Description: SideLeague Fantasy Sports gives fantasy sports fans a way to enjoy competing against friends without the commitment of a traditional fantasy league. The app allows you to play in daily and weekly fantasy sports contests in both free and pay-to-play contests with no cancellations. SideLeague’s simple interface creates the easiest way to play fantasy sports contests on your Android device. For those that are already seasoned veterans, SideLeague has multiple sports to choose from ensuring you get your fantasy fix. Social integration allows you to chat and play with friends, without leaving the app or having to deal with invites.
How It Works: Download SideLeague Fantasy Sports from the Play Store and then you’ll be ready to pick your sports leagues and play away. You’ll also need to log in, which is an important step for using this app.
The login method for most apps may not matter, but SideLeague provides Facebook login which allows you to see friends that are already playing, join contests with them and chat. You can also choose to login with your email or play as a guest if you prefer to play anonymously.
The app allows you to play multiple fantasy contests for a few different professional sports. Supported sports include: Fantasy Football(NFL), Fantasy Basketball(NBA), Fantasy Baseball(MLB), and Fantasy Hockey(NHL).
SideLeague is a flexible app, letting you play all season long, or giving you the ability to play any time you want with no season long commitment or cancellations, and you can draft in minutes.
Using the Facebook login, you can connect on SideLeague instantly with friends giving you the ability to chat with them over picks, your favorite sports leagues, or pretty much anything. You can even use the Facebook login to share that you won so everyone on your feed can see the good news.
Alongside chatting with your Facebook friends, you can chat with other friends and other SideLeague players. Trash talk, strategy discussion and general sports talk can often be found in the integrated messaging tab. If you’re playing in the pay-to-play matches, and you win, cash payouts are immediate so you don’t have to wait for your money. This gives everyone a little incentive for not always going the free route.
For those interested in alerts, you can get news, updates, game highlights, and custom stats sent straight to your phone as push notifications. If you like ranking up, SideLeague also lets you gain XP from wins and climb your friends leaderboard for bragging rights, which is the ultimate trash talk card to be holding in your hand.
Opinion: The SideLeague app was easy to use and it was nice to have a guest login, allowing me to check out the app without providing my Facebook information right off the bat. Navigation within the app was seamless, and the UI is set up in such a way that makes picking your sports and player picks for specific fantasy leagues as easy as could possibly be. Although pay-to-play matches are an option, you don’t have to enter any of your credit card information unless you plan on engaging in them which you’ll need to add funds. This was also a nice touch as it allowed me to look into some of the games again without putting in any of my personal information. I’m not the biggest sports fan, but for those that love fantasy sports leagues this is a well rounded app that delivers some nice features and a good experience.
Ratings
- Speed (4.5/5) – login was quick and painless, and it didn’t take long to set up picks for a fantasy league. The experience was nice and smooth.
- Features (4/5) – The app carries a decent amount of fantasy leagues giving it some variety, and the chat feature along with push notification alerts for news, stats, and game highlights is a nice touch.
- Theme (4/5) – The app looks good and feels fluid, although I would like to have seen some more Material Design like UI style.
- Overall (4/5) – SideLeague is pretty well rounded and would be enjoyable for any fantasy sports fanatic.
Pros
- Chat integration
- Fast and smooth user experience
- guest login
- works with Lollipop devices
- instant cash payout for winnings
Cons
- Would like to have seen a couple more fantasy sports leagues in the app
Conclusion: As I stated above I’m not a huge sports fan, but I found SideLeague to be enjoyable and easy to use, which could be considered a big plus for someone who is either just getting into sports and is checking this out, or the seasoned fan who is simply trying out a new fantasy sports app. The chat feature is nice if you just want to talk with friends, or trash talk to throw them off their game. As a gamer, the ranking and leaderboard feature with XP gains was a nice add. If you like Fantasy sports apps, definitely give SideLeague a look.