NFL Stars Steven Jackson and Stevie Johnson Choose PlayUp to 'Hang Out' with Fans During Super Bowl XLVI

NEW YORK, Feb. 3, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- PlayUp, the first social network app exclusively for sports fans, socializers and gamers, announced today it has teamed up with St. Louis Rams running back Steven Jackson and Buffalo Bills wide receiver Stevie Johnson to give fans a unique real-time interactive mobile experience around Super Bowl XLVI. Both stars have selected PlayUp as their preferred social media platform to interact with football fans during the biggest sporting event of the year.

On Super Bowl Sunday, Jackson and Johnson will be corresponding with fans all over the world by creating their own interactive virtual hangouts where fans can join and message with them about the action transpiring in Indianapolis, as Eli Manning and the New York Giants take on Tom Brady's New England Patriots in a rematch of the epic Super Bowl XLII in which the underdog Giants prevailed 17-14.

In addition to engaging with fans in their own public rooms, Jackson and Johnson will also be hopping to other rooms and chatting with additional football addicts. Jackson will be using his PlayUp username "sj39" and Johnson will be using "StevieJohnson13".

"We are thrilled that both stars are choosing PlayUp to engage with passionate football fans over the Super Bowl," said Dennis Lee, PlayUp USA CEO. "PlayUp is making it easier than ever before for sports fans to connect with each other, along with their favorite athletes. We know football fans will love having the chance to interact with these outstanding players. Both Stevie Johnson and Steven Jackson are great partners for PlayUp given their love for their fans and the way they have successfully used social media to connect with them."

Jackson came into the league in 2004 after being drafted out of Oregon State University. In 2005, he replaced Hall of Fame Running Back Marshall Faulk as the feature back, and he has rattled off seven straight 1,000 rushing seasons since, becoming the Rams all-time leading rusher. He's also compiled 60 rushing and receiving touchdowns in his prolific career.

Since being drafted in 2008 out of the University of Kentucky, Johnson has emerged as one of the game's brightest young stars, bringing his big-play ability to one of the league's up-and-coming offenses. Johnson's coming off his second consecutive 1,000 yard season, following his breakout 2010 campaign in which he caught 82 passes for 1,073 yards and 10 touchdowns. In 2011, he led the Bills with 76 receptions, 1,004 yards and seven touchdown grabs.

Off the field, both Jackson and Johnson have excelled at using social media to reach their fanbases. Jackson has more than 138,000 Twitter followers and almost 48,000 Facebook fans, while Johnson currently boasts more than 78,800 Twitter followers and 17,400 Facebook fans.

"I am extremely excited to be able to hang out and bond with my fans in the PlayUp app in real-time during the premier event on the sports calendar," said Johnson. "I love being able to use social media to relate with my fans in ways never before possible, and the PlayUp app is great in that it lets me connect with them over our shared passion – football. It should be a remarkable game. Hopefully next year football fans will be using PlayUp to praise my team while we're on our way to a Super Bowl victory!"

"The fans have been great to me, so being able to engage with them online for the Super Bowl will be pretty cool," added Jackson. "It should be a great game, and PlayUp's app will give us a chance to have a different experience during the game, one where we can watch, react and go back and forth on what's going on like never before. I'm looking forward to the conversation."

PlayUp launched in October and enables sports fans to follow their choice of more than 25,000 live games while simultaneously discussing the action with fellow fans on their mobile devices. The free app includes real-time scoring and stats, along with the option to create private rooms to discuss the action with friends or join public rooms to interact with fans from around the world – play by play and pitch by pitch – for every NFL, college football and basketball, NHL, NBA, MLB, and MLS game, as well as a variety of international leagues from around the globe. A recently launched web-based version allows usage of the platform by laptop and desktop computer users.

For more information on PlayUp, please visit www.playup.com. The PlayUp app can be downloaded in the iTunes Store.

About PlayUp:
PlayUp specializes in building mobile communities around sports. The company was founded by Australian entrepreneurs Luke Bunbury and George Tomeski in 2007 to develop mobile-based sports/social gaming applications. In 2010, PlayUp games were distributed in more than 20 countries in Europe, Asia and Africa. In 2011, PlayUp launched the first mobile-based social network dedicated to live sports. The resulting PlayUp social network is the first real-time, mass-market social gaming platform enabling users globally to interact via their mobile devices during live games. For more information, visit http://www.playup.com.

SOURCE PlayUp