The 2010 World Cup kicks off in South Africa in just over a month, but that does not mean it is too early to start scouting and preparing for the fantasy World Cup season.

The World Cup has grown in popularity in the United States in the last couple of decades, and with that growth, comes a rise in fantasy games revolving around the tournament. The most common game you will see is a the completion of a second round bracket, that is exactly likely filling out a March Madness bracket. In addition, some games will have a combined first and second bracket that is guaranteed to frustrate you when the soccer equivalent of Butler University emerges in this year’s World Cup.

Serious fantasy World Cup players will enter leagues that have them picking players to use throughout the tournament. This can be incredibly challenging since half the player pool is eliminated after three games.

Here is a mix of fantasy World Cup games that you can check out:

• World Cup Pool – This pool is dedicated to simply hosting World Cup pools. The game featured on the site covers both rounds of the tournament and teams score points based on how well fantasy players are able to predict who wins, loses, or ties. Players can compete in the site-wide contest or just a private sub-league amongst friends. Over 22,000 players have signed up to play on this site with a month still to go. Do not be surprised to see that number swell quickly the closer we get to the World Cup. The site is also available in 14 languages which makes this a truly international site for the world’s most popular event.
• ESPN Soccernet’s Bracket Predictor – This free World Cup bracket game offers a swanky prize of $5,000 to the winner. All you have to do is predict the two teams from each group to advance and then complete your bracket. In addition to competing against all entrants across the site, you have the ability to compete just against family and friends.
• McDonald’s FIFA World Cup Fantasy – The official fantasy world cup site by the organization responsible for putting on the World Cup every four years. As publication, this site has not been updated with a game for the 2010 Cup, as it hosted a fantasy game leading up to the World Cup. But, do not be surprised to something appear here in the very near future.

Those are just a few of the places that you can check out a fantasy World Cup league. Check Fantasy Ethos regularly for new fantasy World Cup news as it happens.

If you know of any other leagues, please feel to comment in the comments section.

Picklive just announced the closing of a seed round of funding from investors, including from Last.FM backer Stefan Glaenzer. Picklive is a London based start-up that is offering a mix between the nanogaming that LiveHiveSystems is offering and the daily fantasy games you can find at places like SnapDraft.

I like Picklive’s take on creating a real-time fantasy sports game. Instead of predicting the outcome of every pitch or play, in Picklive’s system you compete against other players where each player selects three players, and teams score fantasy points according to their threesome’s performance in that ten minute window. For that ten minutes, fantasy players just have to worry about their team, not every play. For a sport like soccer where the clock rolls continuously, this affords fantasy players the opportunity to play eight or nine games within just one soccer match, or just one, if they so choose.

The site was originally called Football3s, but the site changed its name to Picklive to indicate that it thinks this model can work for more than just fantasy soccer. I can easily see inning-by-inning versions of the game available for fantasy baseball and quarterly versions for fantasy football.

In-game fantasy sports is still a growing niche, and its viability and profitability is still in question. I think Picklive’s simplicity gives it an advantage, because it does not seem like as big a commitment. You only need to pick three players and then let them play. You do not have to watch every pitch or down in order to compete. It is not as big a commitment.

Quick post to get you a little pumped this morning. Last week I told you how you can Play Some Fantasy Serie A (Italian Soccer) at Serie A Live. Now, Serie A Live just released a new promo video for its site. It’s simple, fun, and should get you pumped (at least a little):

Hope you enjoyed that, and don’t forget to check back later today for some articles.

Fantasy sports know no borders, and today I will take you to Italy. Serie A Live is a fantasy soccer league focusing on the top Italian soccer league, the Serie A. The site is the brainchild of Serie A-lover Vince Cullotta and is one of the very first independent fantasy Serie A sites out there, with only Yahoo! and ESPN among the big fantasy sites playing in the Italian soccer market.

My favorite part is that Serie A Live has created a challenge for next season with its Serie A Champions League. The top 30 teams will compete in a champions league next year. This little nuance will keep players playing once they are out of the hunt for the top spot. Three months into the Serie A season, of the 219 players signed up, about 179 actively playing, which is an impressive percentage. In addition, the site also features live scoring, which is very high-end feature and keeps fantasy players regularly engaged.

A point about the internationalization of fantasy sports. Think back to about 1990 when the fantasy industry was full of little niche sites creeping up everywhere. Ultimately, those sites merged, emerged, failed, were acquired, and became part of the fantasy sites that we grow and love today. Well, for the rest of the world, it is 1990 all over. Except, this time around the new fantasy companies have the playbook from the past twenty years. There is no reason to make the same mistakes and to not do what you not works.

When I see a new site like Serie A Live investing in the features that are essential to running a successful game, like live scoring, and ways to innovate the game, it gets me excited. Cullotta is investing in making a top product. Once the market demand for fantasy Serie A grows (it will, just as fantasy EPL has grown), Serie A Live will be in a great position to capitalize and gain those new customers.

Congratulations to Vince on the site launch, and good luck with Serie A Live!

I love reading data, which partly why I have always loved fantasy sports. Within the industry, getting data on international participation is always the hardest. When I read about fantasy gaining in India, it mentioned the growth of fantasy English Premier League (EPL) in India, I could not help but to get excited. Currently, over 38,000 Indians are playing in the official fantasy EPL site, while another 10,000 are playing in ESPN Fantasy EPL League, and another 6,000 are playing the Fantasy Champions League.

50,000 fantasy players is not exactly enough to say that fantasy sports has gone mainstream, but it is a very significant start. In a country with over 1.2B people and a burgeoning middle class, there is definitely a possibility that India may be the next big fantasy market.

The key to figuring out which fantasy sports will do well in international markets is figuring out which real sports do well in those markets. It is highly unlikely that football, baseball, and basketball will be the big fantasy sports. More than likely, soccer, cricket, and rugby will be the dominant fantasy sports overseas.

Fut11.com plans to launch itself in the near future. While it is getting ready to launch, it is looking for a few good logo ideas. In fact, it is currently hosting a logo contest for the a fantasy soccer logo. The designer of the winning logo will in a prize of $295.

All I can tell you about Fut11.com is that the domain was registered on September 3, 2009, and the company is based on Portugal. The name is short and sweet, and makes sense for the product.

I do like the idea of making you logo a public contest, because it helps generate some pre-launch buzz for the site. Personally, I like the logo on the left.

Good luck to all designers!

You have to appreciate the British approach to advertising–it gets your attention. As you might be able to determine from the woman on the left, she is promoting the Daily Star’s Fantasy Football game, which is now open for sign-ups.

This time of year, while most fantasy football players are gearing up for the upcoming NFL season, there are a few fantasy football players that are gearing up for the start of the English Premier League, and the launch of a different kind of fantasy football.

The Daily Star game offers a top prize of £50,000, ($82,600) with three teams costing £10 ($16.50). It is a simple salary cap game where you pick a starting roster of 11 players utilizing a £100M salary cap. Score points as players contribute to their teams. If they play well, you do well. They end up riding the pine, you suffer. Pretty simple.

English Premier League Fantasy Football is growing and you can even find up-to-the-minute soccer player news on sites like RotoWire these days. It is growing market, and possibly the next great fantasy sport.

Additional Coverage:

• http://www.dailystar.co.uk/news/view/89617/FANTASY-FOOTBALL-IS-BACK-/