Fantasy gaming is known for fostering traditional sports. As companies in the sector provide a variety of virtual championships based on real events, players are showing more interest in what happens in real championships, following more closely, studying real athletes and strategizing according to their performance in actual field. For the Women's World Cup it was no different.
The Women's World Cup ended this Sunday (20th). The real event took place in Australia and New Zealand, but also moved fantasy games around the world. With the unprecedented champion Spain, the women showed good football and commanded very well on the pitch.
In Brazil, the most popular players in the Fantasy game were Lindsey Horan, from the United States, followed by Aitana Bonmati and Jenni Hermoso, both from Spain, according to a survey by one of the companies associated with the Brazilian Association of Fantasy Sports (ABFS).
These top ranked players played in all games up to the round of 16, according to the survey. Already in the best average score during the games is Jill Roord, from the Netherlands, with 13,900 points, followed by Amanda Ilestedt, from Sweden, with 11,925 points, and Chrestinah Kgatlana, from South Africa, with 10,225 points.
According to ABFS, the female audience is half among game users in general, but in the fantasy games category this audience is still small. “Events like the Women's World Cup help popularize fantasy games among women. Today we already have platforms that offer women's football leagues to players and we saw that it was a success in lineups," explains Rafael Marcondes, from ABFS.
According to the FIFA ranking table, the surprises of the Cup were: South Africa, which is not in the TOP 10 and reached the round of 16 losing to the Netherlands and the Netherlands itself, which is not even among the TOP 5.
In the women's FIFA ranking of the best teams that played in the World Cup this year, there are:
In Brazil, fantasy games, which stimulate traditional sports, are growing and the market could expand by around 120% in the coming years with the regulation of the sector. The Legal Framework for Games, which is in its final phase in the Federal Senate and may soon become law, demonstrates progress for the sector and the opportunity for companies to adopt new championships and awaken the public's interest in other sports, including women's sports.
According to FIFA data from the beginning of the Women's World Cup, the audience for the first matches was already much larger than for the entire last championship, in 2019. Now in 2023, only in the group stages, the in-person audience in the stadiums was already of 1.222 million fans.
“As we saw in the fantasy game, interest in female rosters also increased and became popular. Therefore, it is important that we have a strengthened market that can offer the greatest number of matches in real championships. It is a win-win in which female athletes can increasingly be known and have their work recognized by more fans of the sport,” highlights the ABFS.
Source: GMB
