[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]One thing we like to do at Fantasy Football Portal is to keep visitors up to speed with all the latest news in the world of fantasy football and we’re pretty sure that the ICE Totally Gaming Event for 2016, which once again will be staged at the ExCel London from the 2nd to 4th of February, will provide some eye-catching headlines. This is online gaming’s premier international trade event and it allows operators to showcase new products and all the latest innovation that goes with them.

We’re expecting a big presence from the emerging Daily Fantasy Sports industry this year as it attempts to gain a firm foothold in the European gaming market.

Networking is very much on the agenda in addition to the numerous exhibitors, who display pretty much everything that is available relating to gaming. There are also a good number of webinars, seminars and conferences covering a huge range of industry topics and a ‘Who’s Who’ list of all those in attendance would make for impressive reading.

One of the highlights to emerge over the last few years is GamCrowd’s Pitch ICE competition which allows start-ups to showcase their new products. This contest gives entrants the opportunity to present their concept and vision to visitors and for fantasy football enthusiasts, this year’s edition takes on added significance as two of the nominated finalists will be discussing their new fantasy sports products.

One of these is FastFantasy who are in the process of launching a fantasy soccer product that will set out to differentiate itself from the norm by providing eye-catching player match-ups as opposed to simply selecting a team.

The scoring works in a similar way to other fantasy football products with points being awarded for all the usual key elements – goals, assists and so on. However, there is one crucial difference – players will be presented in match-ups, so, for example, Diego Costa could be paired against Harry Kane, Wayne Rooney against Christian Benteke and so on. Customers will be required to pick a minimum of four players, up to a maximum of 10 players from the various match-ups offered. If all the players you select finish with a better fantasy points score than the one they are matched against you win and will be paid accordingly, so, for example 4 out of 4 correct would return odds of 10/1 while 10 out of 10 correct would pay odds of 500/1 on your initial investment.

“FastFantasy is the next generation of fantasy sports. We found the current games to be highly time consuming and very difficult to compete. We created FastFantasy to solve those issues, as you use your knowledge of players you like, and pick them in an easy, intuitive, format. We are very excited to be offering Football in addition to our NBA, NFL, and soon, Cricket games, as the market is rapidly growing.” – Joseph Bunevith, COO, Head of Product Development

From a fantasy manager’s perspective, being able to focus on individual match-ups would present a new challenge and a welcome change from traditional fantasy football team selection, so it will be fascinating to follow this product as it develops.

Good luck to FastFantasy and all the other participants in this year’s Pitch ICE final![/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]