XI Fantasy Leagues
Free fantasy sports with sponsor-funded rewards
I’m building XI Fantasy Leagues, a free fantasy cricket and football platform where users can build squads, compete on leaderboards, and win sponsor-funded rewards.
The idea came from a simple problem I noticed: many sports fans love fantasy games, but paid-entry contests, deposits, and gambling-style flows create friction. A lot of users want the fun of fantasy sports — picking players, predicting performance, choosing captains, and competing with friends — without risking their own money.
So we are building XI Fantasy Leagues around a different model.
Users create a free account, choose a cricket or football event, build their fantasy XI within a credit budget, select Captain and Vice-Captain, and compete on the leaderboard based on real match performance. Top players can earn rewards such as BTC, USDT, virtual cards, or sponsor-backed campaign prizes.
The key difference is that rewards are not funded by user entry fees. They are funded by sponsors and promotional partners.
For users, this means:
no entry fees
no deposits
no staking
no gambling
skill-based fantasy competition
sponsor-funded rewards
For sponsors, it creates a new way to reach sports fans. Instead of only buying banner ads, sponsors can support contests, leaderboard rewards, task campaigns, Telegram promotions, registration email placements, and branded event pages.
Right now, we are focused on cricket and football because both have massive global fan bases. Cricket gives us strong opportunities around IPL, PSL, and other leagues. Football gives us a wider global audience through FIFA-style fantasy contests and international tournaments.
One thing I’m learning while building this is that positioning matters a lot. “Free fantasy sports” sounds simple, but we need to clearly explain that this is not betting, not paid-entry gaming, and not a deposit-based rewards app. The product only works if users immediately understand the model: play free, compete with skill, and earn rewards funded by sponsors.
We are still early, but the platform is live and we are improving the product, SEO, sponsor pages, onboarding, and community growth.
I’d love feedback from other founders on three things:
Is the sponsor-funded fantasy model clear enough for first-time visitors?
Would you position this more as a fantasy sports product, a Web3 rewards platform, or a sponsor/user-acquisition platform?
What would you improve on the landing page to build trust faster?
Website: https://xileague.com
5 Comments
I ran XI Fantasy Leagues through PagePulse because your post points to a real positioning issue: “free fantasy sports” can easily be mistaken for betting.
A few things stood out:
- Remove 'Upcoming Sponsor' placeholder from the Official Partners section immediately — it actively signals the platform is not established and erodes trust
- Eliminate the secondary 'View Events' CTA from the hero to give 'Start Playing Free' sole visual dominance — single CTA hero sections consistently outperform dual-CTA layouts
- Reorder page sections to place 'How It Works' before 'Active Events' — new visitors need product orientation before they can engage with live event cards
My main read: the page should immediately clarify “free to play, no paid entry, rewards funded by sponsors.” That distinction needs to be visible before users form the wrong mental model.
Hope useful — ping me once you’ve made changes and I’ll re-run it
Thank you, will work on your recommended changes.
I’m glad you find my recommendation helpful!
Hey, just wanted to say — your product looks really impressive. It feels useful, clean, and like something that can actually help people solve a real problem.
I’m building Everyday Tiny Tools — a marketplace for small useful web tools, mini apps, calculators, generators, AI tools, productivity helpers, and simple utilities.
The idea is to give independent creators a real place to showcase their tools, get discovered, and maybe even earn from them.
If you’ve built something small and useful, I’d love to invite you to list it here: EverydayTinyTools.com
Tools can be listed as free, or as a simple one-time purchase through the platform.
And if you have any questions, feel free to reach out anytime: nuchem@lightboltlab.com
Really like what you’re building — wishing you a lot of success with it.
The part that stood out to me was how much of the challenge is about explaining the model rather than building the product.
When something deliberately breaks from what people expect in a category, the first few seconds become less about features and more about helping visitors understand what it isn't. That feels like a much bigger hurdle than most people realize.