Fightmetric’s Rami Genauer spoke with MMA Payout about Fightmetric’s involvement in creating a fantasy MMA game for Canadian sports outlet Rogers Sportsnet.
Contestants pick winners from the three UFC events starting with UFC 122 on November 13 and culminating in the final match between Georges St. Pierre and Josh Koscheck at UFC 124 in Montreal (http://mmatournament.sportsnet.ca). Sportsnet is offering over $2,000 in prizes. First prize is a 50 inch LCD HD television, Playstation 3 along with the new EA MMA game. Unfortunately for US residents, prizes are only available to Canadian residents outside Quebec. But, Fightmetric is offering prizes for non-Canadians. The details are here.
Fights from each of the events populate the familiar bracket structure used in other tournament games. A unique “bracket bonus” scoring system ensures that the stakes are raised in each round as point values escalate.
Genauer had time to answer some questions about developing Canada’s first fantasy MMA game.
1) When were you first approached by Sportsnet about building this tournament-style game?
RG: The story of this game goes back to last November when there was a confluence of six major MMA events in a two week span. That gave me an idea for a tournament-style game similar to the NCAA’s March Madness. The concept presented a set of challenges to gameplay because the fighters wouldn’t continue through to the next round as they would in a traditional tournament. After considering the problems for a while, we were able to work out a system that creates a satisfying tournament “feel” and uses an innovative scoring system that is completely unique to the fantasy industry.
2) Did you provide any input about how the game would work (i.e., rules, logistics), or did Sportsnet come to you and tell you what they wanted?
RG: The idea cropped-up on short notice, so there wasn’t an opportunity to do a full-scale implementation. But since the opportunity was too good to pass-up, we did an offline tournament in partnership with Bloody Elbow.
We began working with Sportsnet in early 2010 to put our stats feed on their MMA pages, but fantasy was always on their minds. When they were ready to move on fantasy, we pitched several game concepts to them and Tournament Pick ‘em was the game they chose. We did the design and development work to meet their specifications and I’m very pleased with the result. And we built the game with expansion in mind. Because MMA has no regular season, we’ve constructed the platform so that it is possible to start a brand new tournament at any time using any 4-6 upcoming MMA events.
3) Have you been approached by any US entities about creating a tournament like this?
RG: The nice thing about the game is that it is open for everyone to play, even if its hosted by a Canadian site. Anyone can join and create their own private pool. They can then invite their friends or co-workers and play the game very similar to how they would with March Madness. We’ve also set it up so that your bracket can be in multiple pools at once. That way you can join your private pool, a pool created by your favorite site (mmapayout pool, maybe?), the FightMetric fans pool, and any others. And everyone is automatically entered in the overall challenge, which has some great prizes for Canadian residents.
4) Do you have an idea about the number of people signing up? What is the response?
RG: Registration is going really well. We’re seeing a lot of the passion that the MMA community has come to expect from its Canadian fans. I’m looking forward to a nice bump in registration as we get closer and people turn their attention to the first event at UFC 122.
Payout Perspective:
I think this March Madness-type game is a great way to get people involved and interested in upcoming MMA fights. The “office-pool” feel helps include everyone since people can play but not have to be a hardcore fan. Although it is not what you think, when you hear MMA fantasy game–since most fantasy games are stat heavy–it is a simple, yet effective way that you can compete with others.
I see future MMA fantasy games becoming more involved and including stats. Thus, Fightmetric can take advantage of its vast amount of information.
Leave a Reply