In the wake of FIFA World Cup 2018, it’s time to think beyond the American demographic in terms of fantasy sports. The three emerging markets – Europe, Mexico and Nigeria – are waiting to get their due. They are favourable regions in terms of demographic, market acceptance and laws.

Let’s look at these factors one by one.

# Demographic

Europe

Football is undoubtedly the most popular sport around the world, having a fan base of about 3.5 billion followers. And one of the main reasons contributing to that is the sheer quality of play and excitement that European leagues offer. They are hosts to some of the biggest names in the game – Manchester United, Real Madrid, Bayern Munich, Inter Milan, Barcelona, Paris St. Germain, FC Porto to name a few – with massive crowds cheering for them. Do check out how to make it big in European fantasy football market.

Nigeria

The seventh most populous country in the world, Nigeria is also the eighth biggest internet population in the world. This user base is one of the fastest growing with the second highest percentage growth (46000 % since 2000) among the top 20 countries with respect to the number of internet users. Now these numbers say a lot about the possibility of this demographic wanting to play some of their favourite sports online. Read in detail about Nigerian fantasy sports market.

Mexico

The Mexican fantasy sports market was estimated at $737.4 million in 2015, and is projected to reach over $1.7 billion by 2020. Daily fantasy sports make up the majority of this money, with a market share of 64.7%. Now here’s a fact that needs to be explored more. It is interesting that this market size is only a fraction of the American fantasy sports market, yet leaders such as FanDuel, DraftKings and FantasyPros are expanding in Mexico quite aggressively. Read in detail about Mexican fantasy sports market.

#Market acceptance of football

Europe

There are a plenty of popular football leagues among the European nations. UK and Spain top the charts with their leagues like the ‘English Premier League’ (EPL) and La-Liga while the rest have their own such as Bundesligaga’, ‘Serie-A’, ‘Ligue-1’, ‘Eredivisie’, and ‘Primeira-Liga’ to name a few. All these leagues have their very own official fantasy football leagues and are extremely popular in their respective countries. Businesses can allow fans to select their preferred league of choice, all less than one platform to get ahead of competition.

Nigeria

The Super Eagles and Super Falcons (as the senior male and female football teams respectively are called by their fans) have a huge fan following in Nigeria. It only makes sense because Nigeria has won the Africa Cup of Nations three times, and have qualified for six of the last seven FIFA world cups. Nigeria was ranked fifth in the FIFA world rankings in 1994, the highest ranking ever achieved by an African country. In the draws for 2018 world cup qualifiers, Nigeria was placed in the group of death. And when they became the first African country to qualify after winning their group in the 2016 qualifiers, the whole country was ecstatic. It is the only African country to have qualified for both 2014 and 2018 world cups. Nigerian men’s team won the gold medal in 1996 olympics and were runner-ups in the 2008 event. The consistent good performances by the team at international events has ensured that their fanbase across the globe has kept increasing in numbers. This fanbase can be channelized by entrepreneurs who wish to create a winning fantasy football platform.

Mexico

Mexico is a ready market for fantasy football. DFS is popular in Mexico for the same reasons as the rest of the world. Since it allows users to change players every day, it helps them in filtering out injured players that the traditional fantasy sports don’t allow. DraftKings and FanDuel still rule the roost here. This means that the market for fantasy football is ready and ticking.

# Laws on fantasy sports

Europe

Fantasy sports operators need a gambling license in order to run daily fantasy sports for money as regulated by the UK Gambling Commission. The 2005 Gambling Act defines real money daily fantasy football as “remote gambling.” It’s completely legal to play real money daily fantasy football at a licensed site which operates legally in the United Kingdom.

Nigeria

The daily fantasy sports in Nigeria are not regulated but allowed. Gambling is prohibited in Nigeria as it is a game based purely on luck. But it is perfectly legal to play daily fantasy sports in Nigeria.

Mexico

The fantasy sports laws are fairly relaxed here compared to Mexico’s Northern counterparts. Most online websites of the vendors declare that fantasy sports are games of skill and do not involve gambling. These industry codes definitely help thwart any confusion among users as to playing fantasy sports. Mexican law does not see fantasy sports as gambling and hence the former is considered legal here.

Vinfotech has a portfolio targeting specific demographics

Vinfotech developed Maximo Avance that dared to challenge the belief that only DFS works best in the Mexican market. The fantasy football platform was launched only recently targeting fans of LFA and NFL. Another interesting success story is of Dribbly that was launched back in 2015. It won 10,000 users within 3 months and managed to raise $200,000 shortly.

We tailor-make fantasy sports website and mobile apps for all kinds of user demographics because we have a robust and award-winning fantasy sports software. We have built Maximo Avance and Dribbly for Mexican users and have helped clients grow their user base. If you have had an idea for building a fantasy soccer league that needs the light of the day, call us.