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StarzPlay Launches Free-To-Play Fantasy Sports Game In MENA
The game lets players make predictions on live Serie A matches and regional leagues in order to win prizes.
SVOD platform StarzPlay has introduced a new title known as Fantasy Sports in the MENA region, a free-to-play Web3 fantasy sports game.
Launched ahead of the 2023/24 Series A season, StarzPlay Fantasy Sports allows players to make score forecasts and predict possession percentages within the in-game arenas. Successful predictions enable players to win various prizes, including STARZ$, the in-game currency usable for acquiring NFTs.
In the future, the currency will be exchangeable for platform subscriptions, football merchandise, and even Serie A match tickets, complete with meet-and-greet sessions with football icons. While the game is essentially free to play, players have the option to buy and trade NFTs within the real-time marketplace. This empowers them to build distinct teams and boost their predictive abilities.
Alessandro Masaro, Chief Strategy Officer at StarzPlay, said, “StarzPlay Fantasy Sports is the first-of-its-kind blockchain service in the region which will give customers a new dimension to engage with sports while competing to win incredible prizes. Our goal is to make StarzPlay a hub for sports entertainment and provide users and rights holders with more opportunities to interact and build stronger and more valuable relationships. We believe this is the first step of a larger plan which will see StarzPlay Fantasy Sports expand into other leagues and sports in the near future”.
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The release of StarzPlay Fantasy Sports is noteworthy due to the title’s cutting-edge Web3 and blockchain technology. The game uses Amazon AWS as a serverless infrastructure to support the peak of users and provide a stable, high-quality experience during matches.
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Noon And Yango Switch On Robot Deliveries In Dubai
The rollout folds autonomous couriers into noon’s rapid-delivery network as the UAE tests everyday autonomy.
Noon and Yango Group have signed an agreement to put autonomous robot deliveries into commercial use in Dubai, turning Yango’s earlier pilots into a daily service for noon Minutes orders. The launch in Sobha Hartland is the first full integration of Yango Autonomy’s electric robots with a major e-commerce network in the region, with wider deployment planned across Dubai and, later, other GCC markets.
Residents can choose a robot at checkout, track it in the app and unlock its compartment once it arrives. The hardware runs on Yango’s AI navigation and routing stack, which plans paths, avoids obstacles and yields to pedestrians. The units had already covered more than 1,500 kilometers during previous Dubai pilots, a test bed that demonstrated their ability to operate in mixed pedestrian environments and dense residential streets.
The rollout adds a contactless option to noon’s last-mile network and is positioned as extra capacity during peak periods. “Partnering with Yango Group lets us bring a future-ready delivery option straight to our customers,” said Ali Kafil-Hussain, noon’s Chief Business Officer. Noon has used Minutes to set rapid-delivery expectations in UAE cities; autonomous units now slot into that same high-frequency model.
Regulatory clearance from Dubai’s Roads and Transport Authority underpins the move. The RTA authorized Yango’s robots to operate on public walkways and in neighborhoods, smoothing the shift from controlled trials to commercial work. Dubai has framed autonomous mobility as part of its smart-city buildout, and the partners lean on that agenda to accelerate integration.
Also Read: Uber And WeRide Roll Out Driverless Robotaxis In Abu Dhabi
For Yango, the partnership is an anchor for its autonomy platform in the Gulf. Islam Abdul Karim, Yango’s Middle East regional head, said the aim is to make autonomous delivery an “everyday, reliable service” for UAE communities. The company views operational data from early districts as the basis for scaling into more communities and, eventually, cross-border rollouts.
The move lands as Gulf retailers search for faster fulfilment and lower-emission logistics. Autonomous couriers remain a small share of last-mile delivery, but Dubai’s approvals and early usage data give the partners a clearer path to turn pilots into durable infrastructure.
