FCFL

Fan Controlled Football (FCF) operates at the intersection of live sports and interactive gaming, positioning itself as a professional indoor football league fundamentally managed by its audience. The company's journey began in 2015 when Sohrob Farudi, Patrick Dees, Ray Austin, and Grant Cohen acquired an expansion team in the Indoor Football League (IFL), the Salt Lake Screaming Eagles. Farudi, the CEO, brought an entrepreneurial background in technology, having previously co-founded and sold Flipswap Inc., while Austin is a former NFL player. Their experiment with fan-driven decisions in the IFL, where fans voted on everything from the team's location to in-game offensive plays via a mobile app, proved the concept's viability.

After a single season, the founders exited the IFL to build their own league, initially known as the Interactive Football League and later settling on Fan Controlled Football in 2017. The league debuted its first season in February 2021 with four teams, playing all games in a single production studio in Atlanta to control costs and optimize for streaming. This model targets a digitally native audience, primarily 18-34-year-olds accustomed to the interactivity of video games and fantasy sports. Revenue is generated through sponsorships, merchandise sales, and digital collectibles. In a significant financial milestone, FCF secured a $40 million Series A funding round in January 2022, led by crypto-focused venture firms Animoca Brands and Delphi Digital, which was intended to fund two more seasons.

FCF's product is a modified version of football, featuring 7-on-7 gameplay on a 50-yard field designed for fast-paced, high-scoring action. Games are streamed live on platforms like Twitch, Peacock, and DAZN. The core feature is the fan engagement system, where viewers use a mobile app to vote on play calls, which are then relayed to the quarterback. Fans can also influence weekly player drafts and other team decisions. To deepen engagement and revenue streams, the league integrated NFTs, allowing token holders greater voting power and control over new expansion teams. Following its 2022 season, the company faced a capital crunch tied to the downturn in the cryptocurrency market and postponed its 2023 season. In June 2023, management announced a strategic pivot to focus on licensing its fan-engagement technology to other sports leagues and to pursue a franchise ownership model to fund a future restart.

Keywords: fan controlled sports, interactive football, sports technology, digital collectibles, live streaming, fantasy sports, indoor football, sports league, fan engagement, tech licensing