Facebook, the king of social media, is now entering the realm of fantasy gaming on iOS and Android.
Yes, you read that right, Facebook is into fantasy gaming now. It has launched Facebook Fantasy Games on its app in the US and Canada on Wednesday. Fantasy gaming lets you make predictions about TV shows (such as “The Bachelorette”) and sports (predicting a team’s playing XI in a cricket match or the number of goals that will be scored in a football match.) Not only will daily sports prediction contests be there, but users can set up their own leagues and contests as well.
Users will be able to create their own fantasy league to compete with their friends or other players, as well as compare scores.
Facebook has teamed up with Whistle Sports to roll out the first of its fantasy games – Pick & Play Sports – which lets players predict the winner of some big game, the points scored by a top player, or other events that unfold during the match and earn points. They can also earn bonus points for building a streak of correct predictions over several days – the bigger the streak, the more the points will be.
Facebook is also joining forces with MLB and LaLiga to roll out games on baseball and football respectively, and other partners are expected to manage similar games. Pick and Play Sports will be followed by other games in sports, TV, and pop culture, including Fantasy Survivor and the “Bachelorette,” as well as MLB Home Run Picks, where players predict the team with the most home runs, and LaLiga Winning Streak, where fans predict the team that will win that day. There will also be a “Friends” feature, which will allow players to play fantasy gaming with their friends, and if you excel at the games, you will be featured on the “Leaderboards.”
In an interview, Rob Show, Facebook director, sports media, and league partnerships, said that they wanted Facebook Fantasy Games to be something that could be customized for different fan bases.
“We’ve come up with a simple set of games. From there, the aspiration is for it to take on several lives of its own,” he said, adding that they were not interested in turning it into a betting product and that it was built for casual fans. “Our goal here is to come up with a fun, easy-to-use, social game,” he said, “and really to be able to reach a lot of different people.”
While this may pave the way for paid future gaming in the future, this move seems to be a great one in increasing engagement on Facebook’s platform. An industry report has suggested that nearly 60 million Americans and Canadians played fantasy games in 2020, and with Facebook’s latest offering, the number is likely to increase.
