Sportech and Picklive partner to launch Picklive USA
New gaming product to launch next year and target US fantasy sports market
Sportech has partnered with fantasy sports game developer Picklive to launch Picklive USA, designed to target the growing US fantasy sports market.
Picklive USA will be available to Sportech’s existing customer base in Connecticut and to B2B customers through Sportech’s US-facing online division eBet.
Picklive shortens traditional season-long fantasy sports games so that they last just one game, with the platform also incorporating social gaming and in-play elements.
The new fantasy games will be launched in Connecticut next year after MyWinners.com “ the state’s only legal online betting platform “ launches before the end of this year.
Fantasy sports is a burgeoning market in the US with research carried out by the Fantasy Sports Trade Association estimating that 33.5 million adults in the US play fantasy sports games in an industry worth in excess of $2bn.
“Picklive has already enjoyed great success in the UK and this opportunity allows us to bring product innovation and the ‘social’ element into the daily fantasy sports space in the US and become a primary second-screen entertainment destination and social experience to accompany live sport,” said David Galan, CEO of Picklive.
Galan led a group of private investors to purchase Picklive in July last year, months after the offering was nominated for a Guardian Technology Award, which it eventually finished runner-up in.
Sportech’s US business continued to grow throughout the first half of 2013, the company’s US horseracing business up 22% and accounting for 40% of operational EBITDA.