UK-based Fantasy Football Hub (FFH) has completed a $550k (£406k) funding round to help support its growth in the world of fantasy sports, an industry currently valued at $22 billion and forecast to reach $38 billion by 2025.

FFH was founded by CEO Will Thomas at age 32 when he gave up his job as a consultant and sports psychologist in 2018 to build a business providing high-quality digital content and analytics to the fantasy football community.

Today the business has more than 65,000 active users.

Fantasy football is the largest of the fantasy sports, with over nine million players alone competing in the English Premier League version of the game and dozens of similar formats played globally. And there appears to be no slowdown in enthusiasm for fantasy sports, with app downloads predicted to reach 258 billion in 2022.

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Participants in this funding round include early-stage investor Pierre Lever, who joins the board as Chair, and Top Ten Sport Ventures led by Markus Egger, formerly an executive with Red Bull’s sports team properties. The round was also backed by 40 existing shareholders and supported by JY Advisory.

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FFH will use its funds to develop its member services and explore new market opportunities. There have been several high-profile investments recently in fantasy sports start-ups, from content providers to new game offerings, the most high-profile of which was the $680m investment made in Sorare, a fantasy football NFT business.

Thomas said:

“We are delighted to be welcoming such an experienced group of investors to the business and are looking forward to delivering even more value to our members in the years to come. This is an exciting time for everyone in the Fantasy Football Hub team.”

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Lever added:

“Will and the team have grown the business rapidly by becoming an indispensable tool to tens of thousands of fantasy football players. With the fantasy sports industry continuing to expand at pace, the opportunities for Fantasy Football Hub are enormous and I am thrilled to be involved.”

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