Well, that’s a horse of a different color, or at least a different reality. Recognizing the popularity of user-driven sports like fantasy baseball, fantasy football and fantasy college basketball, FEI (the international governing body for equestrian) is launching fantasy horse jumping. On the international stage, no less. Will it work to help gain new interest among those with whom the sport hasn’t resonated?
Well, says FEI, the only way to know is to try.
According to an article in Inside The Games, the Longines FEI Jumping Nations Cup™ Fantasy Game is a collaboration with Feeling Sports, who began creating fantasy and prediction games in 2008. (And in case you’re wondering, the company has experience of creating games and features for the Tour de France, Six Nations Rugby, Roland-Garros and L’Equipe.)
The game allows participants select to players on the international equestrian stage for their respective fantasy teams. (A video synopsis is here.) Players can then predict the number of clear rounds, the best athlete and horse combination on the team. Points are earned for the correct predictions made in four categories, the best performing nations, fantasy team, number of clear rounds and best athlete.
(Don’t worry; the game leads you through all these so if you’re, say, a soccer or baseball enthusiast, you’ll have help understanding each step.)
Points are earned for the correct predictions made in four categories: the best performing nations, fantasy team, number of clear rounds and best athlete.
“We've seen that fantasy sports play an enormous role in driving deeper connection between sports fans and real-life sports,” said Ralph Straus, FEI commercial director.
And while it’s free to play (and even to lose), the winnings are great: the overall winner (to be named at season’s end) gets receive an exclusive VIP trip for two people to the 2020 FEI Jumping Nations Cup Final, including transportation, hotel accommodations, behind-the-scenes access and the opportunity to meet the athletes in person. (Runners-up get various FEI swag.)
And this is one game that intends to take on the world. It is presented in three languages (English, French and German ) and is the FEI’s first multilingual and multi-regional fantasy game. It is accessible to players using their desktops, smartphones and tablets*.
To access the game, users must create a My FEI account and then move to https://fantasy.fei.org.
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