Gaming and watching the World Cup

The whole world has gone football crazy during the last couple of months with the build-up to the World Cup and even more so now that the Group stage is well underway. Already the holders of the 2010 World Cup — Spain — are out of this year’s tournament, even though they were one of the favourites to win. It just goes to show that nothing is certain in the world of football.

If you’re a keen gamer and you want to keep up with the World Cup action while you play, it’s easier than ever to do so this year. For instance, if you play games using a console like the Xbox One, the new TV integration feature called OneGuide allows you to keep track of exactly what’s going on with the World Cup matches whatever gaming you happen to be doing at the same time. OneGuide has a World Cup dashboard page called Destination Brazil and the Brazil Now snap app. Using the Brazil Now app enables you to snap real-time info and statistics about the World Cup games onto the side of your screen, while you are playing. It’s also possible to pull in the Twitter commentary too.

You can also livestream games using the BBC iPlayer on Xbox 360, PS4 and PS3, and on the PS3 you can watch the ITV games on the ITV Player app as well.

Whatever gaming you’re into, you’ll find that there’s a link to the World Cup somehow. Many of the internet gaming sites are offering different promotions themed around the football.

Bingo’s one of the best gaming choices while your main focus is on the World Cup. That’s because the game is so easy to play. You don’t have to do anything beyond buy your tickets — you’re either going to win or you’re not. And that allows you the freedom to do other things while you play bingo — be it watch the World Cup or something else entirely. Below are just a few examples of the bingo World Cup promos available.

• The bgo World Cup promotion is linked to the ambassador of bgo, Verne Troyer, who is ‘The Boss’ of the gaming site. The promotion is based on the premise that England won’t make it through to the final, or even past the group stages of the World Cup. For every step of progression that they do achieve, qualifying customers will receive a percentage of cash back on their bingo losses from games played during the tournament.
• Tidy Bingo players can enter a World Cup 2014 Sweepstake and if they happen to be allocated the winning team, they’ll get an extra credit of £15 when the final has been played.
• At Bingomania, players who are taking part in the site’s World Cup promo are allocated potential Golden Boot winners (the player who scores the most goals in the tournament) as well as a national team. Depending on how far their allocated player and team go, they’ll qualify for a different prize amount.

Die-hard football fans may be too wound up to do anything but watch the footie, but if you’re half-interested in what’s going on and want to carry on gaming in the meantime, there are plenty of different ways to mix gaming with the World Cup this year.