Here's a vision of the near future.
A pub advertises 'live fantasy football this weekend: Arsenal v Manchester United'. As you can't afford to go to the match (tickets to the Emirates now start at £120) you've been looking for somewhere that offers a bit more of a live experience.
You log onto the sports pub page on Fanroom to see who's going (quite a few of your friends) and check out the reviews of the pub (four out of five - decent). You tweet the pub and tell Siri 3.0 to remind you/get you dressed/do your job for you etc.
You turn up to the pub just before the game is about to start and are told if you want to play for real cash, get your phone/tablet out and pick five players. The pub are doing it in association with Picklive and there'll be prizes for the top scorers in this pub but you're also playing against other establishments around the city and the top venue gets another cash prize, to be split amongst the players. The pub have even dedicated one of their several screens to showing both leaderboards so you can keep up.
You set up an account quickly and pay your £5 to play and the game gets underway. The actual match is a bit of a dull affair but there's about thirty of you playing along in this venue and every tackle and pass is getting cheered and 'bantered over' as the leaderboard changes shape repeatedly. Despite it being the first time you've played, you've even managed to top the table a couple of times (briefly) and it's helping make up for the woeful performance of your team.
The final whistle blows and whilst your picks have only guided you to a mid-table finish, somehow the pub has performed the best in the city and you're all in line for a £20 windfall. Cashback. The money doesn't last very long though, as soon you and all your new pub mates are spending it straight back at the bar and the rest of the evening becomes a bit of a blur. This certainly beats being stuck at home in front of Sky.
Your score goes on your Fanroom user page and you excitedly tweet to your friends: "the pub quiz has a new rival". Yep, things are exciting when we get together.
The revolution is on its way, you can already play live fantasy football on Picklive. You play against others on the web at the moment (but there's no reason you can't take it down the pub).
