Raykov: The Serbian eagle will be star of World Cup (VIDEO)

Thanks to collaboration of Viber, Football Association of Serbia and Comtrade, many football fans in Serbia will get opportunity to cheer for the national team in a unique way. What is this collaboration specifically about, we spoke with Atanas Raykov General Manager of Rakuten Viber for CEE and Head of Telecom partnership.

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- Basically this is a unique project that we are doing for Serbia and we are launching the special sticker package dedicated to participation of the Serbian national football team in the World Cup in the Rusia. What we will be doing is that free sticker pack on football thematic, with mascots, with football players and their faces and favorite phrases, will be published in Viber. This sticker pack will after that subscribe the fans to a chat bot, that will provide all the key information about World Cup and Serbia performance in it - said Mr. Raykov.

Viber and Comtrade have developed a revolutionary option to pay your bills through the famous app (PHOTO)

Foto: Marko Jovanović

Why this collaboration is so important and how did you manage all duties among all on this project?

- It was very important to have such kind of tripartite partnership, because on one side we get all the information, official approvals from the FAS, access to the players, exclusive content and than we have trusted partner that can create the news, can really integrate all of this content in to a Viber platform, with a very state of art technologies, like chat bots which are growing in popularity . Also you have to keep in mind, the stickers are super popular service and very favorite toll to expression for the users in Serbia and more than 90 million stickers, which are being sent per month in Serbia, alone.

How many stickers will be in this set for World Cup?

- It will be more than 15 stickers in the set.

Foto: Marko Jovanović

And which one is your favorite?

- Although there are a couple very interesting stickers with the players, actually I really like the sticker with a mascot with the eagle and it has a couple combinations where it expresses joy from the victory or frustration from referee and so on so, I think I’m split between couple of them, but definitely the eagle will be a star of the world show tournament.

Have you ever made something similar to this project?

- We are the sponsors of FC Barcelona, we are general sponsors as Rakuten family, so Viber’ owner is the biggest Japanes internet company Rakuten and we are collaborating with Barcelona football club, with Golden State Warriors, the champions of the NBA, to develop new technologies in the field of sport. This know how is being transferred to our local projects and our local partners. And I think this is a very good result of bringing world wide expertise from top brands in support in to such a project which is meaning full and very valuable for the users in Serbia. You know I’m coming from the country, where our team won’t play at World Cup and I can only imagine what kind of joy is when your team is there, when your cheering for them against Brazil or some other opponent.

Does it mean that you will be fan of Serbia football team for this World Cup?

Foto: Marko Jovanović

- I’m a big fan of Serbian sport, Novak for example and a lot of others players and because we are neighbors we definitely have to support each other, so I’ll be definitely cheering for you.

What are the expectations of Viber from this collaboration with FAS and Comtrade and what will be outcomes after World Cup?

- The World Cup is just a start of this collaboration. What we imagine to happen, this is a long term partnership where we will be able to create the platform where the fans of football in Serbia be able to get the right information at the right time in a very convenient way within their messenger, without installing, any additional applications without any complex settings. And when they qualifiers for the European Cup or a friendly games or important news around the top players m you well be able to get it under one roof. This is something that we evolve over time and any body who download stickers or subscribe to the chat bot will continue to get these information over time and will be able to use all of this innovative services.

(M. Banjanovic)