How an Ottawa-based fantasy sports creator hopes to turn 'casual fans into superfans'

Building your very own fantasy sports team could certainly seem like a daunting task for any sports fan who doesn’t necessarily have their TV turned to the biggest game of the night seven days a week.

But an Ottawa-based fantasy sports platform creator is hoping to reinvent the wheel and turn new and casual fans into superfans.

On the platform Game of Sports, a fantasy sports team isn’t just limited to a single sports league. Through its multi-sport leagues, users can draft their teams by including multiple sports at once to create a year-round roster.

“It’s the most fun way to play fantasy sports because you find yourself watching things that maybe you weren’t interested in,” Joyce told the Ottawa Citizen. “And, now that you’re a bit invested, having those teams to cheer for will give you a little bit of a backstory.”

The multi-sport leagues are also fully customizable, Joyce said. If you don’t follow a certain sport, well, you don’t have to include it in your auction-style draft.

And, unlike many other fantasy sports platforms where users might fall behind if they aren’t actively setting rosters and making moves, Joyce says his aim is to make fantasy sports become a more accessible, low-maintenance activity.

Users are prompted to draft sports teams as a whole rather than individual players, and they will earn points based on the team’s overall performance in their respective league standings. For individual sports like golf and tennis, users will earn points based on their drafted athletes’ individual performances in tournaments.

For example, selecting a National Hockey League team that goes on to win the Stanley Cup will earn you 100 points, while a team eliminated in the first round of the playoffs will earn you just 10.

“Here, you set it and forget it, and now all you do is just follow along and see how the teams do,” he said.

Joyce also hopes his platform also helps to fill a gap that he believes is otherwise missing in fantasy sports: the inclusion of women’s sports.

Professional women’s leagues like the PWHL, NWSL and WNBA can also be included in the multi-sport drafts, with Joyce hoping the platform can attract the many emerging fans who have only recently started following sports through women’s leagues.

“Fantasy sports provides such an incredible way for fans to engage,” Joyce said. “And, when you think of women’s sports, there’s so much momentum right now behind it. From a fan perspective, they need better products, so this is a way to have fans interact in a more unique way.”

After launching the platform in late 2024, Joyce says Game of Sports is now home to about 1,000 users, with promotion so far mostly happening through word of mouth.

The platform has continued to expand its sport offerings as it grows, and this will be the second season that the PWHL will be included. Its season kicks off at the beginning of December.

Over the past two years of running the platform, Joyce said one of his favourite parts of launching the platform had been watching casual sports fans turn on sports they would have never paid attention to otherwise.

In his own family league, he was shocked to realize his mother-in-law had become the most engaged, even over her sports-loving sons and husband.

“She would text me, ‘Oh, my tennis player just won Wimbledon and now I’m going to be in first place,'” he said, chuckling. “So it really does help turn a casual observer into almost a sport fanatic, which is part of the reason it becomes so fun.”

Take control of your search results. Make the Ottawa Citizen a preferred source on Google and see verified local reporting first.