SB Nation, a collection of nearly 200 fan-centric sports team communities, is partnering with SharpLink Gaming, a solution for US sports betting and iGaming industries.
Together SB Nation and SharpLink will create a new free-to-play survivor-style fantasy game for the 2023-24 National Football League season.
The game will go live on Friday. It will be accessible across SB Nation’s team-centric, NFL sites.
Rob Phythian, CEO of SharpLink, said, "Free-to-play games are one of the most underutilized assets for U.S. sports companies looking to offer a more robust experience to its fan base, increase revenue and drive traffic to its monetization partners.
"In keeping with SharpLink's core key performance indicators - audience aggregation, engagement, conversion and monetization, our solutions go well beyond a game that simply collects email addresses and drives repeat visits."
The game boasts a “Second Chance” function, in which users may reenter the game after Week 5 of the NFL season, if they get knocked out before then.
SB Nation will offer cash prizes to each NFL site’s survivor for the Full Season competition and for the Second Chance competition.
David Fucillo, head of sports betting and partner content for Vox Media, which oversees SB Nation, said, "We've been looking for ways to creatively maximize our partnerships while increasing user experience and expand our subscriptions.
"After seeing the one-of-a-kind solutions SharpLink built for the NBA, PGA Tour and Turner Sports, we knew free-to-play games opened a new window of opportunity for us at SB Nation."
SharpLink will also use its C4 sports betting conversion tech to provide players with live betting opportunities from SB Nation’s partner DraftKings.
For example, a player picking the Pittsburg Steelers to beat the San Franciso 49ers in Week 1 will also be presented with other betting opportunities for that game. And then they’ll be directly routed to DraftKings to place a bet.
