LiveOne's PodcastOne enables gamification across network

LiveOne (NASDAQ: LVO), an award-winning, creator-first, music, entertainment and technology platform, announced today that PodcastOne, a leading podcast platform and a wholly-owned subsidiary of LiveOne, now offers listeners a fun and innovative way to engage with PodcastOne’s network of award-winning and top-ranked podcast hosts through gamification. Powered by VersusGame, PodcastOne has launched MiniGames on their platform, enabling their listeners to watch and answer prediction and opinion-based questions to win rewards.

This endeavor marks an exciting introduction into gamification and monetization for PodcastOne, its host talent, and advertisers allowing them to create or sponsor relevant and topical content for fans that will reside on PodcastOne.com. MiniGames created by PodcastOne show hosts will also be distributed across the vast VersusGame MiniGames Network which includes over 900 verified hosts.

Now live on PodcastOne.com, the MiniGames experience provides users and fans the opportunity to engage with relevant gamified content within the natural ecosystem of the site. With games in a variety of genres like Television & Film, Music, News, Sports, Lifestyle and more, players now have a content experience like never before combined with the opportunity to win exciting rewards. “With over 200 active podcasts, PodcastOne is a powerhouse partner for us,” said John Vitti, VersusGame Founder and CEO. “We are eager to share our interactive content solution with their amazing audience.”

VersusGame MiniGames are a way for publishers, platform owners, and other creators to add a new source of non-advertising revenue to their existing business, completely net of costs. MiniGames can be used to make passive content instantly interactive and entice future-based excitement. MiniGames increase engagement and retention while maintaining a high level of contextual relevance so as not to compromise the user experience. Partner results have shown an average 27% engagement rate and 55.6% click-through rate.

“Our partnership with VersusGame is another way for us to capitalize on fan engagement. It’s a wonderful opportunity for us and for our hosts to engage with fans in an interactive way. Offering users the chance to win financially, while also generating internal revenue is a win for everyone,” said Kit Gray, President of PodcastOne. “Bringing gamification into the PodcastOne world brings our listeners into our shows in a whole new way. Now they get to engage directly with show hosts and participate in the conversation. It elevates the listener’s experience like never before.”

VersusGame announced the launch of their new product MiniGames last month, an effort that instantly creates a massive distribution network of gamified content by bringing it to popular destinations where people already spend their time. VersusGame’s Founder and CEO John Vitti said, “The largest companies in the world saw the success of VersusGame and insisted that we bring the technology directly to their customers, subscribers and fans and directly on their consumer platforms.” VersusGame is a product that rewards people for their knowledge and monetizes intent like no other before it.

With podcasting becoming more popular globally and demand for engaging content on the rise, PodcastOne’s foray into gamification is on track to meet the growing importance of giving its audience a new avenue for engagement. In an effort to reach their broader audience beyond the website platform, PodcastOne plans to roll out a social media content cadence to share MiniGames with their community. In addition to evergreen games, the trending and topical subject matter of many predictions and opinion-based polls calls for timely sharing on social media so users can maximize their play.