Bio: Ohad Crystal is a serial entrepreneur and an angel investor with over 20 years of industry experience. In early 2019, Ohad joined Funatix Club as an angel investor and international business development advisor. Few months later he was appointed CEO of the company.
• Right holders defend their rights (such as pictures of players, logos etc) primarily by means of digital enforcement; Funatix, unlike most of the market players, has fully licensed rights and therefore, as digital enforcement is increasing, it will remain incredibly important. • Fantasy sports in Europe, Latin America and Asia is far from reaching its true potential and it is expected to become a Billion dollars market in the coming few years.
How Ohad established Funatix Club as the official fantasy football game for the various leagues The company’s expansion began when we started working with the Israeli league, which is also a shareholder in the company. When the partnership proved to be successful, we grew by word of mouth to three additional leagues across Europe. After that, and based on our experience, we had Liga MX, the biggest league in North America as our exclusive and official partner in the vast Mexican market. In July of this year, we officially began our partnership with the Swiss Football league and are on the verge of signing with other territories in Europe, Asia, and SouthEast Asia. We intend to add other sports to our portfolio in the coming months , with Basketball being the first. Europe, where we have a loyal and comprehensive fan base, will be the starting point for our products to come.
The challenges in generating investment as an Esports startup In the next 5 years, all sports leagues will have a complementary fantasy league - the basic game has proved to
be the most engaging reality-based game in sports attracting a lot of fans. Our game not only attracts fans but keeps them engaged on a daily basis, all season long. In terms of our offering, Funatix offers a 100% full turn-key solution to a league. The game is a multi-platform and is fully managed with a Content Management System that enables automatic graphics creation based on LIVE data, changing in game sponsors with 1 click, personalized communication with the fan cohorts (Pop-Ups, Pushes), localization (Language, Graphics), and data collection (Rewarded Surveys). This is the most comprehensive fantasy manager solution on the planet, hence, Funatix is already the most trusted fantasy solution provider in the world of soccer. A gamified fantasy that interacts with the younger digital-age fans will be the standard going forward and Funatix will be driving this.
The future of Esports in a post-COVID world We believe that the strongest e-sport is the one which is based on reality. “Real Manager” is an e- Manager game about reality - and we believe this is the future of ESports. There will be much more reality based e-games, driven by real sports events. Covid-19 pushed our abilities to engage with our fans in more creative ways. not having real-life games, holds a risk that users will lose their interest, and this is where we had to be innovative and flexible. Luckily, our team managed to overcome this by incorporating new features and designs, and with the return of the games , the functionality of the platform is better than ever before.
About Funatix Club: Funatix Club is a leading fantasy sports provider which develops engaging online sport-management games for fans across the globe. Co-founded by COO Yoni Simhon and CBO Lishar Bahar in 2015, the company’s Real Manager app aims to revolutionise the eSports ecosystem, through empowering younger fans to get more involved in fantasy games. With the backing of lead investor SIBF and Ohad Crystal, SIBF representative who has gone on to become CEO, Funatix Club is unique in that it boasts partnerships with many established football federations, leagues and media partners.
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