FanZone

Bet smart. Bet together. Bet Fanzone.

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Inspiration

You will never watch a game alone. This was our Curator's Cause in building FanZone. No matter which city you're in, with friends or at a bar for a solo drink, we want to make sure that you always find your people.

What it does

Welcome to FanZone, the social companion app that turns every game into a live, shared betting experience. Designed to allow you to bet on games while immersed in a watch party with friends halfway around the globe, make new friends over a round of sports in a new city, and be present in the moment all at the same time, this React-Native mobile app allows you to experience competition and predict player moves feeling like you're the main character in the middle of all the action!

Tech Stack

Frontend: React Native + Expo

Backend: Supabase PostgreSQL with real-time subscriptions

Auth: Supabase JWT with auto session refresh

Location: IP geolocation + fallback layers

Analytics: react-native-chart-kit for interactive stats

State/UI: Hooks, custom theming (colors, light/dark)

Challenges we ran into

We hit a roadblock with Expo Go's restrictions around native speech-to-text integration. Our vision included revolutionary voice betting: imagine shouting "50 bucks on Eagles touchdown, YES!" during a live play and having FanZone instantly process your bet. This would've set us apart from every other betting platform by making the experience as natural as cheering with friends. While Expo Go blocked this voice feature, we're actively developing a standalone app approach that will unlock this game-changing functionality!

Accomplishments that we're proud of

Our Live Game Experience: functional and beautiful, we took inspiration from professional game presentation with live indicators, team logos, real-time scores, and comprehensive game situation tracking. The 10-second refresh intervals ensure users never miss a betting opportunity during crucial game moments.

Live AI Betting: Real-time game tracking with AI-generated bets (yardage, play type, penalties). 10-sec refresh, high accuracy, fallback options if AI unavailable.

Location-Based Discovery: Auto city/state detection; Leaderboards featuring users in the country.

Watch Parties & Friends: Party screens, live chat, and leaderboards supporting hundreds of concurrent users.

Performance Stats: Tracks picks, accuracy, streaks, winnings; visualized with responsive line charts.

Premium UX: Adaptive themes, animated navigation, seamless screen transitions.

Security: Supabase Auth and encryption, robust error handling with offline fallbacks.

What we learned

Building features that refresh every 10 seconds taught us that milliseconds matter. We learned to optimize database queries and implement fallbacks that maintain majority app functionality.

Creating industry-level game cards and PrizePicks-inspired navigation taught us that users expect professional-grade design. Every animation, color choice, and interaction pattern contributes to building trust and engagement.

What's next for FanZone

Voice-Powered Betting Revolution We're building the standalone app that will finally unlock speech-to-text betting! Users will place bets by simply talking to their phone during a live game: "Next play touchdown, $50!" This natural interaction will revolutionize how people engage with sports betting.

AI-Powered Bet Intelligence Our BetGenerator will evolve into a machine learning system that analyzes player performance, weather conditions, and historical data to suggest optimal bets with high accuracy predictions. Users will have an AI betting coach right in their pocket, which learns from their betting style and approach to provide suggestions.

FanZone isn't just another betting app: we aimed to build the first step towards the future of social sports engagement. Here, technology amplifies the natural excitement that comes with watching games with friends.

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