Japan’s first fantasy sports content provider, Neo Sports, is set to host a new Fantasy ONE on ONE event as part of the B. League Championship 2018-2019 on 11 May amid rapidly growing popularity for the game across the country.
Fantasy ONE on ONE uses a 1-on-1 format with rules that are easy for beginners to understand and makes building fantasy teams relatively straightforward. It is hoped that events such as this will pave the way in the future for a relaxation of laws governing participation in Fantasy Sports – a pastime that sees users compete against one another by choosing teams of athletes and accruing points based on the in-game results of real sporting events.
Because sports betting is currently prohibited in Japan, users are not able to pay participation fees to win cash prizes with their fantasy leagues so the scale remains small, with Amazon gift certificates up for grabs totaling the equivalent of JPY3 million.
Neo Sports is the first Japanese organization to join the American Fantasy Sports Association and plans to expand beyond basketball to other sports. This experiment could prove to be a revolutionary step for Japanese fantasy sports.