Fantasy football enterprise Picklive has U.S. and India ambitions

39-year-old London-based Israeli entrepreneur David Galan briefed the Jewish Chronicle on the progress of his socially oriented fantasy football enterprise PickLive this week, revealing that he is making moves toward the Indian and US markets.

Galan said that at least 4 million UK residents play online fantasy sports games, and that number can be significantly multiplied by expanding to other countries.

Picklive’s different approach appeals to the punters because users bet on their selected players per match instead of the more common format of basing results over a whole season.

“This is ‘one night stand’ football,” Galan told the Jewish Chronicle. “The mainstream sports betting industry in the UK is still quite dry, so we’ve introduced social features such as in-game chat with other players to make the experience more engaging.”

Galan is a Leeds University educated accountant who took control of Picklive last year and claims to have increased player numbers and revenue by 150 percent.

The technology is developed at the company’s Tel Aviv office, led by Israeli chairman Kfir Kugler, an Israeli who bought Galan’s first online gambling company, Soccer Millionaire, in 2009.

Picklive recently announced a joint venture with Sportech in America and the venture will launch a new baseball game in March 2014, Galan revealed; he estimates that the American fantasy sports industry is worth around $2 billion a year.

Galan is additionally close to inking a “major deal” with an as yet unidentified Indian conglomerate, which will introduce fantasy cricket games designed for Indian fans….another market which Galan believes has considerable potential.

“This partnership with one of India’s largest state lottery operators is expected to drive revenues and take the risk out of the marketing strategy. We are confident we can succeed,” he said.

Related and similar