The industry of sports fans competing with each other over the sports they love has become quite lucrative in its own right, with the Fantasy Sports Trade Association estimating that 32 million Americans spend around $15 billion annually in total playing. So it comes as no surprise to find CBS Interactive, just in time for the NFL and college football season, beefing up its football-related gaming presence with a new “predictive” app called PrePlay.

Designed to enhance both TV and in-stadium viewing, PrePlay “gives fans another way to engage with pro and college games and compete with friends in their football knowledge,” said Jonathan Dube, GM of CBSSports.com. The app encourages fans to duke it out with each other by predicting the outcome of every play, on every drive throughout every NFL game during the regular season, and as many as 15 college games per week. With advertising from CBSSports.com partners prominently featured, it also lets fans trash talk each other with an in-app chat option as well as Facebook and Twitter integration.

While PrePlay isn’t fantasy football in and of itself, CBS is betting the game-within-a-game will appeal strongly to fantasy buffs. The app includes a direct link to the increasingly popular CBS Sports Fantasy Football App, which has enjoyed a 43% rise in its year-over-year user base since being completely rebuilt prior to the 2013 NFL season.

“Football fans are always hungry for more ways to consume content and engage with games on multiple devices,” said Dube. “[PrePlay] is a highly engaging second-screen app that makes watching games even more exciting by letting fans play along.”

Tags:


  Save as PDF