Big Baller Fantasy Challenge - DraftKings Releases Game for iPhone
With the incredible overlays that DraftKings has been putting towards its promotions lately, it should come as no surprise that they’ve put some focus on attracting new users from the ever-growing mobile industry. However, DraftKing’s new iPhone app, “Big Baller”, isn’t quite what you might expect.
Big Baller isn’t simply a mobile version of the daily fantasy game you know-and-love on DraftKings, in fact it’s quite a bit different. It’s described in the App Store as: “BIG Baller Fantasy Challenge is a new and simplified spin on Fantasy Sports. Compete in real-time, daily fantasy sports matches with your friends. Win in-game coins, level up, unlock power-ups, and dominate your friends.” What that means is Big Baller is a social-game where you compete against your friends for fantasy dominance by assembling a team of players with stars, not US dollars, and compete for bragging rights and to move up the leaderboard. Think Words with Friends meets a simplified version of Daily Fantasy….with a few characters along the way (see: Coach O’Keife image below).
While the concept caught me off guard at first, I’ll admit that Big Baller wound up being very fun to play. The tutorial was helpful and quite amusing, and building a lineup was simple and quick enough that I built a game on-the-go. The leaderboard is a great way to compete with your friends, and the real-time scoring is highly innovative for the mobile, social-gaming realm. A nice feature is that if none of your friends are available, you can also get a game started at anytime vs. the computer (aka “Pimply Pete”). While there are a few minor bugs to work out, Big Baller could become an innovative hit amongst mainstream fantasy sports fans.
Mobile has been a huge focus of the daily fantasy industry lately, with sites scrambling to get their games to be playable in the palm of their users. FanDuel recently upgraded their Mobile Site, and DraftStreet has just released an enitrely new mobile site and Android app . The direction taken by DraftKings is unique because it’s seeking to attract new users from the large social gaming market, not to expand its services to existing customers. Hopefully it works out. You can download Big Baller Fantasy Challenge for iPhone here.