Lancashire Cricket is pleased to announce it has teamed up with Rewards4Cricket, a rewards programme dedicated to cricket fans, ahead of the 2019 season as the Club continues to strengthen fan engagement and benefit programmes for Members and supporters of the Red Rose.

The Rewards4Cricket programme, operated by the UK’s largest operator of sports-based rewards programmes (Rewards4), is initially focused on providing new ways to reward supporters for their loyalty when purchasing tickets and Memberships at Emirates Old Trafford. 

It is no secret that die-hard sports fans are some of the most passionate and engaged people when their team is on the pitch. However, what happens when they’re at home or at work? Does that loyalty filter through to every day life? Often not and as a result, clubs continue to seek ways to maintain that engagement and infiltrate the day-to-day lives of their fans

There is a clear appetite for fan currency as a means to extend engagement beyond the pitch, with links being made between fan engagement and fan currency. For example, soccer giants Paris Saint-Germain and Juventus are turning to digital coins or tokens (also known as cryptocurrency) to raise funds and deliver unprecedented levels of fan engagement. This is a growing area for sport, but one that is likely to attract the attention of world-leading clubs as well as fans looking to redeem their tokens for voting rights on how a club is run. However, currency in the form of fan tokens is arguably risky due to a notable lack of regulation.

​So what other options exist for those clubs that want to turn their fans into year-round supporters without the associated risk of token offerings?

​Thanks to the combination of fast internet, smartphones and social media, today’s fans are always connected and even, some have argued, “hyper digitalised”, voicing their passion on Twitter, Facebook and every other social network out there.  As a result, many of us now watch games while bantering with other fans on our mobile phones – the so-called “second screen – and Facebook reports that of the 1.3 billion-plus people on Facebook, 500 million are “hardcore football fans”.

Sports clubs have long recognised they can’t rest on their laurels when it comes to engaging with their fans. Gone are the days when your dad and grandad’s favourite club becomes, by default, yours. The younger generation are much harder to reach and win over as loyal fans – they have been granted easy access to a global playing field, with local football teams now competing for fans against the likes of Barcelona and Manchester United.

Not that it’s an easy win. Today’s sports fans are more on the ball than ever when it comes to sponsors; a recent global survey found that while most don't object to sponsorship, more than eight in ten believe that fans are not front of mind when sponsors make deals with players or teams.

In a bid to strengthen their fan engagement and benefit programmes, a raft of county cricket clubs and cricketing brands have recently signed up to Rewards4Cricket – the loyalty programme dedicated to cricket fans.

Worcestershire, Warwickshire and world-renowned England supporters’ club, Barmy Army, have joined existing Rewards4Cricket partners – Glamorgan, Durham and Hampshire - to help supporters save money on tickets and memberships at a level never before seen in the sport. ​