Eksab receives $3 million to expand its fantasy football platform across MENA and Africa.

Football, or soccer as it is known in the United States, is the most popular and watched sport in the world, with over five billion football fans, according to FIFA, the sport’s governing body.

While the World Cup, football’s pinnacle event and arguably the world’s most popular sporting event, displays the sport’s popularity in full force, it is the yearly leagues in different countries across Europe, South America, Asia, and Africa that demonstrate the diehard nature of football fans.

According to FIFA, Latin America, the Middle East, and Africa have the world’s largest fan bases. As fans of various sports, including football, become more interested in virtual versions of their favorite games, startups from these regions are satisfying their cravings by offering fantasy sports platforms.

Today’s announcement comes from the Middle East and Africa, where Eksab, an Egyptian platform that claims to make football more exciting and interactive for every fan in both regions through gaming and online community building, has raised $ 3 million in seed funding.

Darwazah Capital, Golden Palm Investments, P1 Ventures, and some angel investors from the sports and entertainment industries participated in the round led by 4DX Ventures, according to the company.

Eksab stated that this investment will be used to expand its user base across MENA and Africa. Some of the funds will also be used for product development, recruiting talent for engineering and product teams, and implementing partnerships with football clubs.

Aly Mahmoud, the company’s founder and CEO, founded Eksab in 2018. In an interview with TechCrunch, he stated, “Eksab’s mission is to make football more exciting for every football fan in the Middle East and Africa.”

Eksab debuted with a prediction game in which users create fantasy lineups and compete in free or paid competitions. There is a leaderboard that displays how well they perform; winners receive cash and other prizes.

More recently, Eksab began producing content for users to receive news and updates about their favorite players and teams, allowing them to better inform their fantasy decisions.

In the long run, Eksab hopes to create a fully integrated platform that will become the go-to platform for football play-to-earn gaming, content, stats, NFTs, digital collectibles, and merchandise, according to its statement.

Eksab takes a cut of all fees paid on the platform, particularly those for premium contests and merchandise.

Mahmoud, who worked at a Canadian startup incubator while developing the idea for Eksab, said he drew inspiration for the platform from incumbents such as Dream 11, DraftKings, and FanDuel, as well as newer startups infusing web3 into the world of fantasy sports such as Sorare. Others, such as Draftea, are demonstrating what is possible in regions other than the United States and Europe.

“I was also exposed to the rise of DraftKings and FanDuel during my time there.” “My friends were playing these two games, and while I didn’t know much about Canadian sports, particularly hockey, I found that playing these games was the easiest way for me to get to know the sports and develop that sense of camaraderie with my friends,” he told TechCrunch.

“I enjoyed the games and thought to myself, ‘Why isn’t anyone doing this for the hundreds of millions of football fans in the Middle East and Africa?” he said. “So we did some research and discovered that there was a huge market gap for this type of game [fantasy football] in the Middle East and Africa.”

Eksab currently has over 700,000 Egyptian users who participate in daily, weekly, and monthly fantasy and prediction contests on its platform. Its user base makes over a million ‘picks’ per month, and the company claims that since the launch of its premium competitions in 2021, its paying user base has increased by an average of 60% month on month.

Eksab said it is planning some integration with blockchain platforms to allow football fans to capitalize on web3’s alleged speed and transparency in order to further invest in its technology.

“What would you want to do online as a football fan?” “Buy jerseys, use your favorite team’s players in your fantasy lineup, and get news and stats on your favorite players,” the founder explained.

“We want to build this in such a way that fans can get all of this in one place, and in a play-to-earn manner, so that every interaction you make on our platform will earn you rewards, which you can then use to enter more contests.”

According to the founder, Eksab is Egypt’s only licensed fantasy football platform, with little or no competition in the country or MENA. In addition to obtaining licenses to operate in three new markets by the middle of this year, CEO Mahmoud told TechCrunch that his company is on the verge of forming a partnership with one of the most powerful football clubs in the Middle East and Africa.

As the World Cup approaches later this month, and for the first time in the Middle East (Qatar), Eksab believes it is uniquely positioned to dominate the growing football gaming market in both regions.

“We began with football because it is the most popular sport among the general public.” Given that the World Cup is just around the corner, we’ll be spending a lot of money on partnerships with specific football players in order to grow our platform and user base,” the CEO explained.

“However, once we’re confident that we’ve nailed football and are doing the best job we can there, we’ll start unlocking other sports as it makes sense on a market-by-market basis.”