Australian football fans eager to dip a toe into the world of fantasy football could soon be granted their wish, thanks to a recent international partnership between two tech businesses from opposite sides of the globe. Keep in mind, however, that as one of those nations is the UK when you hear the word football, you need to be thinking soccer.
20Shots is a UK-based supplier of betting technology that is predominantly focused on fantasy sports. These include domestic staples like football and cricket, but also US sports including hockey, basketball and baseball. Last month, it announced a partnership agreement with Generation Web, an Australian betting platform, whereby it would make its free-to-play Fantasy5 product available to customers using Generation Web’s existing football betting platforms, which include famous brands like EliteBet and TopSport.
Gambling on success down under
The Australian love of sport needs no introduction, and despite its low population density, the nation has produced some of the world’s best performers in cricket, rugby, tennis and more. Likewise, even those who don’t have the skills, physique or inclination to get out there on the field and play love to watch the action from the sidelines and place a wager.
Despite that background and the relaxed attitude for which the nation is famous, there are nevertheless some peculiarities to the gambling culture. In particular, Australia is an interesting case where you can gamble legally on all forms of sports, yet they have chosen to ban Australian no deposit casinos. This is made odder by the proliferation of pokies at land-based casinos and bars.
The question of how fantasy sport should be categorized is a perennially difficult one, and it has caused an excess of head-scratching in the US. The Australian interpretation is more relaxed, and while there are arguments that it is still something of a square peg in a round hole, it is a permitted offering for businesses that hold a sports betting license.
About Fantasy5
This makes Generation Web the perfect Australian outlet for a fantasy sports product that is currently taking the UK market by storm. Like five-a-side football, it is a fast, instant-gratification version of the longer game, which offers weekly prizes. It works as follows.
Every week, five Premier League fixtures are named, and participants must choose one player from each game. Each of these will have a points target allocated, and if the five selected manage to exceed their cumulative points target, the player will win some financial reward. These range from modest prizes for narrowly exceeding the target to larger wins for the top scorers.
There are no budget constraints, so it is possible to select the five strongest players, but there is no real benefit in doing so, as they will obviously have a higher points target than their teammates. Aside from that, points are scored in exactly the same way as in conventional fantasy football, just without the bonuses. Players are limited to one entry each, and entries close the moment the first game gets underway. The platform displays live scores while the games are being played, so you can keep up with your progress in real-time.
If all five of the selected players exceed their points target, there is a special jackpot prize of £10,000. In the event that two or more entrants correctly select five players who all manage to exceed their target, the jackpot is divided among them. If there is no winner, there is no rollover.
The Australian rollout
Fantasy5 has gone live across three key sports betting platforms in the Generation Web stable, each of which is presented as an integrated product marketed under that specific brand. It is the first partnership that 20Shots’ has entered into with a third-party platform, but if it accelerates the product’s organic growth as expected, it is unlikely to be the last.
The rules for Australian players are the same as in the UK, with the only difference being that the Australian jackpot fund is set at AU$20,000 (£11,200). As part of the agreement, 20Shots is underwriting full liability for all jackpot awards, and operators simply pay a set per-player commission for every round.
Hamish Davidson is Generation Web’s Chief Executive, and he had the following to say about the new partnership: “We’re delighted to be the first platform to make Fantasy5 available to Premier League fans in Australia and based on their UK growth we look forward to celebrating Australia’s first jackpot winner soon.”
Jacob Kalms, one of the co-founders of 20Shots was equally enthusiastic, and said that Fantasy5 provides an opportunity for Australian brands to “recruit, retain and engage football sportsbook customers on the world’s most popular football betting medium, the Premier League.”