Fantasy gaming firm Citizen creates app for Facebook

Citizen Sports Network has developed a centralized hub application for Facebook users that collates scores, news, fantasy gaming, trivia and a wide range of social-networking features in one spot.

The San Francisco-based fantasy gaming outfit last year expanded its business model from being strictly the operator of the stock market-inspired ProTrade and moving into sports-related social-networking applications. The latest, dashboard-like product — a free, downloadable application on Facebook — seeks to build on that move by aiming to organize Facebook into a more personalized and manageable experience.

Citizen’s product allows
Facebook users to create
their own sports hub.

The Citizen Sports Facebook application pulls information from more than 4,000 news sources and operates online fan communities for more than 900 sports teams.

“We want to make it so this is the central, primary place a fan wants and needs to go online,” said Mike Kerns, Citizen Sports founder and chief executive. “We see this as eliminating the need to go get news from one spot, fantasy from a second, social networking from a third, and so on. ”

AT&T purchased presenting sponsor rights to the new application, with the sales efforts led by Citizen Sports’ business partner SI Digital. SI’s sales efforts on behalf of Citizen Sports have additionally extended to a deal with Marriott’s Courtyard brand for an enhanced game-day product for college basketball dubbed a “virtual arena,” and deals with both Miller Lite and Finish Line for a bracket challenge game that is expected to garner an audience well into six figures in size.

Citizen Sports is seeking to develop similar hub applications for sports content on Facebook rival social networks MySpace and Bebo, as well as for the iPhone through its mobile outfit, Sportacular.