After the success of its Fantasy Pre-World Cup game, FanXT has launched its Fantasy World Cup ( http://fantasyworldcup.fanxt.com ) game to offer World Cup fans a once-in-4-years chance to build a virtual World Cup team based on real-life World Cup players such as Lionel Messi (Argentina), Neymar (Brazil), Cristiano Ronaldo (Portugal) and Wayne Rooney (England). These fantasy football managers earn points based on the performances of these players that play in FIFA World Cup 2014 matches. As the world would watch in awe the action and drama behind the FIFA World Cup, football fans could take on the challenge to earn the coveted title of Legendary Fantasy World Cup Manager, something many failed to do in the previous Fantasy World Cup 2010. The game offers 12 statistics for users to score fantasy points such as Goals, Shots On Goals, Assists to score valuable points, ability to assign a captain, analyse players’ performance based on detailed graph analysis, choose their team formation (4-3-3, 4-4-2 or 5-3-2) as well as create private or mini leagues for users to compete among their friends. The socially savvy can also invite friends to join via Facebook and earn extra $0.5 million virtual budget for each friend who joined. Fantasy managers start with the rank of Rookie Manager but as they advance in the game, they could eventually earn the Legendary Manager title, something many failed to do in the previous Fantasy World Cup 2010. A World Cup Predictor game is included in the website, which challenges users to predict the outcome (including the score) of all 64 matches and predict who will lift the World Cup trophy this year. For those early bird users that joined the pre-World Cup fantasy soccer game prior to this one, each of the fantasy manager shall have their fantasy points earned to be converted to extra virtual budget in this final World Cup game. It pays to be early. Fantasy sports are enjoyed by over 83 million people globally and according to Alexa statistics, fantasy sites are 3 times more engaging than popular sites like Yahoo, CNN, ESPN and even the official FIFA World Cup site itself. This highly engaging fantasy football game for World Cup is available in Spanish ( http://fantasyworldcup.fanxt.com/es ), Chinese ( http://fantasyworldcup.fanxt.com/cn ), Indonesian ( http://fantasyworldcup.fanxt.com/id ) and Portuguese ( http://fantasyworldcup.fanxt.com/pt ) languages and playable on these platforms below. Website: http://fantasyworldcup.fanxt.com Facebook: iPhone: http://itunes.apple.com/app/fantasy-world-soccer/id859769859?mt=8 Android:   About FanXT [ www.fanxt.com http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FanXT

As excitement builds ahead of this summer’s hotly anticipated football tournament, attention has turned to the ball that will take centre stage at kick off. Tested for over two years by some of the biggest stars in the footballing world, pundits are calling it the most tested ball yet. But one legend has still to give it his seal of approval…

Following recent research* commissioned by Captain Morgan, which revealed that a third of England fans are concerned that the ball may hamper England’s chances in the tournament this year, the Captain who is famous for his mischief making, has turned his spy glass to the ball and decided to really put it through its paces.

The Captain has commissioned a cannon capable of firing an object at speeds of up to 74 miles per hour, to determine once and for all whether the ball has what it takes to deliver a legendary tournament this summer.

Captain Morgan, said: “This year’s ball has plenty of style but does it have any substance? I gathered together my crew of buccaneers and headed to the beach to discover for myself whether it deserves true legendary status as the world’s most tested football.

“We tested its speed, swerve and performance vs an old ball, as well as its controllability and of course its accuracy and I’m very pleased to announce it passed all with flying colours and has received my official seal of approval.

“I know the England team haven’t had chance to practice with the ball ahead of the tournament in Brazil but fans can rest assured that the ball is definitely up to scratch and has the makings of a true legend.”

You can watch the Captain put the ball through its paces at  or here

The 2014 FIFA World Cup will get underway this June in Brazil and not only will it be the biggest soccer event of the year it’ll be the biggest betting event of the year.  The numbers are staggering—it’s hard to get an accurate figure on how much money will be bet on the World Cup consider that UK bookmakers are expecting to take as much £3 billion in action.  That’s just the United Kingdom meaning that the overall money bet on the World Cup is downright mind boggling.

For the intelligent bettor it’s important to keep in mind that the majority of World Cup betting action will be from casual and recreational players.  This type of player has a tendency to bet with their heart, backing their country’s team or else jump on a bandwagon and bet one of the top favorites.  Bookmakers are aware of this—in addition to moving the prices based on betting action they’ll frequently ‘shade’ lines involving teams they know will receive a lot of wagering action.  The sharp player, meanwhile, looks for ‘value’ on teams that might not be as popular with the general public.

So which teams are ‘overvalued’?  First of all, a disclaimer:  just because a team is ‘overvalued’ doesn’t mean they can’t win.  It’s also not a slight on the team itself but rather their market valuation.  ‘Value’ is a very nebulous concept but its essential to be mindful of it if you’re going to make money betting over the longterm.  The most obvious ‘overvalued’ team is the host country of Brazil.  Brazil is a very good team to be sure but they have defensive issues, questions about their midfield depth and a recent history of very erratic play.  These questions are sufficient in our view that they’re a ‘false favorite’ and are overvalued at +300.

Spain is the defending World Cup Champion but the marketplace appears to be making a big deal about their loss to Brazil in the Confederations Cup.  This is a mistake in our view—despite the fact that Brazil won that matchup 3-0 its unwise to conclude that Spain is ‘down’ from their 2010 team.  Some have expressed concern that they may be ‘over the hill’ but it’s hard to pass up a proven commodity like Spain who are also the #1 ranked national team in the world at the moment.  They look like a nice value at +685.  Germany is also attractive at +640—some concern in both cases about European teams having historically struggled in World Cup play in South America.  Then again, the conventional wisdom that European teams can’t win in South America could be giving us value.

Italy is also worth at least a speculative play at +2850.  The rap on Italy is that they’ve been insanely erratic in World Cup play—they won the tournament in 2006 and then didn’t win a game in 2010—but they’ve got a deep, talented and experienced team.  Most of their roster is from AC Milan and Juventus in Italy’s Serie A league meaning there will be good cohesion.  At such a high price they’re worth a shot.