Shaking Up The Fantasy Football Industry

Online, July 27, 2010 (Newswire.com) - Irish-based start-up Ubecha.com (U Bet Ya!) is a new online platform that combines community-based betting with social media and fantasy sports.

Following a soft launch in Ireland for the World Cup, Ubecha's official launch in the U.K will coincide with the Barclay's Premier League 2010/11 season.

The Ubecha platform allows users to play fantasy sports and a variety of sports prediction games against friends and colleagues for fun, or for real money. "Ubecha.com is designed with the next generation of sports fans in mind and based on the principle of the any time, anywhere, any place consumption of media and entertainment," says CEO Paul Cooling.

The game of fantasy football is simple. Pick a team of existing players, then compare your team's performance ­- based on statistical analysis of real-life games - with those of your opponents, who, given the same option may have chosen alternative players. The concept, which rewards the most knowledgeable and passionate of participants, has proven a powerful draw to fans keen to participate in the greater drama of their sport in some small way.

Online social gaming is rapidly being transformed from what was considered a niche market into a highly sophisticated and lucrative mainstream market with companies such as Zynga leading the way with its games on social utility site Facebook.

In contrast, the fantasy sports market, particularly on this side of the Atlantic, has been lacking innovation and has stagnated over the last number of years. With little or no pioneering in the fantasy sports space in Europe, Ubecha feels it has built something more sophisticated, more social and more exciting for fantasy sports players. For many, the two major problems with fantasy sports include; the huge time commitment involved - when you play fantasy, you have to play for the whole season - no breaks, no excuses and the hassle of managing community-based bets between friends and colleagues.

The new fantasy sports website Ubecha.com addresses these problems by introducing social media to the traditional game of fantasy football, making for a more engaging experience. The platform provides a solution for community-based betting, taking the hassle out of this off-line activity. Ubecha's cutting-edge solution also provides immediacy for users to play fantasy football weekly, monthly or all season long.

Mr Cooling says: "It's a very interesting space to be in right now with the explosion of social gaming. The popularity of fantasy sports shows no sign of waning with strong growth over the last number of years globally and this is predicted to continue."

The American market alone has in excess of 27 million fantasy sports players and the market is valued in excess of $2.5bn. The official Fantasy Premier League game has 2.3 million players and the site has grown year on year by over 20 per cent since its inception.

"Our strategy is to shake up the fantasy sports market with a new approach and ultimately provide a superior fantasy gaming experience to what currently exists in the marketplace," Mr Cooling said.

About Ubecha

Founded in 2009, Ubecha is an online and mobile platform that provides engaging gaming solutions for communities of sports enthusiasts. The company's business model combines social media and fantasy betting. Ubecha makes fantasy sports betting a social experience. "Social Betworking TM" Joining Ubecha is free. Go to: www.ubecha.com

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For more information please contact Brian Kearney by email, [email protected] or call +353 86 314 1714