Categories

Sports-betting game Fanhood prepares for expansion as Super Bowl and March Madness approach

  • Posted byby Dean Takahashi
  • Updated
  • 3 min

fanhoodMore than 500 million people are sports fans. That’s why Brandon Ramsey is optimistic. Ramsey is chief executive of Fanhood, which has launched its sports-betting game on Facebook and has more than 170,000 users.

Fanhood is one of many social sports virtual-betting startups such as RocketPlay, OHK Labs (SportsPicker Challenge), Pickmoto, Bragstr, and BetHubb — all of whom debuted in the past four months. So far, Ramsey believes he has amassed the biggest audience, though he acknowledges the game genre is still in its infancy. Bigger players have also joined the market, including  888.com, PrePlay, ESPN, Bwin, and Yahoo. All of them hope to repeat the success of social casino games such as Zynga’s Texas HoldEm Poker, which has more than 30 million monthly active users.

Unlock premium content and VIP community perks with GB M A X!
Join now to enjoy our free and premium membership perks.
Join Now
Already a member? Sign in
Written by

Dean Takahashi

Dean Takahashi is editorial director for GamesBeat. He has been a tech journalist since 1988, and he has covered games as a beat since 1996. He was lead writer for GamesBeat at VentureBeat from 2008 to April 2025. Prior to that, he wrote for the San Jose Mercury News, the Red Herring, the Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, and the Dallas Times-Herald. He is the author of two books, "Opening the Xbox" and "The Xbox 360 Uncloaked." He organizes the annual GamesBeat Next, GamesBeat Summit and GamesBeat Insider Series: Hollywood and Games conferences and is a frequent speaker at gaming and tech events. He lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.