Network Gaming, a betting technology company innovating the next generation of sports prediction games around small-stakes-big-win betting products, has secured four new key partners ahead of the World Cup. Featuring new product launches across multiple sports, spearheaded by its headline World Cup Tournament Survivor game, Network Gaming’s new partners are:

• Planet Sport, media and B2B technology specialists who publish Football365, TEAMtalk, PlanetF1 and others as well as delivering a range of B2B products, content and services
• WhoScored.com, the football data analysis website
• At The Races, the horse racing media rights company which operates the Sky Sports Racing TV channel
• 101 Great Goals, the football live streaming and betting tips website, part of XL Media

Mike Grenham, Managing Director of Betting at Planet Sport, said: “We’re delighted to be partnering with Network Gaming, they have been a pleasure to deal with and the whole integration process has been seamless. We can’t wait to see how our audience of 15m users enjoy these great games.”

Matthew Taylor, Director of New Media and Innovation of At The Races, said: “Whilst ATR is first and foremost a digital platform for horse race fans, we fully understand that their interest in sport isn’t confined to equine excellence. The World Cup transcends traditional boundaries and we have historically devoted significant editorial coverage for tournaments but this year we also wanted an extra layer of engagement.

“We have partnered with Network Gaming, the brand leader in terms of pay-to-play predictive sports games, to deliver a series of World Cup games that will engage sports fans throughout the tournament and offer a small-stakes-big-prize-pool opportunity – winners will require a combination of strategy, skill and of course luck.

“The timescales were tight but both ATR and Network Gaming worked as a well-oiled team to deliver the game. We look forward to working with Network Gaming on future projects where the appeal of the event rises above typical borders of engagement.”

Thomas Rooney, Director of EU Sport at XL Media, said: “This year’s World Cup is played offline, but experienced online and we are delighted to serve up the 101greatgoals .com audience with this fun, engaging and hugely popular game, thanks to Network Gaming. The guys have been superb from our initial conversation through to going live. They do all the work behind the scenes, we send traffic to the game – it’s hopefully just the start of a long and successful partnership.”

Network Gaming made its name with the success of its first pay-to-play game, the Fantasy Masters golf, and recently attracted cornerstone strategic investment from a host of industry heavyweights, including Betfair co-founder Andrew Black.

The company’s star-studded product team are creating small-stakes-big-win products that deliver real value-for-money enjoyment. Recreational customers are not simply assembled in a pool of players where only a handful of sharks dominate the winning positions in the leaderboard. Similarly, innovative mechanics within the products keep players in contention for as long as possible, thereby deepening fan engagement and interaction, boosting repeat visits and digital dwell-time.

Network Gaming’s ongoing partnerships are comprised of top-tier operator Fitzdares, talkSPORT, whose popular sports news and analysis shows drive audience engagement across a number of live-broadcast platforms, and The Sun’s fantasy football offering of Dream Team.

Network Gaming is looking ahead to an exciting 2023, with notable expansion into the U.S., where a growing product suite (comprising NFL, NBA, MLB and horse racing) will see it broaden and deepen its reach. The North American market remains a greenfield opportunity because Network Gaming games work particularly well for U.S. sports. They can function in either fixed-odds or DFS-style-license formats, opening up a prolific pipeline of free-to-play or pay-to-play games with great repeat-play metrics to media companies or affiliates. Equally, any sportsbook can benefit from integrating a versatile vertical that is neither DFS nor fixed-odds betting to help them differentiate their product in a progressively homogenised market.

To find out more, entries are now open for the World Cup Tournament Survivor game, which follows a similar format to Network Gaming’s classic Survivor format which has proved so popular in its initial offering around the English Premier League. It’s a value-for-money bet during the cost of living crisis, whereby one £10 entry fee buys customers two lives and possibly a whole tournament of entertainment.

Thousands of players are already taking part, with the final prize pool likely to be over £25,000.

Harry Collins, CEO at Network Gaming, said: “We are delighted to support our new partners in engaging their audiences and growing wallet share with our exciting and truly differentiated product portfolio. Network Gaming products are easy to integrate and increase time on site. As a team, we’re also energised to continue to unveil more new products across a wide range of sports to all our prestigious partners in the coming year.”