Many insiders in the sports gambling industry have stated that, with few exceptions, there hasn’t been a whole lot of innovation in the space for decades. The introduction of prop bets has helped to reinvigorate the space more recently, but everything else has virtually remained the same. A new option has arrived, however, that hopes to shake things up a little, starting with the action seen in soccer gambling. Football Survivor has been launched by Olly Joshi, the founder of WantMyBet, and is determined to engage sports gambling fans by offering something different.
WantMyBet is best known for its YouTube soccer channel and for being a “social network” for soccer gambling. The involvement in the market led Joshi to dream up Football Survivor, a mobile app that operates as a soccer pools knockout contest. Participants choose a team in a single game in the English Premier League (EPL) each week to win and those who make the correct selections advance, while those who don’t are eliminated. Simple, straightforward and to the point – traits enjoyed by many up-and-coming sports gamblers.
If it sounds familiar, it’s probably because the premise is the same as that of popular “Last Man Standing” competitions already in place. However, Joshi believes that offering a digital alternative will make things more interesting and attract greater participation. Around the world, Last Man Standing competitions have been seen in office environments and man caves, as well as through some sportsbooks, for years, but Football Survivor expects to take control by offering an “instant one pick, one reaction” alternative that is popular with younger generations of gamblers.
Joshi explained to SBC, “The football betting sector is heavily saturated with game mechanics that haven’t seen a great amount of innovation for a long time, and will be unappealing to Gen-Z consumers. Football Survivor is offering a fresh reactive take on Football betting. We’re taking betting back to basics with one pick, strategy lead, quick and easy to play game. In doing so, we hope to bring down barriers to entry and appeal to a wider football fan audiences.”
Football Survivor provides a platform to move the office betting pool online. Instead of competing against sportsbooks, users can establish their own, closed pools or participate in open leagues with other users of the app to score even larger cash prizes. For closed pools, the group can decide how much it costs to participate and how winnings are paid out each week, giving them almost complete control over the pools. To make things interesting, Football Survivor throws in a couple of elements in the form of “Power-Ups” that allow for things like team swaps or insurance.
Football Survivor is licensed by the U.K. Gambling Commission, so it has the legitimacy it needs. Whether it is able to survive the test of time as anti-gamblers continue to try to shape the entertainment landscape to suit their own vision, however, remains to be seen.
