A new Montreal startup has created a fantasy sports game allowing friends to compete against each other when Montreal Canadiens games are on the line.

It may be the most Montreal chatbot ever.

Created by LC Carrier and cofounder Thierry Skoda, Chatbet is a daily fantasy sports game on Facebook messenger with a hint of artificial intelligence (AI). Players can create their own leagues with friends or compete against other users.

Every time the Montreal Canadiens are playing, players will get a notification from Chatbet to set their lineup, much like traditional fantasy sports. User select players for any night’s lineup and gain points when a member of the beloved Canadiens scores in a real-life game.

“Chatbet allows you to play daily fantasy sports in a conversational UI,” Carrier told MTLinTECH. “You just start a conversation with Chatbet on Facebook messenger, you select a team and a sport and on every gameday Chatbet will ask you to pick a lineup of two offensive players and one defensive player.”

The game has an all-time leaderboard in which the leaders can win prize. Since Facebook messenger doesn’t allow people to monetize games through wagering, there’s no actual money involved in the game. However, league-leaders will likely begin to win prizes next month, like Amazon gift cards.

Carrier said eventually Chatbet will begin to reward league leaders with tickets to Habs games, beginning next month. Ultimately, he wants to expand the game to the entire NHL and other sports like the NBA and MLB.

“It’s only the beginning. We want to partner up with brands and companies that are selling to our target audience so we can reward our users,” said Carrier.

Wagering on fantasy sports is technically legal in Canada through companies like DraftKings and FanDuel. Companies in Canada have been said to operate in a “legal grey zone,” thanks to the government’s hands-off stance. Carrier said they’d likely have to negotiate with Facebook to allow wagering - but not until they have tons and tons of users.

Until then, the guys have seen some good numbers. Three-quarters of all firsrt-time players are staying with the game on a weekly basis while 55 per cent of users are active on every game day.

“We don’t have a retention problem,” said Carrier. “Just a customer acquisition problem.”

Carrier and Thierry are long-time Habs fans and long-time startup enthusiasts. Prior to Chatbet the pair created Whiteframe, a startup that helped people create user-generated content. They went through Concordia University’s District 3 and even won some accolades in the startup program. The pair spent a year there and ultimately scrapped the idea.

Carrier hopes more people will be open to playing fantasy sports within a chatbot experience.

“Most people have never used a bot for this. Chatbet was the first bot most of our users have ever interacted with, so we invite people to join us and not to be scared to have fun with them.”