People going daft for the draft

A Lisburn man has proved he is on the ball when it comes to new ideas after launching a fantasy football website with a difference.
Steven McComb is enjoying some success with a new take on fantasy football.Steven McComb is enjoying some success with a new take on fantasy football.
Steven McComb is enjoying some success with a new take on fantasy football.

Steven McComb, who attended Fort Hill and Wallace High School, started fantasy football website, www.the-draft.com, after becoming bored with the conventional version of the game.

Steven said: “I got bored with fantasy football.

“Everyone always ends up with the same players from the same teams.

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“One of my friends had been in America and he was raving about the draft style system they use there so I thought it could be something fun to do here.”

Fantasy football usually works by allowing players to pick a team from all the players in a particular league to fit a budget.

Points are awarded based on what the players do in real life matches, for example, five points might be awarded for a goal.

Steven’s format allows players to form teams within a league of their friends, with a ‘draft day’ allocated for players to be picked for each team.

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This format means no team in the same league can have the same players.

Steven said: “Each league will have their own set of players and they can only play for one team in the league.

“There is also no budget so you can assemble your own team of Galaticos.”

The draft website has already taken off with no fewer than 110 leagues created by users so far.

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Steven said: “It has done really well in America and Scandanavia.

“There are quite a few users from the Middle East as well. That has been a real surprise.

“Only around 20 per cent of our users are the UK and Ireland and we’d love it to do well here.”

The game is free to play and prizes are being offered for the best performing managers.

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“There are large numbers of people to serve for prizes. We are running a weekly competiton where the top points scorer will receive a prize.

“We have two UK and one American sports clothing firm sponsoring the prizes so stuff like retro sports gear is up for grabs.”

The-draft.com has already received endorsements from former and current football managers such as, Lawrie Sanchez and Lisburn Distillery’s very own Tommy Kinkaid.

Anyone who wants more information or to sign up to the game can do so at www.the-draft.com.

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