Ahead of the 2024/25 season, the EFL (English Football League) has partnered with Genius Sports to build the first ever official fantasy football game encompassing all 72 EFL clubs.
As excitement builds for another thrilling season of EFL action, fans of every EFL club – and the wider football community – can test their knowledge and challenge their friends through an innovative and engaging fantasy game: Fantasy EFL.
The first-of-its-kind game is available to play as a brand-new, tailor-made app for iOS and Android users, as well as on web. Across over 1,600 EFL fixtures, Fantasy EFL is an all-encompassing gamification product that delivers countless benefits for fans and the EFL alike, throughout the entire season.
An innovative format
Users select seven players across the three EFL divisions, from a variety of 7-a-side formations. There are no budget restrictions, as players aren’t assigned any monetary value. There are no limits on transfers each gameweek, so users are free to pick an entirely new squad, should they wish. Gameweeks are set from Thursday to Wednesday to accommodate fixture scheduling, with a rolling weekly deadline.
In addition to their seven players, Fantasy EFL Managers must also select two EFL clubs to score extra points based on the result of their fixtures for that gameweek.
Over 1,600 fixtures
Friendly competition is a sure-fire way to encourage repeat engagement, and Fantasy EFL incentivises this with prizes for winners of public leagues, as well as encouraging bragging rights amongst friends with private leagues. In addition, there are leagues for each EFL club, and users are automatically entered into the league of their favourite club upon registration.
Gamifying the user experience will also see enhanced engagement from fans. While the rolling weekly deadline will ensure Managers are ‘always on’, the use of boosters like ‘Max Captain’ and limits on how often an EFL club may be selected are extra details that users must navigate across the season.
For both the EFL and the clubs involved, there are many benefits in rolling out a cohesive gamification and fan engagement strategy like Fantasy EFL.
A step forward for EFL clubs
Clubs can take advantage of the shared buzz surrounding the game, particularly in leveraging social and digital media channels to boost their own engagement levels.
The game also includes new digital inventory for EFL clubs to leverage, creating new club-owned touchpoints for fans to interact and engage with such as bespoke widgets embedded into their website.
A new commercial asset for the EFL
One of the EFL’s defining goals in rolling out Fantasy EFL was to improve its data strategy. In registering to participate, the EFL benefits from streamlining its fan database in a collective way.
What’s more, registrations and the voluntary offering of user data means that the EFL can personalise its marketing and messaging efforts, as it segments fans based on their preferences, such as favourite team or by where they live. First-party data like this is absolutely essential in building out a foundational data strategy, and Fantasy EFL is a fair value exchange that delivers for both the league and the game’s users.
While fantasy football is an extension of football fandom itself – it doesn’t end there. Fans wanting to gain an edge in their fantasy teams do so by consuming hours of podcast, social and other digital content throughout the season – in turn deepening their engagement with the league and the game itself.
To that end, the creation of a dedicated Fantasy EFL channel on ‘X’, as well as the appointment of Adebayo Akinfenwa – legendary former striker of a number of EFL clubs – as a celebrity ambassador, are both powerful, behind-the-scenes methods that grow the culture of the game beyond that of the platform itself.
The creation of further content opens the door to greater commercial and interaction opportunities for the EFL and its partners and broadcasters.
Fantasy EFL rolls a comprehensive data strategy, fan engagement approach and gamification tool all into one seamless game, that will have fans of all EFL clubs and beyond excited and engaged throughout the full season.
Play Fantasy EFL: https://www.efl.com/fantasy-efl
