It Started With a 4 AM Text. Now Real Sports Is Partnering With FanDuel.

In February 2020, Louis Antonelli had an idea he couldn't wait until morning to share.

At 4 a.m., he texted his younger brother John with a vision for a different kind of sports platform—one that would turn real-time sports data into something fans can follow, discuss, and react to together.

“When he texted me, it was as simple as, ‘Imagine if we could react to a Fred VanVleet three with a Drake emoji,’” John recalled.

That conversation would eventually become Real, a social sports platform that brings live stats and the conversations happening around it into one place.

Today, Real covers 18 leagues and has surpassed one million daily active users on its biggest days.

This NFL season marked another milestone: FanDuel has become Real's first official and exclusive Sportsbook and Prediction Market partner.

From Content to Community

The idea for Real didn't come out of nowhere. The Antonellis have spent years thinking about how people interact online.

Louis had experience building large social apps, including at the esports platform Guilded.

John, meanwhile, created sports content during the Vine era before launching basketball Instagram account @bball in 2015, growing it to more than one million followers.

Along the way, the brothers noticed a disconnect in how fans experienced sports online. During big sports moments, fans would flock to social media to react and find other people talking about it.

“Millions of people were doing this,” Louis said. “But everything felt fragmented.”

A fan might check one app for a score, another for a highlight, and another to see what everyone was saying about it.

“We thought, ‘How do we align the people who are seeking this content out with an app that's centered fully around data?’” John said.

Real users can now follow interactive play-by-play, track players and teams, receive personalized notifications, and react alongside other fans.

Every play, player performance, and box score can become its own conversation. As John puts it, Real is “the community layer of sports data.”

“You can just feel the energy in the feed,” Louis said. “It’s like we’re capturing the excitement of a stadium inside the chat section of the data.”

When Betting Became Part of the Conversation

As Real's community grew, the brothers noticed another behavior emerging organically. Real’s real-time information and interactions also made it a natural companion for sports bettors.

About 75% of Real users who commented on player performances had left at least one comment clearly tied to betting.

“Data on Real is content, and we look at odds as content as well,” Louis said. “The more ways we can layer content into the product and give our community ways to engage around what they’re following, the better.”

Under a new partnership with FanDuel, betting odds will begin to appear throughout Real's live experience, including game feeds, player performance screens, and team box scores.

The initial integration will start during the 2026 NFL season.

“Some of the best parts of being a sports fan happen around the game—talking about what just happened, debating what comes next, and sharing those moments with other fans,” said Christian Genetski, President of FanDuel. “Real has built a great community around that experience. We’re excited to work with them and find new ways to make FanDuel a natural part of how fans follow and engage with sports."

John pointed to FanDuel's approach to consumer protection and its receptiveness to allowing Real members to toggle betting content off if they choose.

“What excites us is giving users who are already interested in betting a place to go deeper through the community and social engagement of sports,” John said.

What started as a 4 a.m. text exchange between John and Louis has grown into a place for fans to experience sports’ biggest moments together.

But there's one historic sports moment John wishes the platform was around to capture:

“Game 7. 2016 NBA Finals. LeBron,” he said. “That would have crashed the app, for sure.”

Real may have missed that one, but there are plenty of big moments ahead.

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