- Pick & Play Sports, MLB Home Run Picks and LaLiga Winning Streak among free-to-play fantasy games to launch on platform
- Players can create private leagues to compare scores, share picks and post reactions
Facebook has made a move into fantasy sports with the launch of a new suite of free-to-play prediction games.
The new Facebook Fantasy Games offering, which will initially be available in the US and Canada on the social media company’s app, will feature games spanning sports, TV shows and pop culture.
Daily sports prediction game Pick & Play Sports is the first to launch on the platform as part of a partnership with US media company Whistle Sports. Users will earn points for correctly predicting the winner of a game, the number of points scored by a player or specific events that unfold during a match.
Among the other sports games that will be added is MLB Home Run Picks, which will allow fans to select the team they think will hit the most home runs on each day of Major League Baseball’s (MLB) postseason.
Meanwhile, LaLiga Winning Streak will challenge fans of Spanish soccer's top flight to go on a run of correct predictions by guessing one team that will win for each gameweek.
Players will be ranked on public leaderboards, but Facebook users will also be able to create their own fantasy leagues to compete against friends. The leagues will allow members to compare scores, share picks, and post reactions and comments.
Facebook said in a statement that its new fantasy games ‘bring the social fun of traditional fantasy sports to simpler formats’ that are easy to play for newcomers, while also being ‘engaging enough for more seasoned players’.
Facebook’s other investments in gaming include the dedicated video game live streaming service it launched in April last year to rival the likes of Twitch.
The new fantasy games can be accessed via Facebook’s bookmark menu and in news feeds through notifications. It is currently unclear if the company plans to open the games up to markets outside the US and Canada.
