Starting 11, the world’s first live-action daily fantasy soccer app, is fast gaining ground in India. Teague Orgeman, CEO & Co-Founder, a former lawyer and a huge soccer fan, told us about the app, its growth prospects and plans for India. After practising law for a decade, a chance discussion with a fellow lawyer made him realise the potential of a fantasy football app. With some initial investment from friends and family and, later, from angel investors, the team got to designing an app that allowed live substitution during matches – something that happens in real soccer games as well. After a lot of testing and refining in the first season, the app was given its final shape. For Teague, delivering on what fans want is priority, rather than profitability. Excerpts from an interview.

How does the process start for a gamer on Starting 11?
You go to the Google Play Store or the Apple store and search for Starting 11 fantasy; it’s free to download and free to play. After creating an account, you can start creating a team of your favourite 11 players for every single match day. The best part is, while matches are going on, you can make live substitutions just like a regular manager.
According to a recent Ficci-Edelweiss report, online gaming industry will see an annualised growth rate of nearly 43 per cent over the next three years. What is your take on the future of the industry?
The only word that can describe the growth of the online gaming industry is ‘explosive’. Since March 10, football was stopped playing across the globe. In the three months of the lockdown, we saw 1,000 downloads per day. So, we are not only seeing high growth in the future but also a pent-up demand for live content, particularly live sports content around online gaming. We have seen that 83 per cent people who watch live football also use a second screen while they are watching. So, opportunities are going to be mobile based and around live gaming.
How do you foresee the future of Starting 11 in India?
India is currently one of the largest and fastest-growing fantasy sports markets in the world. For decades, the US has been the leader in fantasy sports but India has surpassed that growth with millions of new users being added year over year. Cricket is obviously a religion here and there has been tremendous growth in its fantasy space, but we see the same thing happening with football. Football not only is the second most popular sport in the country, it also appeals to the younger generation. So, we want to be that one-stop destination for football fans who wish to play fantasy football.

How many subscribers have you added this year and what are your expansion plans?
Even during the lockdown, when there were no football matches being played anywhere, we still managed to add 200,000 new subscribers. During the next football season in September, we will be adding many more. As for expansion, we target countries that have a large football fan base and have seen recent growth in online gaming. Currently, we are present in the US, UK, Germany, Canada and India – a large focus area for the next two years for us. Additional opportunities may rise in some parts of Europe, some parts of South-East Asia, Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia.
Starting 11’s USP is it allows one to make live substitutions during a live football match. How exactly does that work?
It’s just like in a typical football match that has three substitutions while you play. While watching matches, our users get three substitutions for their team, which they can use any time. Once a player is subbed off the field, he stops accumulating fantasy points, and the player that comes in starts getting the points. For decades, the user engagement in fantasy sports has been just about selecting a team. Once matches begin, their engagement with their fantasy squad remains till the end of day or the end of week. We are trying to change the way people play fantasy sports. Another big thing is that we are daily. Traditionally, in fantasy football, you had one squad and you follow the whole squad for nine months. We are changing that as well.
Teague Orgeman – CEO and Co-Founder, Starting 11
teague@starting11.io
https://www.linkedin.com/in/teagueorgeman/
On the Web:starting11.io
On Twitter:@Starting11app
On FB:@starting11fantasy
On Instagram:starting11app
Download for iOS:https://starting11.io/download-iosapp
Download for Android:https://starting11.io/download-android-s11