MondoGoal Review
MondoGoal is the world’s first major daily fantasy sports website to focus specifically on soccer. Here’s our review of MondoGoal.
What is MondoGoal?
MondoGoal, like many other fantasy sports websites, lets you play fantasy football for real cash.
The difference between MondoGoal and other fantasy football websites is that we’re talking about the UK’s football: soccer.
MondoGoal is the first fantasy sports website to let you enter daily or weekly contests for soccer leagues around the world. All of the major European leagues – including the Premier league – are available through the site. The site also supports North America’s MLS.
You can win cash every match day and build a team any game day.
MondoGoal also lets you compete in fantasy sports for major international soccer events. Soon after the site launched, for example, the site allowed its players to compete to earn cash for the 2015 Women’s World Cup. That also gives MondoGoal the unique distinction of being the first ever daily pay fantasy game for any women’s sport – something that it mentioned in a press release here.
The site launched in June 2015 but already claims to have given out over £1 million to its fantasy managers.
How Does MondoGoal Work?
MondoGoal takes the rules of daily/weekly fantasy sports to the world of football/soccer. Here’s how the site describes itself:
“The concept is simple – like traditional fantasy sports, players build a team of real world athletes who then score fantasy points according to set scoring rules. However, instead of being stuck with the same team through a whole season, daily fantasy sports contests last just one day or one gameweek.”
If you’ve visited any other daily fantasy sports website before, then you know that this all sounds familiar.
You can build a new team each day, then check your score at night after all the games are complete. Whether it’s a head to head matchup with you and a friend (or stranger), or it’s a tournament with hundreds of players, you get paid daily or weekly.
Like most daily fantasy sports websites, MondoGoal uses a salary cap system. You pick your footballers, stay under the salary cap, and hope they put up enough points.
Each contest requires you to select 11 players that total 100 million or less in virtual salary. The 11 players must come from at least 3 different teams.
There are a few different formations available, including 4-4-2, 4-3-3, 3-5-2, and others. You can choose Goalkeepers (GK), Defenders (D), Midfielders (MF), and Forwards (F). Each player is only eligible at one of the four positions listed above (even if they play multiple positions in the real world).
Different players are assigned different fantasy values according to their popularity and performance – both of which can change from week to week. So that sleeper pick you had last week might by everyone’s first draft choice this week.
You can pick your MondoGoal roster up to 10 minutes before the start of the first game included in the contest. You can edit your roster as many times as you like up to that point.
MondoGoal Scoring
With most fantasy football websites, the scoring is identical: you get 6 points for a touchdown, 0.1 points for yards, etc. But MondoGoal isn’t your average fantasy football website. We’re talking about fantasy football (soccer). Most of you don’t know how fantasy soccer scoring works, so here’s how MondoGoal does it:
All Positions
Minute (up to 90): 0.02
Yellow Card: -2
Red Card: -5
Foul Won: .5
Foul Committed: -.5
Forwards
Goal: 7
Assist: 4
Shot on Target: 2
Pass Completed: 0.03
Penalty Kick Missed: -5
Midfielders
Goal: 7
Assist: 4
Shot on Target: 2
Pass Completed: 0.05
Penalty Kick Missed: -5
Clean Sheet (if 45 or more minutes played): 2
Single Goal Match (if 45 or more minutes played): 1
Defender
Goal: 7
Assist: 4
Clean sheet (if 45 or more minutes played): 4
Single Goal Match (if 45 or more minutes played): 2
Tackle won: 0.5
Pass Completed: 0.03
Pass Intercepted: 0.25
Penalty Kick Missed: -5
Goalkeeper
Save: 1
Penalty Kick Saved: 7
Tackle Won: 1
Goal Allowed: -2
Clean Sheet (if 45 or more minutes played): 6
Single Goal Match (if 45 or more minutes played): 3
The only exception to these rules is that you don’t receive points during a penalty shootout. So all the shots, saves, and goals made in a penalty shootout will not count towards your total.
As you can see, there are a fair bit of negative points scattered throughout this scoring system – missing penalty kicks, receiving yellow/red cards, and committing fouls are all punishable offences.
All data is collected from Opta, a UK-based sports data firm. It’s basically the most reliable source for things like completed passes, intercepted passes, and other more arbitrary statistics. MondoGoal calls Opta the worldwide leader in sports analytics.
Which Sports Are Available through MondoGoal?
MondoGoal specializes in daily fantasy soccer/football and does not offer any other sports. Here are all the leagues currently covered through the site:
-Barclays Premier League – England
-Football League Championship – England
-League Cup – England
-Major League Soccer – United States
-Serie A TIM – Italy
-Ligue BBVA – Spain
-Ligue 1 – France
-Brasileirão – Brazil
-LigaMX – Mexico
-UEFA Champions League
-UEFA Europa League
-UEFA European Championship (The Euros)
-The FA Cup
-Men’s and Women’s World Cup
MondoGoal also has a unique feature called Global contests, where you can combine players from multiple leagues to create your “ultimate fantasy dream team”. For example, you could start a fantasy roster with Cristiano Ronaldo, Lionel Messi, Zlatan Ibrahimović, and Sergio Aguero in spite of the fact that they play in different leagues.
How to Join MondoGoal
Joining MondoGoal is as easy as joining any other fantasy sports website. However, unlike some websites, there’s no need to pay anything when you sign up.
You only need to pay when you enter a paid contest. Entry fees are $2, $5, $10, $25, and $50 (yes, the amounts are listed in USD).
There are also freeroll contests that cost nothing to join. However, these contests are typically just for bragging rights and don’t often award any prizes. If you want to make any money with MondoGoal, you’ll need to spend money on entry fees.
After you’ve signed up, browsing the contest menu is as straightforward as you would expect. You can choose to narrow down your search according to specific leagues or prize totals. You can also sort it by entry fees, popularity, start times, etc.
People across the UK and Europe can join MondoGoal legally. Americans can also participate in the site (with the exception of the states where fantasy sports are banned, including Montana, Louisiana, Iowa, Arizona, North Dakota, Tennessee, Vermont, Nevada, and Washington.)
Entry is open to anyone 18 years of age and older (19+ in Alabama and Nebraska).
Withdrawals
MondoGoal appears to be easy and honest with its withdrawals: the company claims that withdrawals from MondoGoal are processed “immediately” but may take up to 3 to 5 business days to arrive in your account depending on your bank.
Is MondoGoal Legal?
Sports betting is legal and widely popular across the United Kingdom. In the United States, fantasy sports websites are viewed as games of skill, which makes it different from gambling.
In any case, MondoGoal claims that “everything is 100% legal and winners take home real money.”
As mentioned above, certain Americans will not be able to join MondoGoal, including residents of Montana, Louisiana, Iowa, Arizona, North Dakota, Tennessee, Vermont, Nevada, and Washington.
MondoGoal also reminds its visitors at its about page of the following:
“Mondogoal is an Isle of Man company, and is licensed for e-gaming in the UK and other markets. In the United States, Mondogoal is purely a “Game of Skill” and no license is required, but we think that being a licensed and regulated provider demonstrates our commitment to delivering a fair experience for our users.”
In other words, MondoGoal isn’t some shady flash-in-the-pan company that wants to take your money and disappear. It’s a legitimate, licensed enterprise.
About MondoGoal
MondoGoal was launched in June 2015 and is registered in Isle of Man at the following address:
Mondogoal Trading Ltd. First Floor, 14 Athol Street, Douglas, Isle of Man, IM11JA
However, the company maintains business operations in Boston, Massachusetts.
Prior to launching in June 2015, the company claims to have attracted “an impressive roster of investors with backgrounds at Google, eBay, Morgan Stanley”, and others.
Today, MondoGoal continues to be the only major daily fantasy sports website that offers a wide range of soccer (or football, if you prefer) fantasy tournaments and pools.
You can compare them to our Fanduel and DraftKings review as well.
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