For even the most casual of NFL fans, fantasy football is a nearly unavoidable supplement to the games. Whether they participate in this industrial powerhouse or not, fans are surrounded by its omnipresence in the form of a friend’s dictating who should catch Matt Ryan’s next touchdown or active hands checking Twitter feeds. The anecdotal evidence that we’ve all experienced holds true in the numbers too. The fantasy sports industry has a growing fan base (up 60% since 2007) estimated at 33.5 million users and is expected to haul in $1.2 billion in 2013.

CEO and founder of Rivalry Games, Justin Bauer saw the rising popularity of this once-niche but now-exploding culture, but thought that it had stagnated. Because the giants of fantasy sports were ignoring the proliferation of mobile games and always-connected devices, Bauer believed that the industry was now failing on its initial promises: to connect people and to make sports more entertaining. By bringing fantasy its first major innovations since “drag and drop,” Bauer thinks he can improve upon the concept of fantasy sports and find a very eager market waiting patiently for these advances.

That's what Rivalry Games intends to do. With the cultural success and ubiquity of smartphones and social networks in mind, Rivalry Games will run entirely on mobile platforms as an app. Their first foray into the market will be with the America’s pastime of fantasy sports: football. The football-centric app released in the Android Marketplace on October 13 and in the App Store on October 22, two launches that cover 71 percent of the worldwide smartphone market.

Bauer hopes to appeal to people yearning to be a part of the cultural phenomenon that is fantasy sports, but don’t have the time to spare. Today, people who play spend an average of 12 hours a week involved in fantasy sports. “I ultimately started to see a lot of my friends drop out of leagues, or sign up for a league and not participate,” Bauer said in reference to the growing time constraints of his professional friends. In a period of history dominated by Candy Crush and live-tweeting, Bauer wants to give users a simpler, more interactive experience.

That starts with changing the core rules of the game. Instead of forcing users into a season-long league, Rivalry pits friends against each other for a single game of their choosing. “Instead of having eight or ten players you’re going to draft, both people are going to take a quarterback, running back, wide receiver, tight end, and two defensive players from either team in a single game,” says Bauer about the simplification of the process. In this situation, Friend A can choose players from either team to fill out his roster, regardless of the decisions Friend B makes; thus, the two competing users can both choose the same quarterback or running back if they believe he gives them the best chance of winning. Despite their efforts to simplify fantasy sports for the casual fan, the app still remains a game of skill and knowledge. The game uses a variable scoring system that balances performance based on historical results. For instance, a Peyton Manning touchdown may net a user 20 points, where a Brandon Weeden touchdown would count for triple that total. 

In addition, these match-up based games can eliminate some of the chance usually associated with traditional fantasy sports. Customarily, if a player is injured over the course of a game, an owner of a fantasy football team can only curse his luck and hope his other players perform well above expectations for that week. In a Rivalry Games exhibition, users will be able to substitute players at the end of quarters, allowing them to react to these injuries or even more favorable match-ups as they arise over the course of games.

Additionally, players can also flex their knowledge of the NFL by assigning power-ups to players for a quarter if they’ve done their homework and see favorable match-ups. Another new mechanic serving as a bonus will be awarded to players on a streak such as consecutive passes completed. Bauer described this feature as “NBA Jam for fantasy sports,” an idea conjuring memories of flaming basketballs and J.R. Smith’s three-point celebrations. In a continuation of mobile gaming trends, the games will also incorporate features of social networks, connecting players with each other. The goal: Interactive, but not taxing gameplay.

Although football comes first, the company plans to tackle all four major sports as well as the collegiate level. As Bauer noted, college football’s intimidating size and wide disparity in talent often creates unpredictable, inflated results and statistics, with outstanding players at lower levels racking up yards and touchdowns on much lesser opponents. These challenges made traditional fantasy gaming impossible for college sports. However, with the combination of daily drafts and variable scoring, fans might be able to experience fantasy sports with their college squads.

Right now, Rivalry Games is a free-to-play app funded by the norms of free mobile gaming: ads and in-app currency. The currency will be used for other bonuses and power-ups that can be appointed to individual athletes or a user’s team. As far as a pay-to-play version, Bauer noted that contest-based gaming involving prizes similar to many traditional fantasy sports games could be in the cards for the future, but a good deal of research is being done beforehand. “Many of our users have already requested the ability to enter into contests similar to daily fantasy sports," he said. "We are investigating this option in the hopes of offering it to our users by the end of the year.”

The fantasy sports phenomenon has gone global, with millions of fans subscribing in droves to experience the chaos, madness and utter joy the competition brings. Rivalry Games wants to open the door to new markets of the casual fan, and utilize mobile technology to make the fantasy sports industry even more accessible into the future. 

Reach Staff Writer Danny Galvin here.