The fantasy sports business has grown into a multinational, multibillion dollar industry with thousands of sites, from small information gathering blogs to huge endeavors by media giants like ESPN and Yahoo, all looking to satisfy the jones of any sports fan who wants to out-do his friends, family or favorite (or hated) general manager.  What started as a baseball ploy just over 30 years ago is now a multi-season, multi-sport bonanza replete with mini-games, tournaments and championships on a weekly basis.  Fantasy sports has transformed the coverage and the viewing patterns in sports like football and baseball and has migrated over time to global sports like golf, cricket and soccer.  There is even fantasy NASCAR.  One top five site, Fantasy Sports Ventures, based its original model on aggregating the best independent fantasy sites and has seen its growth surpass 16 million visitors a month, many of which are people looking to get that little edge to be better at the front office game than anyone else.

This week the 2010 World Cup starts, and with it has come a digital onslaught for fans looking to best follow and engage with their favorite side.  Fantasy soccer is really still in its infancy.  A number of games have caught on, two of which were developed for large platforms:  Sports Illustrated and the popular social entertainment site hi5.com…by Los Angeles-based game developer Rotohog.

While media companies and many smaller sites have looked to attract eyeballs and sponsors to the games themselves, Rotohog has built an amazing behind the scenes business developing, implementing and in some cases marketing, fantasy games from everyone from the NBA and NASCAR to Turner and Pro Football Weekly.  The company recently added entertainment fantasy games for media brands like “US Weekly,” and are in the process of assisting media giant Bloomberg in building its first Facebook game for baseball.  The CEO of Rotohog is former Apprentice winner Kelly Perdew, who has also helped launch other digital startups like eteamz and Pro Elite.  We took a few minutes to ask Perdew what he thought about the landscape and if World Cup could be the time when fantasy soccer firmly takes root. Here is a look:     

1- This is a big year for the brand of soccer in the US, with World Cup and MLS expansion.  Do you see the fantasy market growing for soccer exponentially this year and if so why in the States?

I doubt it will grow exponentially in the US but it will grow.  For a few reasons…  1) the pervasiveness and viral nature of technology delivery systems makes everything available no matter where the consumer is – TV, Social Media, Mobile – the World Cup will have all eyes focused on it and this will translate into many, many viewers and fans.  2) the major media companies in the US, especially ESPN, have expended extraordinary amounts of money on distribution rights and you can be they are going to hype it to the hilt.  3) the US has a good team and will go very far in the competition, which will spark more nationalistic fan interest.  All of these things will be good for Fantasy Soccer; but, the US is still learning about the sport and all fantasy has roots in loyalty to an athlete, team or sport.

2- Has the fantasy market in Europe started to grow for soccer?  how popular are fantasy leagues for elite clubs and what kind of games are they?

Yes, it is growing in Europe as well.  However, there is a damper…in most jurisdictions in Europe, fans are allowed to gamble on sports.  This fact somewhat dampens fans enthusiasm for Fantasy Sports.  Pick ‘ems and Salary Cap games are the most popular in Europe and usually run by the major media companies.

3- Baseball and football are very stats oriented games which make them naturals for very detailed fantasy play.  Soccer is a much simpler game.  Can soccer fantasy be as engaging as football and baseball are here?

Absolutely.  The number of stats in soccer are more than sufficient to create an engaging game – goals, minutes on field, shots on goal, yellow cards, red cards, dribbles, penalty kicks, corner kicks, goalie saves, defensive saves, hand balls, head balls, bicycle kicks, tackles, etc.  Additionally, there are many ways to add fan behavior as well as virtual goods into the game dynamic.  For instance, we just launched a World Cup Soccer Game on hi5 that includes a concept called confidence points (the game allows you to distribute a certain number of Confidence Points across your selections and provide you weighted returns on those selections).

4- Even in baseball, fantasy has not really expanded outside of the US, to places where the sport is popular like Asia and Latin America.  Do you think fantasy is still more a North American phenomenon?

Yes, to some degree.  However, Cricket, Rugby, Soccer, Golf, F1, Basketball, Baseball all have huge followings abroad and the market is ripe for a lot growth.  We built and delivered a baseball game in Spanish for Fox Sports International last year and there were huge Central and South American followings.

5- What will it take for this year’s World Cup to be the tipping point for fantasy soccer globally?

Large sponsorships, exciting prizes, and the appropriate style of game for each of the regional audiences.  For instance, for those countries not used to playing fantasy sports, you can’t give them league manager style games and expect huge adoption.  You have to provide a suite of games with varying levels of complexity to engage the largest audience.

6- How does Rotohog view fantasy soccer as a growth sport to say, fantasy hockey or cricket?

Soccer, Cricket and Hockey in that order.  They all have different appeal.  Soccer has the largest, worldwide fan base.  Cricket has a very large Indian ex-pat consumer base that is a very desirable demographic.  Hockey fans and fantasy players are known for being the most zealous.  Fortunately, RotoHog supports all three!

7- The games that Rotohog designed for hi5 and Sports Illustrated are relatively simple ones for fans to play.  Is there not a need for an in-depth soccer fantasy game at this time?

Our platforms enables us to provide any type of fantasy game that exists.  We have, in fact, provide salary cap style soccer games for large media companies in Brazil (games were in Portuguese) and they were some of our most avid fantasy players.  But as I noted above, you want to understand and deliver the appropriate style of game for your audience.  The 4-5 weeks of World Cup and the International nature of the audience dictate that you should keep a game relatively simple.

So as the world turns to South Africa starting this week, more and more fans will be also turning to their laptops and following the stars of their favorite country. While that passionate following may not lead to an immediate boom in business, it may some day make fantasy even more of a reality for the world’s most popular sport, and if that does happen there is a good chance the a builder like Rotohog will be there to make sure the games run smooth, consistent and are as much fun and engaging as fantasy football and baseball fans already enjoy today.