Eurosport milks football fever on Facebook

Eurosport is launching a Euro 2008-branded Facebook application in a bid to cash in on the tournament. It will allow users to predict the outcome of matches and create leagues to compete with their friends.

The application has been trialed on French Facebook, where it has signed up 78,000 users. Eurosport claims it is the most popular Euro 2008 application on the site. It will now be rolled out in five languages.

Users can predict all the results before the tournament starts or pick the winners of each match on a daily basis. It will also let groups set up leagues to see who is the most successful at guessing the results. The best player over the tournament will win a 42-inch plasma screen TV.

Euro 2008 starts on Saturday, when joint hosts Switzerland play the Czech Republic at St Jakob Park in Basel.