Facebook continues with fantasy sports-like prediction games that may let customers guess what is happening in sports activities, TV shows, and pop culture.
The new games named Facebook Fantasy Games are rolling out first on the iOS and Android apps in the US and Canada. Users living in one of these countries can open the Facebook app’s menu and tap the new Fantasy Games option. According to Facebook, the newly launched initiative is a simplified form of playing fantasy sports. Tapping the menu will pull up the prediction platform, including the user’s existing leagues, games, and the option to create a new League.
With the partnership with Whistle Sports, the first game available is Pick & Play Sports. That game was already available in the iOS app. Facebook plans to release advanced games for TV shows like The Bachelorette and Survivor, sports leagues like Major League Baseball, and one made with BuzzFeed in the coming months.
Games will have public leaderboards, but you can also make your public or private leagues, playing them with only friends and family, or you want to compete with smaller groups or talk trash. Leaderboards will keep track of user scores. The games do not have features that let you put real money on the line, though if you want to get into wagers, you’re going to have to handle those transactions yourself.
Facebook is offering traditional fantasy sports leagues right now. But this could be Facebook’s first step in the water to compete with big fantasy sports units like DraftKings and ESPN. The platform will also let users share their picks, leave comments and react to content. Facebook has been expanding more into gaming as of late to keep people using its services. The company launched a web app for its cloud gaming service in July. And let iOS users try it out. It also offers a flutter-like streaming service, Facebook Gaming. The addition of fantasy games could help Facebook increase the time users spent on its app. when the company was facing significant competition from TikTok.
These new fantasy games offer something different than those more orthodox gaming offerings, but they are perhaps a better fit for the social network. It seems easy to share heavy picks on your feed and wait for the reactions to roll in.
Writer: Amina Naseer
Reported by: Imaaz Nadeem
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