Facebook is introducing fantasy sports-style prediction games that will allow users to forecast what will happen in sports, TV shows, and pop culture. The new games, dubbed Facebook Fantasy Games, will be available first on the iOS and Android apps for users in the United States and Canada.
Pick & Play Sports, a daily sports prediction game created in collaboration with Whistle Sports, is the first game available. (It was previously available in the iOS app for me, so it may be available for you as well.) Facebook aims to offer other games for TV shows like The Bachelorette and Survivor, sports organizations like Major League Baseball, and one created in collaboration with BuzzFeed in the “coming months.” There will be public leaderboards in the games, but you may also create your own public or private leagues if you want to compete with smaller groups or simply speak trash.
However, the games do not appear to have elements that allow you to gamble real money, so if you wish to place bets, you will have to manage those transactions yourself. In addition, it does not appear that Facebook is currently offering regular fantasy sports leagues. However, this could be Facebook’s first foray into competing with large fantasy sports businesses such as DraftKings and ESPN.
In an effort to retain people utilizing its services, Facebook has recently expanded into gaming. In July, the business launched a web app for its cloud gaming service to circumvent Apple’s App Store limitations and allow iOS customers to try it out. Facebook Gaming, a Twitch-like streaming service, is also available. These new fantasy games offer something different than more standard gaming options, but they appear to be a better fit for the social network – it appears simple to broadcast a daring pick on your feed and wait for the comments to flow in.