It was decades ago when Teague Orgeman launched a fantasy football league with some of his teenage friends. The zeal for soccer continues burning inside him, which is why years later he proposed a business around his interest.

Oregman, now 38, took his hobby a notch higher and came up with a platform that allowed millions of soccer-fans to indulge themselves in fantasy soccer. The platform is known by the name Starting11, which has emerged as the first daily fantasy solution in the world.

How does Starting11 work?

Daily fantasy soccer fans would find Starting11 nothing less than a real-life manager, allowing you to make three real-time player substitutions every lineup. The platform maintains some of the traits of traditional daily fantasy sports but empowers them by putting them in the shoes of the manager.

Like in most traditional daily fantasy sports, Starting11 follows a points-based competition system. Each of the players in your lineup accumulates points on the basis of the performance of players in real-world soccer competitions. The user who earns the maximum number of points at the end of the game gets a prize or cash.

At the same time, you can feel the difference between Starting11 and other daily fantasy sports platforms when it comes to making substitutions. The platform allows users to make substitutions to their lineups to respond to movements in momentum, leap for a win or replace a player who was disqualified from a match—all in real time.

But it shouldn't be forgotten that Starting11 is a one-day experience. Users log into their Starting11 mobile app and pick players for the day. The outcome is determined by the selected players' performance in the matches of that particular day.

How to set up Starting11?

Here are a few steps to follow for setting up your Starting11 app:

• Download the app from the app store of your iPhone or Android smartphone. Hit the “log in” button located at the top right corner of the splash page.
• Don't have an account on the platform? You can create one simply by logging in using your preferred social media profile. Once you create your account, fill in your name, email address and birthday and check on the Terms & Conditions to start using the app.
• After you set your captain on Starting11, hit the “Save Lineup Template” button to save your 11-player roster. Before adding new players and starting the contest, autofill your template lineup by clicking on the “Load Lineup From Template” button.
• Want to swap out a player from your lineup? Open the player card and hit “Swap Player” button. Select the player you want to add and click on “Confirm Swap” to finalise your lineup.
• To join a contest, choose the type of contest you want to play from the main lobby. You can even check the entry fee, the number of managers and prizes in each lobby. Click on "Continue" to confirm the entry fee and start playing on the platform.

Wondering what the substitution eligibility is? You should know that you can only substitute a player who is presently playing in the real-world competition. Let's take for example that you had Eden Hazard on your team in the Chelsea Vs Manchester United match. Hazard suffers an injury, and you wish to replace him with Kevin De Bruyne, who's playing in the Manchester City Vs Everton match.

If both matches start at the same time, you can substitute Eden Hazard with Kevin De Bruyne. You will get the points earned by Hazard up to the instance of his substitution. After Kevin De Bruyne starts playing, you get all the points that he wins during the match.

Prizes on offer

If you wish to know when cash prize contests are coming, then the wait is over. As of June 2018, Starting11 offers all cash games in the U.K., Germany, Canada and thirty-three states in the United States. You can check the App Store or get a direct download link on the Starting11 website to download the app on your iPhone or Android smartphone.

If you are wondering where you can play Starting11, then you should know that entry into paid contests is limited to certain jurisdictions by law, and it is full of registration and licensing requirements. In the US, all fifty states except Arizona, Alabama, Delaware, Hawaii, Iowa, Indiana, Idaho, Louisiana, Montana, Missouri,  New York, Nevada, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Virginia, Vermont and Washington are excluded from both free and cash contests.

The Prize Pool and entry fee for a particular contest remains unchanged once the user creates a contest. There is, however, a restriction on the maximum number of entries that can be accepted for a contest. Contests that have not yet reached the capacity will be available for admission until the contest begins. In case a contest doesn't reach capacity by start time, it will be cancelled immediately, and money will be refunded to the user.

Pros and cons of Starting11

As a daily fantasy soccer playing platform, Starting11 offers players a number of advantages. These are as follows:

• Starting11 is a legal platform, meaning it provides cash games in jurisdictions (states and countries) where the law permits such games.
• The platform is always working to expend real-money contests to more and more countries and leagues.
• The Starting11 platform has undergone thorough third-party compliance testing and has obtained the UK Gambling Commission Combined Remote Operating License last January.
• Real-time notifications on matches are available, thereby allowing you to finish your errands as the match goes on.
• The platform protects the interests of players by allowing them (and their family members at times) to place limits on their use of the platform.

The primary thing that the founder of the app has tried to do is increasing the pool of usable players. The app does this by awarding points for interceptions, tackles, completed passes and duel games won. The philosophy of the founder is that if a player exercises control over the match in a real-life scenario, his earnings and contributions should reflect in the fantasy roster of the user.

However, the platform is not free of some disadvantages, which are follows:

• The Starting11 mobile app is not available on Google PlayStore because Google's platform policy restricts paid fantasy sports contests.
• The heterogeneous nature of legal frameworks across different states restricts potential daily fantasy sports fans. Users always have to verify their physical location to access the cash contests.
• Users are allowed to have only those players from at least two teams that are playing two separate matches at a time.

If you are using Starting11 after FPL, you may require some amount of adjustment because you will no longer be restricted to the three players from each club or the £100m budget. The platform, however, takes team creation a notch higher than FPL. You get the choice of building teams from scratch, using different strategies, playing midfield and attacking—all without worrying about the changes you will have to make in the game week coming after.

As a bottom line, it can be clearly said that Starting11 is the responsible gaming platform soccer fans going the daily-fantasy-sports way would love. The platform is committed to promoting healthy player behaviour and protecting the interests of everyone who uses the platform for getting the ultimate live daily fantasy sporting experience.