In the Apple TV+ series “Ted Lasso,” the characters Rebecca Welton (Hannah Waddingham) and Sam Obisanya (Toheeb Jimoh) download Bantr, a fictional dating app where users can’t see each other’s photos. Bumble, the female-centric dating app, has now partnered with ‘Ted Lasso’ to bring the Bantr experience to its users.
On Thursday, October 13, Bumble is launching a weekly “Bantr Live” experience, which mimics blind dating by having the user connect via chat without seeing what the potential match looks like.
“Bantr’s premise is a dating experience that many of our members have expressed interest in over the years. Bantr Live allows our community to connect with someone unexpectedly and learn more about a person before seeing- la. We hope people at Bumble will have fun with Bantr Live and connect and date in new and exciting ways,” Olivia Yu, Bumble’s global vice president of partnerships, said in a statement.
Every Thursday at 7:00 PM local time, users can RSVP to the weekly event in Bumble’s in-app date mode. Bumble will have an on-screen reminder with a countdown, letting users know when Bantr Live is launching. Once a user joins, they are randomly paired with someone and have three minutes to message a potential match. If things go well, users can choose to match, see each other’s photos, and continue the conversation in the app.
Bantr Live will be available to Bumble users for free in the US, Canada, UK and Australia. The experience will last until the end of the year.
Additionally, as part of the partnership, Bumble users can redeem a two-month subscription to Apple TV+.
Earlier this month, TechCrunch reported on Bumble’s new blind dating feature, which was being quietly tested in the UK. Now we know that this feature is called Bantr Live.
The feature competes with Tinder’s “Blind Date” feature, an anonymous chat experience, and its “Quick Chat” speed dating feature, which allows users to connect before they match.
As previously announced, characters from the Emmy-winning series appear in EA Sports’ recently released video game FIFA 23. Ted Lasso, Coach Beard, Sam Obisanya, Jamie Tartt, Dani Rojas, Roy Kent and Isaac McAdoo appear to the game