Google+ announced on Wednesday that it is teaming up with the NFL to bring its Hangout video chats to the league’s fantasy football platform. This means you can see the look on your friends’ faces as you draft each player and watch them gloat during big plays throughout the season.
“If your buddy nabs Adrian Peterson in the first round of your Fantasy Football draft, it’s going to be an emotional moment,” Steve Grove, head of community partnerships for Google+. “Since the NFL is already a social game and it allows fans to connect in real-time through Fantasy leagues, it’s a natural partnership for us.”
For any fantasy league set up through NFL.com/fantasy page, a Google+ Hangout button integrated on the team page will launch the group into video chat mode. It can be used not only during drafts, but when trading players or watching the game. Since the standard fantasy league has about a dozen players, Google is upping the number of Hangout participants from 10 to 12 on NFL.com/fantasy.
This is the first time the company has integrated Hangouts directly onto a partner’s website.
“There are moments in sports that are highly emotional that you call your friend to connect around the latest play or touchdown,” Grove said. “Hangouts make it that much more direct with several people at once, regardless of where they are in the country.”
He also noted that Hangouts could be coming to other fantasy leagues in the future too.
“It’s promising that it could move to other leagues in the future too, but it’s not just optimized for sports,” Grove said. “Publishers in general can set up Hangouts around an article that is gaining traction or a wedding site can host a Hangout to give advice on planning the day. We’re seeing a lot of innovation right now with the technology and sports is just one way to pursue your interests in a whole new way.”
