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- What Would It Look Like If You Rolled NFL, Fantasy Football and Tecmo Bowl Into One League?
What Would It Look Like If You Rolled NFL, Fantasy Football and Tecmo Bowl Into One League?
Plus, Darren Rovell on the pod talking NFTs, card collecting & Stonks!
Heyyyo,
This NFT (Non-fungible tokens) stuff is bananas! I’m gonna jump right into it — I think there’s a legit there, there. Imagine a world where we all have some virtual room, be it for Peloton or gaming or whatever… people come hangout and you want to show off your pieces of flair; no different than buying weapon upgrades or swag in Call of Duty.
It will be a thing. Trust me.
Furthermore, the potential beyond novelty memes for creators to monetize their ideas and work becomes endless — you can literally own pieces of the internet.
That said, I’m even looooonger on physical assets (my co-founders in another venture created a slush fund for cards, shoes, NFTs, crypto and stonks 😭). With all of the world being eaten by the internet; people will covet collectibles in the physical world even more — just not any shit though — it needs to have a bit of history that goes along with the artifact. And, nobody on the planet is more plugged into the collector/value/investing world than Darren Rovell.
If you’re interested in NFTs, cards, stocks, crypto… anything that retains value, I urge you to listen to this podcast.
Here’s my convo with Darren Rovell 👉 https://spoti.fi/3aW5jwl
Shout-out to our sponsors at M1 Finance: the finance super app that makes money management easier, smarter, and more automated than ever 👉 sign-up now and get $30 when going to M1finance.com/kitun.
For my newbs; every week I breakdown a startup pitch with the added hook that you don’t have to be a rich guy to invest (if you don't know what that means, click here).
If you like what you see here and haven’t already subscribed, please do 👇👇👇
Ok, #pitchreview time!
Scott
Company Bio
Fan Controlled Football (FCF) is a new category of interactive entertainment that blurs the line between traditional sports and video games by putting the fan in control of everything from team drafting, play calling and even jersey design.
Full Disclosure: I invested in this business and will again if they let me.
Before we get too deep — FCF is a concept; beginning with football, then onto baseball and other major sports next. Here’s how it works: just like the headline says, NFL 7-on-7, meets fantasy football with a pinch of Tecmo Bowl (Madden for my youngin’s). Instead of boring, out-of-touch NFL owners, FCF owners are social influencers — from ex-NFL’ers Marshawn Lynch and HOF’er Joe Montana to musicians like Quavo and tech founders like Alexis Ohanian and media personalities Bob Menery and Ronnie 2K.
In short, if a tech founder re-invented an IRL sports league… it would be this. From here, teams have a few franchise players — the rest of the team gets fan-drafted week-by-week. Then, during the game, rather than huddling, fans get to pick from a playbook to select what gets called on the field and it’s chaos from there… in the best way possible.
All games stream on Twitch (which is an investor, along with Verizon and Lightspeed Ventures). Finally, as you would expect from a tech co, everything is streamlined sorta like the Final Four — all games play on the same field with pooled resources.
Meet The Founder
Watch my full interview with FCF founder, here.
Sohrob Farudi is FCF’s Founder & CEO. Prior to this, Sohrob started and sold several tech companies for more than $200m. After that, he became a part owner of an Arena League football team where the idea of FCF was born.
Traction
VC-backed by Lightspeed Ventures, Verizon Ventures, Talis Capital & more
Other investors include Joe Montana, co-founders of Reddit & BleacherReport
Team Owners include Quavo, Marshawn Lynch, Richard Sherman, Trevor May
Founders have led several venture-backed companies to exits totaling $2.2B+
Multi-year distribution deal with Amazon's Twitch
Sponsors include IBM, Progressive Insurance, & WHOOP (last week’s pod)
Market Opportunity
FCF has already attracted a who’s who of investors (including Lightspeed Ventures and Verizon Ventures) and celebrity endorsers (including former NFL star Marshawn Lynch and Quavo of rap group Migos). It already has a distribution deal with Twitch. And the league’s wrinkle, allowing fans to participate in play-calling, sits at the intersection of e-sports and fantasy sports, two of the fastest-growing categories in all of entertainment.
The bear case for FCF is that tons of startup football leagues have tried throughout the years to create a viable alternative to the NFL — the Arena Football League, the Alliance of American Football, the XFL (twice) — and all of them have failed.
FCF is gimmick-y. A potentially good gimmick, but a gimmick nonetheless. Whether FCF succeeds depends on how well it can capitalize on all the celebrity firepower backing the venture, and whether younger sports fans have an appetite for a league that is actively trying to distance itself from the hyper-polished NFL product.
Terms & Takeaway
Invest in all 4 FCF Teams here 👇
Beasts: http://bit.ly/3pM5kqE
Zappers: https://bit.ly/2ZLZkU6
Glacier Boyz: http://bit.ly/2ZLl9mL
Wild Aces: http://bit.ly/3aNcdno
Security Type: Crowd IPA
Valuation Cap: $7,500,000 (per team)
Price Per Security: $1.50
Investment Goal: $1,070,000
Raised (as of publishing): $975,000
Minimum Investment: $150
NOTE: If you like this, join the wait list if a team is oversubscribed, they plan to open more investment room in the coming weeks.
Here's what I like: I’m going to try and keep this tight. I think it is time for change in pro sports leagues. I gamble like a degenerate and I still get bored. TOO SLOW. TOO OLD. NEEDS UPGRADING. Players are getting ripped off (I know, there’s a guy reading this saying players are overpaid…. GTFO) FCF lets players have fun and monetize themselves, which monetizes the league, which monetizes the fans. You.
Moreover, The future is in fantasy, with a combo of video game and IRL. FCF leagues and teams are being built as if the NFL (and other leagues) were built today — they pivot quickly, are social media friendly and have some “saas”.
Speaking of SaaS, FCF was built like a tech co, meaning it scales like crazy and eats anything in its path — which is why the NFL (and MLB, in-particular) should worry.
Here's what I don't love: The NFL is undefeated.
Who should invest and why: If you believe in eSports, play fantasy or invested in $PENN or $DKNG … this is a must do. If for nothing else the learnings. There is tremendous risk betting against the old guard — despite what laser eyes Pomp says.
At $7.5m value cap, the price is prime. This is not a typical crowd safe, this is a profit share, which at the price, should have plenty of payout potential — especially if it takes off or merges with a SPAC. Of course, it could also shit can quickly. But, the machine runs lean for a sports league.
What’s exciting about FCF and its future leagues is, like all good tech, a SPAC is highly likely. If they succeed in this test run, additional leagues will be propped up and a SPAC will IPO so the world can invest in league growth and liquidity will be unlike anything we’ve ever seen in sports. But, Fan Controlled FOOTBALL will need to win first. In some ways, I wish Sohrob took down baseball first, but I get it. America loves football. So, if you believe a faster, more interactive league where teams and players can monetize the league through social channels and keep the games fun and fan-driven is a viable plan; investing early in a FCF team is a solid move. If you think the NFL is unassailable and eSports and NFTs, crypto writ large, are hocus-pocus then this deal is probably not for you.
As always, startup investing is super high risk, anything can happen. So, don’t invest money you cannot afford to give to Johnny Football 🏈💸
I invested in the Zappers, you can too here 👉 https://bit.ly/2ZLZkU6
Questions? DM me on Twitter @kitun