The popular school-days game of paper football has gone mobile, and brand sponsors are jumping on board.

Based on Zelosport?s table game of the same name, Finger Football lets users play paper football on their iPhone, iPod touch and iPad. The application, which was created by GripWire Inc., is an animated 3D representation of Zelosport?s Finger Football table game and will be promoted via mobile advertising.

?To date, Coors and Pepsi have asked to have their logos incorporated into the physical board game and have used them in corporate giveaways and store displays,? said Spud Alford, founder and chairman/CEO of Zelosport, Columbus, GA. ?We envision that the mobile application can have a much broader audience for corporate branding and advertising.

?Currently, Zelosport is in negotiations with Coca-Cola for a worldwide licensing deal starting with the World Cup soccer game that will be in both the physical and mobile versions of the game,? he said.

The only ads that are currently incorporated in the mobile game promote visits to the http://www.FingerFootball.com Web site to learn more about the physical products.

?As soon as Spud gives our company the green light to incorporate corporate assets into the game, Zelosport will be able to do something that no other physical board game company can do right now: provide real-time in-game statistics about how users interact with that brand or sponsor's assets, down to the location, number of impressions and clicks,? said Robert Frederick, CEO of GripWire, Seattle.

?Video and animated graphics exist in the game today and can easily be modified based upon the needs of the company,? he said.

Giving the finger
This application has camera rotations, play-by-play calls from the announcer, pinch and zoom capabilities to expand or shrink the field view and other features that enable the unique, mobile, tabletop gaming experience.

Currently, a player can play against the computer or a friend.

Players unfamiliar with the game have the option of entering a practice mode, where they can get a better feel of flicking a slider or kicking a field goal.

Finger Football lets users choose from multiple teams and configure elements of the game-play. The application contains a series of five videos that visually explain how to play the game.

Zelosport recommends that players start there, in order to learn the way the field is broken up into zones, how to roll the dice and how to complete successful passes and runs.

Age and gender do not matter on the Finger Field, which makes it easier for families to interact with a little friendly competition, according to Zelosport.

Future versions of the games will have Bluetooth, WiFi and Internet support, letting users play each other via multiple devices from across the room or around the world.

Players will even be able to send each other in-game messages and create teams that can play against one another.

Mobile Finger Football
This Finger Football application is the first of seven releases to come.

Zelosport is creating applications for a full line of sports, currently available as tabletop Finger Sports games at http://www.Fingerfootball.com.

Zelosport Finger Football is available for purchase in iTunes. It has been in the App Store since Feb. 5. Including the physical game, Zelosport's sales have topped 80,000 units worldwide.

?Zelosport's initial vision was to create family board games designed around the age-old paper football concept,? Mr. Alford said. ?Our hope was that our games would drive families back to the kitchen table playing games that create lasting memories.

?Transforming the game so that it worked on mobile devices allows us to drive awareness of our physical board game and it provides our company with a game running on devices that have global distribution,? he said.

?Our hope is to increase sales of our physical game and create multiplayer tournaments that can span the globe and augment what we are doing with the physical game.?

Zelosport's physical board games are made for ages 8 and up.

Mr. Alford said that previous tournaments have engaged ?kids? of all ages, 8-80, parents and grandparents, both genders.

The mobile application should duplicate that broad age range, but probably the core group will be in the range of 13-35, according to Zelosport.

Gripwire has been testing mobile ads within several of its clients applications, but so far has seen the most success by integrating house-ads within its own Streaming Radio application called FLRP, which has been in the top 100 Music category since its launch in December, and reached the top 50 in January.

The application has driven over 300,000 impressions, with thousands of those ads being clicked and users downloading apps created by GripWire for itself and its clients.

Mobile parnters
Finger Football is currently one of a handful of ads that GripWire displays in its applications.

Zelosport has acquired licenses from the NCAA and various professional leagues and has been endorsed by celebrities such as Brett Favre.

The company plans to develop a brand identity around Finger Sports, beginning with Finger Football, and following with similar branding and marketing across each mobile and physical game.

Cross-device multiplayer games will be possible after the next release, which plays into the overall tournament strategy that the partners have for the physical board game.

?We will also have chat and social networking support?posting to Facebook and Twitter?so that people will be able to share their in-game experiences with their friends worldwide,? Mr. Frederick said. ?As to ads promoting the app, we have reached out to bloggers, mobile app review Web sites, and have setup AdMob campaigns to spread the word when we are ready.

?We wanted to release the product, get feedback, update the app with a few new features and then turn on the marketing engine that will help make this game and the company a household name,? he said.