She Plays: The App Changing the Game in Women’s Fantasy Sports

For many sports fans, fantasy sports apps are a way to keep up with player and team stats while having fun with your family or friends. They serve as a way to both bond and provoke rivalries, all in the name of sports. 

Although enjoyable, the unfortunate reality of fantasy sports is the lack of female league representation. To combat this, one app is making it its mission to be solely focused on women’s sports leagues. 

Say hello to She Plays, the fantasy sports app specifically designed for women’s sports leagues! 

Ashley Hart, Founder and CEO of She Plays, came up with the idea after noticing the real absence of female representation in fantasy sports. As a lifelong sports fan and player, fantasy sports have been a way for her to connect with her family and friends since she was a teen. 

“It made me sit and think about what was missing, what could be injected into the sports landscape that has worked to grow engagement on the men’s side,” Hart said. “And I noticed two things in researching… sports media attention was 4% for women’s sports, and I couldn’t find a single fantasy offering. That’s where She Plays began.”

The idea for She Plays began in May of 2018, and after time and involvement of some friends from college, Hart made the concept into reality in February 2019. At last, the app was ready to be revealed to the world! But then, the Covid pandemic hit, and live sports were canceled. 

Rather than give up, the group of friends created a SportsCenter-style late-night show on Twitch, focusing on content creation. The show eventually impacted their overall idea of the app, and they went back to the drawing board to make a few changes. Finally, in December of 2022, the She Plays season-long app debuted. It currently offers NWSL, WNFC, and PHF, fantasy leagues. 

“I’m still on the high from seeing players’ faces on the app for the first time,” Hart said. “It was an emotional moment. I won’t lie.” 

After a year of help from her friends, Hart was left on her own to keep the start-up running until something great happened. People who were curious and passionate about She Plays reached out, wanting to get involved in any way they could. So, a new team was born. Now with the addition of a Chief Content Editor and a Graphic Designer, she hopes to continue building her team. 

With a team’s effort, Hart even dabbled into the world of podcasts, creating everything from the original She Plays podcast, which covers the world of women’s sports and women in it, to a soon-to-be-launched fantasy-centric podcast. The new show will help new users navigate the world of fantasy sports and eventually provide game analysis for users playing on the app. 

Above all, Hart wants to bring fantasy games to the world of women’s sports and their loyal and growing fanbases. 

“It’s about bringing awareness to teams and players and leagues that deserve more attention than they get,” she said. 

While most season-long fantasy apps have a draft deadline that typically happens before the season begins, She Plays has gone another route. Instead of following this trend, the app offers rolling season starts that allow users to start their fantasy season and draft players even after the real season has begun. 

“People can watch a few weeks of games being played and learn some of the players to watch for, and then create a league or join a public one,” Hart said about their rolling season starts. 

She said this is especially helpful for the users playing and learning about fantasy sports for the very first time. 

“It’s an interesting, new dynamic. And if you’re like me, how I was with the NFL at least, there is one team I’m not drafting any players for because I don’t want a reason to root for that team at all,” she said. “So rivalries can stay true throughout fantasy.”

The app has seen great success since debuting a mere four months ago. They are now up to 1,200 people playing, and new users are downloading and joining She Plays weekly. 

Hart wants to continue seeing She Plays grow into a household name for women’s sports and a sponsor of women’s leagues, which has primarily been a male-dominated area. The team also wants to continue improving the overall user experience of the She Plays app with the latest tools and features. They plan to launch season-long basketball on the app later this month and are working on an NCAA Softball Pick’Em game for their website. 

Overall, the She Plays team wants its users to have fun. 

“We want them to feel connected to family, friends, and fellow fans in new ways,” Hart said. “We want them to learn a new way to look at the sports they’ve loved for years.”

The She Plays app is available on Google Play or the Apple App Store.

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