New fantasy football app delights fans

15 June 2016
New fantasy football app delights fans

With the Euro Cup 2016 tournament underway there isn’t a better time to indulge yourself in the sport than with a new locally produced app.
Market Myanmar recently launched an interactive mobile football app targeting Myanmar football fans. The company celebrated the launch ceremony of the game, Fantasy King Football, at the beginning of the month. Market Myanmar is a company founded by three young and passionate football fans.
Alex Khine the financial and strategic director of Market Myanmar believes their Fantasy King Football game can bring opportunities for them, "We think this [Fantasy King] is a good [business] opportunity for us, and therefore, we have introduced it into the Myanmar market. We believe there will be benefits,” Alex Khine told Mizzima.
“When we studied in the U.S three years ago, the fantasy football concept was very popular. When we returned home we looked for that kind of game in Asia, we could not find it so we had the idea that creating a fantasy football game in Myanmar would be a good business opportunity,” Alex said.
Firstly, they inquired in Singapore but did not see a similar game so they looked at countries like Thailand and Indonesia but found nothing.
Fantasy King Football is not like other football manager games on the market. It is a free and easy for every football fan in Myanmar. Now in Myanmar, there are more than 5,000 downloaders and the Fantasy King Facebook page has over 28,000 fans according to Market Myanmar. The application is available on IOS and Android.
In Fantasy King Football users take on the role of football manager and select their team of 11 players to participate in weekly tournaments and compete with players across Myanmar to win prizes from mobile top-up cards, mobile phones, and tablets etc. Upon selection of 11 players according to the team formation selected, users will pit their teams against other players from all over Myanmar in weekly tournaments that will be held whenever a Live-match takes place. Players can win coins depending on the performances of their selected football players in the Live-match.
Aside from free tournaments where users can win points and prizes, there will also be tournaments for users to win prizes. These higher-stake tournaments will require a higher number of game coins as compared to free tournaments, users can purchase Fantasy King Coins when they have insufficient coins.At that time, users can top up their account with coins at any Red Dot store nationwide. A top-up of 1,000 kyats would equate to 10,000 coins.
Market Myanmar’s managing director, Htet Aung Wai, said Fantasy King Football is one of the top games in Myanmar and they plan to introduce the game in ASEAN and regional countries within three to five years.
"In order to distribute fantasy games in other countries, we need to use the same fantasy concept, but not only use football, for example, in the Philippines, football is not the most popular game, but basketball is popular, so for those countries, we need to design and create others. But the concept is the same in all countries," Htet Aung Wai told Mizzima.
He also said he aims to introduce Fantasy King Football in Thailand and Indonesia in the near future. But he has concerns about educating users how to adapt to the Fantasy King concept, “Educating users is the most difficult thing for us, the concept is very new in Myanmar and I think also in other regions. We will face challenges in how to educate users to adapt.”
The company is now focussing on making their game available to as many football fans as possible and they are also looking to collaborate with companies or brands to engage more users.