In the good old days, the betting shop football coupon was the traditional route young men took to enter the wonderful world of gambling. Since then much has changed in the industry: the internet has been invented, bookies have started offering singles on football matches and live betting is all the rage.
But one thing has never changed: man’s desire to predict the outcome of football matches. Man doesn’t care if the match in question involves a team he has never heard of, man just wants to be involved.
Predicting football matches. It’s what we all do. Pundits in newspapers, bloggers on the internet, chaps in the pub; your boss in the office; the Polish cleaner on her hands and knees looking over her shoulder and asking, “Do you think the USA will beat England?” before receiving a friendly pat on the bottom and being told to get back to work.
But why do other people want to know and why do so many people want to tell? This is what lies at the heart of gambling; the need to prove that you know best so that at the end of the match you can say, “I told you so.” Most men believe this will lead to lots of sex, happiness, lager and money. It doesn’t. Although, there is something you can do about the money part…
The other day someone came up to me in the pub and said, “Have you tried the Football Predicta on Facebook? It’s so damn easy to use and it has changed my life. I even know what time the games are going to start (unlike most of the pubs in Greenwich).” “Yes,” I replied, not having a clue what he was on about. We drank lager, slapped each other on the back and generally fell in love in a manly kind of way.
When I got home I checked it out on the internet. Football Predicta is new Facebook application that has been launched in time for the Wonderful World of Cup, fulfilling all the prediction needs of the majority of people still alive on this planet. It allows the user to enter predictions, join leagues and, most importantly, win a £100 prize every two days for the nailing the most correct predictions. Refreshingly, you don’t need to fanny around with log-ins and sign-up details either. Plus – and here’s the clincher – it’s free.
The World Cup needs social networking prediction games. I know this to be true. I predicted it. So, have a look the Facebook Football Predicta. It’s free, god dammit.
The Football Predicta Fan Page can be found here.
