Team and event experiences can maintain their own identity while sharing a common service and supporter foundation.
Event-first
The platform earns adoption by providing useful and enjoyable experiences around real matches.
Rights-light
SHAPE complements broadcast and media partners rather than competing with them.
Modular
Capabilities can be introduced progressively as the competition develops.
Consent-led
Supporter identity and analytics are governed by explicit consent, preference controls and privacy-by-design principles.
Commercially measurable
Partner activity can be evaluated through participation, visitation, mission completion, redemption and conversion pathways.
Over time, the durable asset is not simply the application.
It is the trusted supporter relationship, consent-governed fan identity, behavioural insight, partner integrations and repeatable activation model.
Commercial Platform
Fan engagement can create additional commercial inventory around the live competition.
Sponsor Missions
Partners become part of matchday participation through challenges, venue trails, collectibles and team-based missions.
Rewards and Redemption
Participation can unlock relevant benefits, moving partner activation from passive exposure towards measurable action.
Venue Activation
Location-aware experiences can encourage discovery of partner zones, merchandise, food and beverage and community areas.
Digital Collectibles
Approved athlete and team assets can support collection mechanics, challenges and partner-linked rewards.
Commerce Pathways
Missions can connect with merchandise, ticketing, hospitality, food and beverage or partner offers where appropriate.
Partner Measurement
Competition organisers and partners can measure activation volumes, participation, zone visitation, reward redemption and repeat engagement.
The objective is not to increase advertising volume.
It is to make commercial partners useful participants in the fan experience.
Development Roadmap
Stage 1 | Competition Definition
The Long Game leads programme definition with competition stakeholders.
TSE develops brand, audience, commercial and activation strategy.
SHAPE defines the fan experience architecture, supporter journeys, matchday model and measurement framework.
iSPARX™ maps the required AR+IQ modules, integrations and implementation requirements.
Key outputs:
competition fan proposition
priority supporter journeys
competition and team digital architecture
sponsor activation framework
technology requirements
consent and data framework
launch minimum viable experience
measurement framework
Stage 2 | Initial Competition Experience
Deploy a focused first version around the competition launch.
Priority capabilities:
competition and team identity
digital supporter pass
fixtures and event information
athlete profiles
venue maps
matchday missions
player collectibles
fan polls
points and badges
leaderboards
sponsor activation
rewards
consent-led analytics
The objective is to establish adoption, understand supporter behaviour and generate evidence for future development.
Stage 3 | Learn and Expand
Use the first competition period as a live learning environment.
Measure:
supporter activation
onboarding completion
missions completed
repeat sessions
venue movement
sponsor-zone engagement
reward redemption
supporter satisfaction
willingness to return
consent opt-in
partner value
Stage 4 | Competition Platform
Expand proven capabilities into a deeper league-wide platform.
Potential additions include:
richer team experiences
advanced fan personalisation
club and school connections
season-long supporter journeys
community competitions
enhanced commerce
partner integrations
AI-assisted fan journeys
cross-venue supporter identity
advanced competition and sponsor analytics
The platform grows with the competition rather than requiring the competition to adopt a fixed technology model.
Conclusion
The creation of a new elite domestic netball competition presents an opportunity to build more than a new sporting format.
It creates the opportunity to establish a stronger relationship between elite athletes, supporters, communities, venues and commercial partners from the beginning.
The Long Game proposes to lead that programme.
TSE brings the agency, brand and commercial capability required to build the competition’s market-facing proposition.
SHAPE brings fan experience strategy and the SHAPE powered by AR+IQ engagement layer.
iSPARX™ provides the underlying technology platform and implementation capability.
Together, the partnership can help establish a fan model that is event-first, commercially measurable, rights-light and consent-led.
The technology is an enabler.
The objective is a competition people feel part of.