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NBA Thrillers, Men’s College Nail-biters Lead Thuuz Sports February Most Exciting Rankings

Thuuz Sports, the most powerful automated video highlights production platform for worldwide sports, today announced their February Top 10 most exciting games across all broadcast sports events. While the Patriots Super Bowl win and the NBA and NHL All-Star Games missed the list, the NBA and college hoops dominated for the second month of the year, with both Miami Heat vs Golden State Warriors matchups making the list. LSU was on the list twice, winning two nail-biters, and three Boston games made the Top 10.

Using their custom designed algorithms to measure real-time event excitement, Thuuz will provide a unique look into what games have gotten fans the most excited and engaged as 2019 rolls along.

The game excitement ratings are measured on a 0 to 100 scale and take into consideration game pace, team parity, play novelty, momentum shifts, social buzz, and historical context. The algorithms behind the excitement ratings are statistically calibrated to insure the appropriate distribution of ratings across the duration of a season or course of a tournament.

“We head to March Madness, but February was all about basketball,” said Thuuz CEO Warren Packard. “It is always amazing to show how even regular season games can bring the most excitement, while some of the games we anticipate the most, like the Super Bowl, can fall short. We look forward to seeing what will dominate and surprise once again this month, using our custom ranking system.”

Using the Thuuz excitement measurement platform, the top ten most exciting games were:

1. West Virginia 104, TCU 96 (NCAAMB): 2/26: WVU outlasted TCU in a triple OT showdown in Big 12 conference play. WVU had 4 players play over 50 minutes in the game, led by Derek Culver who ended the game with 22 points and 21 rebounds.

2. Boston 6, San Jose 5 (NHL): 2/18: Controversial ending saw the Bruins score a tying goal against the Sharks with under two minutes remaining in regulation, a goal that should have been called off for a high touch. Hockey legend “Jumbo” Joe Thornton scored his 1st hat trick in 9 years, and did it against the Bruins, the team that drafted him. Young D-man Charlie McAvoy won the game for Boston in OT.

3. Duke 71, Louisville 69 (NCAAMB): 2/12: Louisville was winning 59-36 with under 10 min left in the 2nd half, before Zion Williamson and Duke began a massive comeback that ended in a 2-point victory. Duke freshman Cam Reddish made 2 FT’s with 15 seconds remaining to give Duke their 1st lead since they were up 21-20 in the 1st half. A defensive stand after those FT’s led to an improbable Duke victory.

Mike Krzyzewski (DoD photo by D. Myles Cullen)

4. LSU 73, Kentucky 71 (NCAAMB): 2/12: #19 LSU defeated #5 Kentucky on a controversial buzzer-beating tip-in for their 1st win over Kentucky since 2009. This incredibly close game was within 5 points for the final 14 minutes of the game, as the 2 SEC rivals went back and forth in a conference showdown.

5. LSU 82, Tennessee 80 (NCAAMB): 2/23: After a crucial foul by Tennessee with less than a second remaining, LSU’s Ja’vonte Smart drained the go-ahead FT’s and as Tigers beat the Vols in OT. This was LSU’s 2nd victory in 2 weeks over a top-5 SEC team. Smart scored a career-high 29 points in the win.

6. Los Angeles Lakers 129, Boston Celtics 128 (NBA): 2/7: The NBA’s 2 most historic franchises played a nail-biter in Boston that saw former Celtic Rajon Rondo hit a jump shot at the buzzer to down his former team. LeBron James led the Lakers with a 28-12-12 triple-double.

7. Golden State 120, Miami 118 (NBA): 2/10: The Warriors were down by 19 before staging a massive comeback and withstanding a late Miami push to win by 2. KD hit a tying 3-pointer for his 25th point in the 2nd half, before getting away with a double-dribble that led to a DeMarcus Cousins offensive rebound and game winning FT’s.

8. Miami 126, Golden State 125 (NBA): 2/27: Miami Heat star Dwayne Wade hit the most improbable one-legged, buzzer-beating bank-shot to give the Heat a 1-pt victory. The rematch between these 2 teams saw a very similar storyline play out. The Warriors were down early in the game once again, this time by 24, before staging a huge comeback and holding a 2-pt lead with 8 seconds remaining before Wade sank the Warriors with his game-winner.

9. Oklahoma City 148, Utah 147 (NBA): 2/22: OKC came out on top in this double OT thriller behind 88 combined points from their superstars: Russ and PG13. PG13 owned OT as he had a windmill dunk and the eventual game-winning floater with 0.8 seconds remaining over last season’s defensive player of the year, Rudy Gobert.

10. Milwaukee 98, Boston 97 (NBA): 2/21: Two Eastern Conference favorites battled in a low-scoring playoff atmosphere as a Khris Middleton hit a critical 3-pointer in the last minute to give the Bucks a lead they wouldn’t relinquish. The Greek Freak led the Bucks with 30 points and 13 rebounds as they improved to 30 games above .500 with this win.

TCL Tips-Off College Basketball Tournament with The Final 4K Madness Giveaway

TCL®, one of the world’s best-selling and America’s fastest-growing television brands, announced it is giving away 4K TVs each week of March during the 2019 college basketball tournament. The TCL Final 4K Madness Giveaway will feature a simple point of entry for hoops enthusiasts while offering dedicated fans several ways to improve their chances of winning a 55-inch 4K TV.

Beginning today until March 29, each week a winner will be randomly selected among fans who have entered here or through TCL’s social media sites*. One 55-inch 4K TCL Roku TV™ with HDR will be given away each week, for a total of four winners.

“With out-of-the-box stunning picture, our award-winning TCL Roku TVs gives fans access to college basketball games and a perfect centerpiece to enjoy the tournament at home,” said Chris Larson, Senior Vice President, TCL North America. “Everyone should have an opportunity to enjoy our lineup of popular TVs and the Final 4K Madness Giveaway is a fun and easy way for fans to win a viewing experience that’s second to none.”

TCL’s 4K Roku TVs are packed with options for basketball fans to catch all their favorite college and pro teams from home with access to subscription services that provide out-of-market games, live and on-demand streaming through your cable or satellite provider, as well as free channels with sports highlights and live games for those without cable subscriptions. Remaining loyal to cord cutters, TCL TVs were designed to include a TV tuner and offer access to popular network TV and live sports in high definition over the air at no additional cost**.

In addition to the premium basketball lineup and content schedule, the award-winning 4K TCL Roku TV puts all your entertainment favorites in one place, allowing seamless access to over 500,000 movies and TV episodes, your cable box, gaming console, and other devices through a clean, intuitive interface in a sleek modern design.

Fans can enter the Final 4K Madness Giveaway throughout the month of March and winners will be announced on: Friday, March 8th; Friday, March 15th; Friday, March 22nd; and Friday, March 29th at 5:00pm PT.

*TCL USA on Facebook and YouTube, TCL_USA on Instagram and Twitter, TCL Newsletter.

** Antenna for high-definition broadcast reception each sold separately

One Time Poker Launches with “Become A Pro” Contest

OneTimePoker(OTP) has officially launched on the Microgaming Poker Network (MPN) and right out of the starting gate has launched a novel campaign which shows the prowess of its experienced management team. You will have a chance to become a Pro Ambassador in their “Become A Pro” promotion.

Become A Pro is a promotion where OTP customers are evaluated by an independent panel who will award 3 players a pro ambassador contract – the very same one the current OTP pro team has in place. The promotion kicks off March 7th, running through the end of April. Players can sign up here now and register to be a part of the most exciting poker competition in years.

OTP was founded by Randall Kasper, Casey Jarzabek, and Jeff Maxon and management also includes Anthony Taylor, the former CEO of the Merge Gaming Network. Combine that with a highly accomplished and well-respected Pro Ambassador team led by Canadian pro Danny Noseworthy, and all the ingredients for success seem to be present.

The OTP group has a long history of accomplishments on the business side of the poker and gaming industry. OTP also has two casinos, one built right into the client and one external which includes a full array of slots and table games, including a number of live-dealer tables.

Kasper was the founder of Poker Players International and has represented hundreds of professional live and online poker pros from around the world. He has also represented corporate clients seeking to attract liquidity from the poker community, Bestbet, and DraftKings, being two examples of tremendous success.

“We have seen firsthand, what has and what hasn’t worked for poker sites for more than ten years now. We are always going to do right by the player and everything good for us will flow from that,” commented Kasper.

Jarzabek is not only an accomplished online poker player, with over $5 Million in earnings, but is also the founder of Tournament Poker Edge, the world’s leading online poker tournament instructional site. He’s also been the pro team manager for several sites, with tremendous success in customer acquisition and satisfaction.

“We want our players to succeed, and to experience a sense of community while they enjoy and learn the game they love. That’s one reason we decided to make our first promotion Become A Pro, because it recognizes the players. Our Pro Ambassadors are our link to the community, great examples of professionalism and we want to highlight and expand our team and reward players who stand out amongst the competition along the way,” added Jarzabek.

Maxon is a tried and true veteran businessman, with two decades of Wall Street experience in global business within and outside the gaming space.

“We are grateful for our opportunity to show players we care. This initial promotion is just one of many to come where we will do just that. We will not make them jump through hoops or spend a ton of money to be treated well, hence our decision to award automatic maximum rakeback and top tier deposit bonuses. We’re looking forward to growing our community and our brand to become a major force in the industry, and it all starts with how we treat our customers. With partners like MPN and GiG, and our experienced management and ambassadors, the sky is truly the limit,” concluded Maxon.

Taylor, as mentioned, was CEO of Merge Network which experienced explosive growth under his supervision.

Who To Follow in Sports Business On Twitter? There Is A List For That…

There is always a question as to who the must follows in and around sports business are on a platform like twitter. John Wall Street, a platform that covers the space, unveiled a pretty comprehensive list that includes people from gaming and gambling, media, news, and technology. Take a look and share away https://johnwallstreet.com/top-100-sportsbiz-twitter-follows/

Crypto Boxers Debut New Logo, Website, TKO Game Plan

Crypto Boxers, the first and only boxing game operating on blockchain technology, continues to make strategic moves around the virtual ropes. Concept creator Andrew Gilliam, founder and CEO of Me N’ Mines Media, has come out swinging with a defiant new logo; a new website (http://cryptoboxers.io/), designed by independent game development studio, PlayStakes; and a TKO game plan to bring “real boxing to the blockchain.” Pushing the technology envelope beyond what is currently available in the crypto gaming space, Crypto Boxers has gamers in feverish anticipation as it will feature real life boxers as collectible tokens for the virtual fighting action on Ethereum.

Crypto Boxers’ new logo now promotes the player as the ultimate crypto contender, switching the emphasis off the professional boxers and over to the gamer. The dynamic new website provides a preview into Crypto Boxers’ fully immersive, user friendly world where gamers will experience a fantasy boxing arena and engage in an interactive “gloves on” ring experience with the boxer of their choice.

“They said it couldn’t be done but we are doing it,” reveals Gilliam. “After 459 rejections, I now have major commitments, partners and growing interest from professional boxers who are calling us now. We are the first professional sports game on blockchain, and we plan to go every round! The logo and website are just a teaser of what is yet to come.”

Round4RoundBoxing, LatinoAthlete, FightTyme, and RichPlaceMedia are the first official partners to be announced by Crypto Boxers. Crypto Boxers will be releasing the names of confirmed professional boxers, boxing officials and judges that will be in the game soon. Some of the current talks with professional boxers include legendary champs like Evander Holyfield, Larry Holmes, Michael Spinks and Antonio Tarver, along with currently active champs Terrance Crawford and female boxer Christina Hammer.

Fast Company Names Top Sports Innovators

Fast Company has announced its 2019 World’s Most Innovative Companies by sector, including sports. Its list is a mix of leagues (NBA), teams (Flyers, Dodgers), media companies (Copa90) and more.

The list is available here, with Gritty the mascot (@GrittyNHL) vaulting the Philadelphia Flyers into the third spot and Levy’s quest to make ballpark food affordable landing the restaurant group in fourth.

The NBA nabbed the top spot, with the editor’s note of the Association’s “improving the game both on and of the court.” The NBA is, for sure, a hot property among sports leagues these days, and though ratings—both national and regional—are down, the growth of its augmented reality app and the NBA 2K league are keeping it growing among the younger set (something all leagues are desperately trying to achieve).

MGM Resorts International‘s “betting big on the future of U.S. sports gambling” earned the hospitality and entertainment behemoth the 10th slot.

Reuters expands sports offering with content partnerships with the Players’ Tribune, AFLO, Panoramic, Sporting Images and MB Media

Reuters, the world’s largest international multimedia news provider, announced today that it is further expanding its sports content offering to Reuters News Agency customers through multimedia partnerships with the Players’ Tribune, AFLO, Panoramic, Sporting Images and MB Media. These new partnerships add to a growing roster of sports partners on Reuters Connect at the same time that Reuters own sports coverage is expanding, making Reuters Connect an essential tool for sports desks.

Through these new partnerships, Reuters News Agency customers will have access to candid athlete video interviews via the Player’s Tribune; more than 50,000 curated archival images from Sporting Images; more than 6,000 player headshots through MB Media; and regional photo coverage from Japan via AFLO and France via Panoramic.

“Reuters Connect has become an essential tool in every newsroom and adding these partners to the already impressive roster of sports contributors makes it easier than ever for sports desks to license the visuals that help them cut through the noise and tell their stories in more captivating ways,” said Rob Schack, Vice President, Reuters Sports.

Content from the Players’ Tribune, AFLO, Panoramic, Sporting Images and MB Media is available to Reuters News Agency customers exclusively on Reuters Connect. Launched in 2017, Reuters Connect is designed to be a faster, more intelligent way for Reuters News Agency customers to source all the content they need via a single destination. Reuters Connect is built to make content discovery quicker and easier, improving clients’ editorial efficiency and enabling them to deliver more stories to their audiences faster than ever before.

For more information on Reuters Connect and its growing list of partners visit https://agency.reuters.com/en/reuters-connect.html

Chattanooga Football Club Surpasses $500,000 Mark In First 30 Days of Public Offering

Chattanooga Football Club, a growing, disruptive and innovative established club in the National Premier Soccer League (NPSL) today announced that they have exceeded the $500,000 dollar mark in the sale of limited public stock in the club in the first 30 days of the offering. They are the first American sports team to do so since the securities reform laws passed in late 2016 allowed such investments. Proceeds from the limited offering of 8,000 shares will support the club’s move from amateur to professional players and year-round operation.

“We remain impressed and overwhelmed with the breadth and scope of this project means not just for Chattanooga FC, but for community sports clubs in America in general,” said said Tim Kelly, club chairman. “We have not done this frivolously or in a vacuum; this is an investment in a soccer club with solid business and community ties and a vision for success on and off the pitch, and we know that is key in trying and succeeding to this point. The ROI on this investment, big or small, is in the people and the community. We are nowhere done, but we are proving the concept works, and that’s very exciting.”

While a majority of the investment is local (within the Chattanooga metro area), a significant amount (44% of the people, 37% of the dollars) are from beyond that area. That includes investment from over 44 states and 10 countries, as far away as Japan, Australia and Africa. Some of the bolder face names to come public with investing are former MLS star and current NBC Sports Premier League commentator Kyle Martino and Stephan Szymanski, author of Soccernomics and Money in Soccer, and a highly respected professor at the University of Michigan.

Founded in 2009, Chattanooga Football Club has drawn nearly 350,000 fans to its games at Finley Stadium over the course of the last ten seasons. In 2019, the club will play an extended season with professional players in the NPSL Founders Cup, and fully launch the league in 2020.

With the passage of the Jobs Acts in late 2016, Section CF crowdfunding allows non-accredited investors to make investments in corporations from a simple, online platform. Chattanooga Football Club is the first sports team to offer shares, and one of only a handful of teams to ever offer public ownership. While the practice is common in the rest of the world- even mandatory in the German Bundesliga- it is rare in the US. Cutting Edge Capital, a strategic capital consulting company has advised on the process.

Fans and interested investors can go to wefunder.com/chattanoogafc for full details on the stock offering.

NBA EASTERN and WESTERN CONFERENCE FINALS CREATE DREAM MATCH-UPS FOR FANS, BETTORS

by: Terry Lyons @terrylyons

MyTopSportsbooks.com Posts Odds on NBA Conference Finals

BOSTON – When the Boston Celtics eliminated the up-and-coming Philadelphia 76ers in an exciting 114-112 Game 5 victory Wednesday night, NBA fans were presented two dream match-ups for the Eastern and Western Conference Finals, with the Cleveland Cavaliers and Celtics scheduled to begin their series in Boston on Sun, May 13th (3:30pm ET) and the Warriors traveling to Houston to begin their series against the Rockets on Mon, May 14th (9:00pm et).

Sports fans and gaming insiders are turning to the most reliable and accurate odds/information source available online at MyTopSportsbooks.com for an unprecedented list of information, odds and analysis.

Analysts at MyTopSportsbooks.com posted the following Odds regarding the NBA’s Eastern and Western Conference Finals with a look towards the 2018 NBA Finals:

NBA Title Odds (May 10th)

– Warriors: 6/5

– Rockets: 11/7

– Cavaliers: 7/1

– Celtics: 30/1

Likelihood of All Potential NBA Finals Match-ups (Odds on Favorite to win in brackets)

– Warriors vs. Cavaliers: 8/5 (Warriors to be 1/3 favorite vs. Cavs 3/1)

– Rockets vs. Cavaliers: 13/6 (Rockets to be 4/7 favorite vs. Cavs 7/4)

– Warriors vs. Celtics: 5/1 (Warriors to be 1/7 favorite vs. Celtics 7/1)

– Rockets vs. Celtics: 13/2 (Rockets to be 2/9 favorite vs. Celtics 9/2)

Boston Celtics (vs. Cavs) Odds in NBA Eastern Conference Finals:

– Odds to Win Game 1 (only): 12/1

– Odds to Win Series: 7/3

Comparison of Odds if Celtics, with healthy roster, vs. Cavs:

– If Gordon Hayward and Kyrie Irving were healthy: 5/6 vs Cavs

– If just Kyrie Irving were healthy: 20/19 vs Cavs

– Celtics current roster odds: 7/3

NBA Western Conference Finals Series Odds:

– Warriors: 7/10

– Rockets: 10/7

About MyTopSportsbooks.com

MyTopSportsbooks.com (MTS) is a free service that keeps online sports bettors informed, as it offers unbiased reviews of online sportsbooks. The expert odds-making and betting review staff at MTS has over 17 years of first-hand betting experience through various providers. The MTS experts have made it their mission to share the most reliable and rewarding online betting sites, expert analysis, and odds information with both new and experienced bettors.

See: https://www.mytopsportsbooks.com/free-picks/nba-basketball/2018-nba-conference-finals-preview-prediction/

Trump For Legalizing Sports Gambling? AGA President Thinks So

by Tanner Simkins @TannerSimkins

Data Integrity, Future of Sports Gambling Discussed at MLB Winter Meetings

Amidst the trade talk, job searching and awards being doled out at this week’s Baseball Winter Meetings in Washington this week was a look to the future; and an interesting look into how baseball is protecting itself and its reputation, by investing in a global data integrity company that works with…yes, legalized gambling in other parts of the world.

The presentation by London-based Genius Sports, with an assist from the American gaming Association, was yet another step towards enlightening people…media, club officials, other interested parties all in attendance…about the legal and illegal betting market globally, and the steps being taken to look to a future of legal sports betting in the United States with an eye, a very smart eye, on protecting the game from any improprieties that may currently be going on as millions is wagered on baseball and other sports around the world.

Ben Paterson, head of integrity for Genius Sports, told the company has used 10 years of baseball data as a base to detect corruption and works with bookmakers worldwide prior to and as games are played to investigate suspicious gambling activity that could be a clue to game fixing and other nefarious activities. Has anything strange popped up in the States thus far?

While he wouldn’t say, it is safe to say that MLB has looked to recent game fixing scandals in Asia in professional baseball and saw the opportunity to set in with a smart and massive professional engagement that is both insurance and security as MLB looks to again expand its borders globally even more, especially with the upcoming World Baseball Classic.

“Our company bridges the gap between Major League Baseball and sports betting,” Paterson said, while adding that $55 billion is legally wagered on baseball each year, a small percentage of the total amount bet on games when illegal betting is included.

The question, a billion dollar one, remains when will sports betting on baseball or any sport become legal outside of Nevada in the United States.
“We have heard the President-elect (Donald Trump) say on numerous times that he is supportive of repealing PASPA (Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act) and making sports betting legal as a way to bring more into the economy, and we are very encouraged by that,’ said Geoff Freeman, CEO of the Washington-based American Gaming Association. The AGA continues to be more proactive in the past year in pushing for reform and legalization of sports betting, and that the topic is compelling enough for Congress to conduct hearings in 2017. Protecting the data of any league, Freeman added, was essential to get lawmakers to move forward. “If there is no integrity in the sport, nobody wants to bet and nobody even wants to see the game. That’s why the industry thinks this is so important.”

Again when exactly all this happens is still up for debate, with most experts saying 2018 could be a key year, whether the legalization is left to States or goes to the preferred system of a Federally monitored system.

Is there progress? Just think about the fact that gambling and baseball were discussed openly in front of a packed house at the official winter soiree for “America’s pastime,’ and there was no wringing of hands or wagging of fingers. It shows that the current regime in sports is open to change and the revenue that could go with it, and that is certainly eye opening for the lords of baseball.

BREAKING NEWS: NY BANS DAILY FANTASY SPORTS

Attorney General Tells Daily Fantasy Sports to Stop Taking Bets in New York

The New York State attorney general on Tuesday ordered the two biggest daily fantasy sports companies, DraftKings and FanDuel, to stop accepting bets from New York residents, saying their games constituted illegal gambling under state law.

The cease-and-desist order by the attorney general, Eric T. Schneiderman, is a major blow to a multibillion-dollar industry that introduced sports betting to legions of young sports fans and has formed partnerships with many of the nation’s professional sports teams. Given the New York attorney general’s historic role as a consumer-protection advocate, legal experts said the action will most likely reverberate in other states where legislators and investigators are increasingly questioning whether the industry should operate unfettered by regulations that govern legalized gambling.

In 2006, Congress tried to crack down on illegal online sports betting. Today, Internet wagering is thriving, and a new business that resembles gambling, fantasy sports, is winning millions of players and stoking controversy. The Times, with the PBS series “Frontline,” investigated illegal gambling in the Internet age.
Fantasy sports companies contend that their games are not gambling because they involve more skill than luck and were legally sanctioned by a 2006 federal law that exempted fantasy sports from a prohibition against processing online financial wagering. That view is increasingly being challenged as fantasy sites have begun offering million-dollar prizes and bets on individual sports, such as golf, mixed martial arts and Nascar races, magnifying the element of chance and making the exemption more difficult to defend.

On Tuesday afternoon, as news of the attorney general’s order began to trickle out, DraftKings sent an email to its players, saying, “Attorney General Eric Schneiderman is considering preventing New Yorkers from playing daily fantasy sports,” and added: “Hey, New York, protect your right to keep playing daily fantasy sports. Contact the attorney general today!”

Sabrina Macias, a spokeswoman for DraftKings, said, “We’re disappointed he hasn’t taken the time to meet with us or ask any questions about our business model before his opinion.” She said the company had 500,000 users in New York State.

Eric Soufer, a spokesman for the attorney general, disputed Ms. Macias’s account, and said the attorney general’s office had multiple meetings with representatives from DraftKings before the order was issued.In a statement, FanDuel said: “Fantasy sports is a game of skill and legal under New York state law. This is a politician telling hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers they are not allowed to play a game they love and share with friends, family, co-workers and players across the country.”

TDP Exclusive: Vulcun Looking To Seize The eSports Fantasy Niche

Vulcun Looking To Seize The eSports Fantasy Niche

This past week the two phenomena chasing the sports and entertainment industry, eSports and Daily Pay fantasy, came crashing into each other as both DraftKings and Fan Duel announced deals or initiatives to put themselves into the space, and Turner and IMG/William Morris Endeavor announced their own deal to create a “league” in the space.
At the same time another startup in the melded world of ESports Fantasy was making their case at the OnDeck Sports Conference in New York. It is Vulcun, an up and running esports Fantasy business run out of the Bay area.

Vulcun allows you to win money playing daily fantasy eSports on titles like League, DOTA2, CS:GO, CoD and more. To date this year Vulcun has distributed over $7 million in prizing to 150,000+ winners. We caught up with Ed Chang is the VP of Business Development at Vulcun to talk about the space, the opportunity and where it is going.

Vulcun appears to have seized a suddenly very hot niche, what is the value proposition offered vs. the larger traditional daily fantasy companies entering the market? What makes you work better?

I believe that we understand eSports better than the other large players. We understand that it’s not as simple as duplicating the fantasy football or basketball playbook. We’ve also managed to nail down the community part much better than the others and it shows in the amount of engagement on our different properties at all times.

Egaming is very much not the traditional sports play. Why would fantasy egaming work?

Why wouldn’t it? Anytime there’s actionable stats there’s the potential for fantasy. Each game has kills, assists, deaths and its own unique stats like flag captures, minions killed, gold spent, mana crystals unused, damage per round, etc. Not to mention the worldwide appeal of eSports, with huge fan followings and hundreds of millions of eyeballs

How is the audience different from say, football or baseball fantasy? Younger, global?

Generally 18-34 year old males. eSports is truly global, as opposed to sports like American Football (huge in the US), soccer (bigger in Europe and South America), etc. Also, eSports world championships (like the League of Legends World Championships, The International for DOTA2, Majors for CS:GO) bring the best from all around the world and happen yearly.

Who are the players and properties people should watch for?

Currently the top eSports are League of Legends, Counter-Strike:Global Offensive, DOTA2 and Hearthstone. Titles to keep an eye on are Call of Duty:Black Ops 3, Halo 5 (both studios are making huge investments in eSports in 2016), Vainglory (first mobile game in my opinion that has a chance to be an eSports) and Rocket League (just really fun).

Is there a worry that a young audience would not have the access to cash that a traditional Daily Pay Fantasy player would have?

The demographic that DFeS has is very similar to DFS. At the end of the day, with the DFS model you’re reliant on a small group of whales/sharks (those losing and winning lots of money on the platform) and an ocean of fish (people that play infrequently or rarely in small amounts).

There is a misconception that “egaming” is one entity, when in reality it is more like the Olympics. Fans of DOTA don’t play or follow World of War Craft, like skating fans may not follow skiing. How do you scale egaming fantasy as a business with that in mind?

eSports is also like your Olympics example, where when I’m sitting on the couch watching and figure skating is over and curling is on, I’ll watch some of it. Sometimes, hockey comes on instead and I’m hooked. Anecdotally, I’ve seen us be able to convert League of Legends into Call of Duty fans because League isn’t in season and they want something to play. With our digital skins stuff we’re doing, we’ve gotten thousands of users to purchase Counter-Strike because they’ve won items and wanted to see what the fuss is about.

What are some of the success stories in egaming fantasy? Whats games have seen an uptick in fantasy?

Earlier this year we had the first $100k DFeS winner (http://venturebeat.com/2015/06/19/vulcun-gives-its-first-100k-prize-to-a-fantasy-esports-player/) and today we have many. We’ve given . One semi-surprising game that we’ve seen surprising numbers on is Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare. It’s a huge franchise, but most of the anticipation is for Black Ops 3 coming out, and the MLG league was the only one that was running, but numbers have been great.

You talked about owned currency and the purchase of items by fans. That is something that traditional fantasy does not have. How does that factor into the value of running an egames fantasy business?

It allows us to do a lot more. As our focus shifts beyond being a one-trick DFeS pony, we’re in a world where we can give rewards that are arguably more valuable than cash without dealing with supply chain or shipping and handling issues. We’re getting closer and closer to our goal of being a platform making eSports 100X more fun.

Has a lot of research gone into seeing if the fans want to play fantasy or is it more anecdotal at this point?

I’m not sure the method to the madness that Ali and Murti (co-founders of Vulcun) used to arrive to the conclusion of building the FanDuel/Draftkings for eSports in the first place but our numbers back up our funding and the hype. One of our core company values is speed – speed in building products, speed in getting things done and also speed in quickly figuring out if something’s working or not.

What is the esports fantasy market now vs. where you think it will be in two years, and why?

According to this report it’ll be $20mm in entry fees on 600,000 users. I think it has the potential to be 5-10x as big, due to current eSports growth numbers and the entrant of big players.

What do you think about the Turner announcement this week? Do you think egamers will actually migrate back to broadcast after so many have said that platforms like Twitch are where the fans are?

I think most people who have been involved in eSports long enough have a similar approach – cautiously optimistic. We’ve been here before and we’ve been burned before with DirecTV and the CGS. I think it’ll be difficult to bring gamers back to broadcast — all industry studies show that the younger generation is cutting the cord. Less than 10% of my friends currently pay for cable and I think that number will continue to trend downwards and I don’t think 2 10-week CS:GO seasons a year is enough to convince someone to shell out $50+ a month.

Lastly for Vulcun, what would make for a successful business story a year from now?

We’ve successfully transitioned into an end-to-end eSports platform. And we buy DraftKings.

Fantasy Soccer On the Rise? @TheDailyPayoff

Fantasy Soccer On the Rise?

While most European clubs are making their offseason friendly visits to far away ports of call in Asia and North America, MLS continues to play through the summer, heading to its all-star game in Colorado next week, where the league’s elite players will match up this year against Tottenham Hotspur. Regardless of where soccer is being played this week, it looks like the fantasy aspect of “The Beautiful Game” is suddenly rising quickly.

This past week Univision Deportes entered the fantasy soccer business, with a game based on Mexico’s Liga MX, which kicks off its season Friday and is the most-watched league in the U.S according to Univision numbers. The program will offer prizes including personalized soccer scarves and weekly cash payouts of $100. A grand prize at the end of the season includes an all-expenses-paid trip to the network’s sports-awards show Premios Deportes and a spot in the 2016 fantasy talent league.

Whether the followers of Liga MX will take to fantasy soccer is up for debate. Soccer in North America and its fantasy offerings have been slow to take hold in comparison to baseball, football and basketball, and the majority of the success in fantasy soccer has come from one company, Boston and UK based Mondogoal, which has taken the route of partnering with many of the elite clubs in Europe to build pay fantasy offerings, creating a game for global fans, many of whom can already bet legally and understand the gaming/gambling process, as well as to the growing number of American fans who are interested in pay fantasy and can now connect even closer to their favorite clubs like AS Roma, Chelsea and Liverpool among others. Mondogoal also had a very successful launch with pay fantasy games for both Women’s World Cup as well, further strengthening their soccer-specific offerings for a worldwide audience. Their stance on applying the American pay fantasy model to the massive club followings appeared to be, and still appears to be unique and well thought out in the space, with more deals expected in the coming months.

However as the week came to a close Friday, yet more fantasy soccer business news arose, as Major League Soccer announced a partnership with DraftKings in both the United States and Canada. While neither unique nor exclusive, the partnership will give DraftKings yet more marketing coverage on the continent, again with the hope that a wide blanket will create an affinity with more casual players new to the fantasy marketplace.

Whether fantasy soccer can reap an ROI in North America for DraftKings or even Univision remains to be seen. The sport does not have the deep analytics that other team sports has, and the audience in the U.S., although growing, is still behind the other four professional sports in terms of media interest and fan engagement. Still the risk for both companies is relatively low, and if the market comes and fantasy soccer in the States takes off, they have the model to reap the benefits. If not, it is a small venture with little lost.

“The increasingly popular daily fantasy sports space is a proven fan development tool that we’re excited about,” said Gary Stevenson, President and Managing Director of MLS Business Ventures in a statement. “You’ll see deep integration within our many digital platforms and you’ll see a number of club deals. We are delighted to partner with DraftKings to give our passionate fans another innovative way to experience the sport that they love.”

The move for DK is consistent with their philosophy of trying to be everywhere in every sport to lure casual fantasy players to a pay model. While Fan Duel CEO Nigel Eccles has been steadfast in his insistence that his company, with the largest number of daily players, will stick to refining its model for the NBA and the NFL, Jason Rollins has led Draft Kings to deals ranging from the UFC to now MLS, as well as fantasy golf and their ever-growing investment in MLB pay fantasy as well as massive marketing spends around events like the Belmont Stakes. The company has also applied for a license to run a business in the United Kingdom, which could also signal an interest in growing its soccer offerings outside of North America for the first time. Right now, it is believed that Mondogoal is the only company licensed both in the U.S. and the UK, but the model appears to be changing for other players willing to get their kicks in the marketplace.

Does the sudden flurry of activity mean fantasy soccer is now a comer for business? Not yet, but it will be intriguing to see if media or large players in the space invest more in soccer as the fall comes and global interest turns closer to the world’s elite clubs. If that niche can continue to be exploited then maybe, just maybe, fantasy soccer will become a more lucrative bet. For now, at least for North American soccer, it is all a hedge.

Topps Offers Fans Ability to Create Custom Trading Cards

Consumers Can Create Their Own MLB and MLS Trading Cards For The First Time

NEW YORK (July 15, 2015) — The Topps Company, Inc., official licensee of Major League Soccer and Major League Baseball, today announced a revolutionary new digital offering for fans which will give everyone the chance to create his or her authentic looking and customized trading card on Topps.com.

“We have tried for years to come up with a way for fans to create their own official product that looks and feels exactly like what we create for leagues like MLB and MLS, and we are pleased to say that the time has come,” said Jeff Heckman, Brand Manager for Topps. “Now fans will have the opportunity to get their own Topps trading card just like their favourite players they grew up collecting and we feel they will quickly become a ‘must have’ for all looking to enhance their fandom or create a special gift that will last a lifetime.”

Fans will initially be able to select to use one of the following Topps card designs; 2015 Topps MLB Series 1,1952 Vintage MLB or 2015 Topps MLS. Fans will be able to upload their picture and enter their name on the front of the card, choose a MLB or MLS team logo or upload a logo for their own organization and on the card back, fans will be able to enter their hometown, choose a position, and fill out a brief description.

The cards will be delivered in packs of 8, with the same quality look and feel of the MLB and MLS cards. The packs will retail for $9.99 and will be available to be customized and purchased immediately on Topps.com.

Growing E-Sports Business or Fantasy; What Is An Accelerator And How Does It Work?

@JoeFav @TheDailyPayoff

The explosion of innovation in all things sports business and technology has created a gold rush for new ideas, especially in the pay fantasy and e-gaming space. However like the gold rush, many chase dreams of financial success only to leave with worthless pieces of lead, and sometimes, ideas stolen or good concepts that never reach maturity because of bad business planning. Into that void has come any number of companies and even Universities looking to help the best of the best. Recently the Los Angeles Dodgers launched an incubator program with R/GA to help a select number of companies venture west to try and grow.

Earlier this month another accelerator program came to the forefront, Stadia Ventures based in St. Louis. Stadia was co-founded by Tim Hayden, director of St. Louis University’s Center for Entrepreneurship and Art Chou, a Chou, a former Rawlings Sporting Goods executive with the idea that not all good sports business ideas live on the left or the right coast.
We caught up with Hayden to explain the business, its differentiators, and why St. Louis.

Explain the goal of the “Accelerator” vs. a “Shark Tank,” a “Hackathon,” or an “Incubator?

An incubator is a hotel that houses entrepreneurs (individual startups or accelerator companies). Meanwhile the accelerator is the mentoring and educational program to give the startups a better chance to succeed.

An accelerator is like an executive MBA program for startups. However, instead of a degree, the ultimate goal is that the cohort company achieves a few major milestones during the 10-16 week immersive boot camp. An accelerator will pick winners and invest in them like Shark Tank…but mentor the winners like The Voice.
How is this different or similar from others like the Dodgers recently launched accelerator?

Our Stadia Accelerator is different from almost every other accelerator, including the Dodgers Accelerator, because we are a Sports Innovation Hub first and foremost. We do not work for a single brand or customer. We invite anyone and everyone in the Sports Business ecosystem (entrepreneurs, investors, industry executives, service providers, etc) to come together to create a stronger and smarter community. Our goal is to become the clearing house or the vetting program for each of the audiences, which saves each group time, pain, and money.
What type of business are you looking for?

Stadia Accelerator is looking for established startups in the sports business space. They must have a product or service, traction and they must be generating revenue. We want them to have proven that there is a market for the solution to a pain. We focus on companies in Software/Apps, Big Data, Equipment, Apparel, Training, Nutrition, Gaming and Fantasy. However, we will look at any company that can help solve pain in the sports business space.

Some people may be surprised to hear of St Louis as being fertile ground for such a project vs. NY or LA? Why St. Louis?

St. Louis is the gateway to the west for a reason. We were the trading post for everyone heading west to seek their fortunes. Our city was created by entrepreneurs, and we have never lost that spirit. The recent St. Louis entrepreneurial renaissance has been going on since the 2009 recession. While we lost a number of Fortune 50 companies during that time, many of those executives turned their talents and newfound wealth towards the entrepreneurial scene. Couple that with the fact that for a long time, our Universities embraced the fact that you need to teach people how to be better entrepreneurs (Saint Louis University has the #13 Entrepreneurship program in the nation according to U.S. News & World Report…23 straight years in the top 25). To set ourselves apart from the rest of the nation, our community and University leaders identified that entrepreneurship needed to be nourished. So they created Arch Grants, a $50,000 grant awarded to some of the nation’s best startups wanting to move to St. Louis for a year to continue building their businesses. Since 2012, 55 startups have been funded for a total of $3.1M (50 are still operating in St. Louis).

So when people around the nation say that St. Louis has a strong entrepreneurial renaissance because of our low cost of living and our access to top notch talent; that’s only a portion of the reason. The real reason is because we have worked together to build a strong ecosystem that supports entrepreneurship.
How have you attracted investment in the project and what are they looking for?

Unknown to a lot of people, St. Louis has always been a breeding ground for a lot of global, senior-level sports business talent. When you have the #1 global sports sponsor (Anheuser-Busch) in St. Louis, it’s to be expected. And that audience has always been interested in giving back. They want to see St. Louis become the Sports Innovation Hub. We joke that in 1904, St. Louis was the epicenter for Business (1904 World’s Fair) and Sports (1904 Olympics). So why can’t we be the epicenter again?

However, our investors also understand that this is not an ego play or a community play. This must be a smart business investment with the expectation of legitimate returns. It just so happens that this investment is in the sports business space.

And we tell our investors that we will only accept “smart money,” which are those that are familiar with the sports business space. We find that these people have a knack for picking winners in this space.

What is the competition going to be like?

There are many accelerators in the United States (St. Louis is the 3rd largest accelerator city in the nation). But most are focused on technology or biotech for early stage startups. There are very few focused on the sports business space. There are even less that are willing to invest up to $100K in each business. And there are even fewer focused on becoming the Sports Innovation Hub for the entire ecosystem.

Besides the funding, our true strength is our mentor network that we can surround each startup with. Our goal at graduation is to ensure that that each accelerator company has a follow-on investment lined up, a large order, or an acquisition suitor. We are directly tied with our cohort company’s success and failure…and we do not like to fail. In addition, once a company comes into the Stadia family, we will be looking for ways to help them…for life.
What level of expertise will the senior execs involved have?

The Stadia Advisory Pool is being assembled from every walk of life. Not only do we have sports business executives from teams, leagues, sponsors, sporting goods, etc. We also have executives from the various facets of business (lawyers, accountants, wealth managers, financial planners, insurance, operations, supply chain, etc).

Sports Business touches every facet of business…so we need advisors and mentors at senior levels to cover those needs.

What is the end goal in say, two years, with the project?

We’re in this for the long haul. However, in two years, we’d love to have 20 established startups that have grown and are still engaged with us helping to mentor future startups in our Accelerator.

Success for Stadia Ventures is defined as Do Good. Do Well.

Doing good means that we are achieving financial success for our cohort companies and the sports business ecosystem. But, doing well is a societal success. Did we help to make the founders better people? Did we help to get products and services into more people’s hands to solve their pains? Did we help the industry and our partners become more innovative? Did we connect good people with each other? And finally, were we able to establish a stronger ecosystem.

If we can say we have a stronger and smarter sports business ecosystem, we will have succeeded. But it will take time. We’ve been working on creating a stronger entrepreneurial ecosystem in St. Louis since 1764.

TDP EXCLUSIVE: Three Putt at US Open Brings Fantasy Fortune to First Time Draft Kings Player

THREE PUTT AT US OPEN BRINGS FANTASY FORTUNE to FIRST TIME DRAFT KINGS PLAYER

By Terry Lyons, Contributing Columnist, The Daily Payoff
@terrylyons

A Father’s Day summer evening turned into night and golf fans around the world surely shook their heads in disbelief when the 17th and 18th holes at Chambers Bay brought about the strangest of finishes to the 115th United States Open golf championship. The four-day tournament was near its conclusion and the prime time US television audience stayed glued to their High-Def TV sets which delivered the grimaces of PGA Tour pros Jordan Spieth and Dustin Johnson into the living rooms of many casual sports fans, some longing for a Game 7 of the completed NBA or NHL seasons but left with nothing else to watch but the major golf championship.

What those primetime Fox Sports viewers couldn’t see or feel as the sun set near the Puget Sound were the heart palpitations pulsing through Carl Bassewitz, a veteran sports industry good-guy who was playing Draft Kings PGA Millionaire-maker daily fantasy game for the very first time. Bassewitz, watching on his TV, a half continent away from the action, double and triple-checked the scores of his six player fantasy team that he selected. His lineup featured Spieth but not Johnson, and also included, Louis Oosthuizen (T-2), Kevin Kisner (T-12), Tony Finau and Patrick Reed (T-14) and Jason Dufner (T-18).

That “fantasy team” combination delivered Bassewitz to the dream world of all fantasy sports players, as he turned a single $20 entry fee into a cool $1 Million dollar prize. In doing so, Bassewitz outlasted 143,000 entrants who ponied-up the $20 fee with hopes of a $1 million when they chose their lineups for six golfers, staying under a $50,000 cap, as per usual in the Draft Kings golf game. One such player, the second place finisher who is only known as “Headchopper” who is known as a professional in the fantasy sports world, needed Johnson to finish ahead of Spieth. But Johnson’s improbable three-putt on the 72nd hole of the tournament gave the U.S. Open title and its $1.8 million first place purse to Spieth, while delivering a cool mil to Bassewitz and a not-so-paltry $877,144 runner-up prize to both Johnson and Oosthuizen.

When reality set in, Bassewitz realized he’d made more money than the U.S. Open runner-ups!

“I had heard a lot about the Daily Fantasy sports craze and figured I’d give it a try,” said Bassewitz to The Daily Payoff in an exclusive interview, his first since being officially notified by Draft Kings that he was the lone prize winner. “I wanted to know exactly how it worked, so I entered a team.

“Spieth was my first choice, but I’d been following the PGA Tour pretty closely, just as a fan, and I liked the way Kisner was playing. Reed is one of my personal favorites and fellow Texan and Finau had been playing great of late and I’d followed him since seeing him play on the Big Break on Golf Channel. To win at these games, you definitely need some skill and some insight into how the players can compete on any particular golf course. I’ve always been a fan of Duff (Jason Dufner) and I really thought he was due and, overall, I thought the guys I picked could hold up under the pressure and the conditions at Chambers Bay.

“Oosthuizen was the key pick, for me, and I’ve followed him since the 2013 Masters which I was fortunate enough to actually attend.”

Bassewitz and one of his friends each were watching from home on Saturday, during the third round of the tournament when Finau carded a 74 and Reed wrote down a 76 in his score pad, making the longtime sports industry executive think his entry was pretty much cooked. But just as Reed and Finau fell on the leaderboard, Oosthuizen climbed up with consecutive 66’s on Friday and Saturday, giving the fantasy entry new hope.

“I went out to get some lunch and my Draft Kings app told me I’d dropped down to something like 750th place. I thought it was over. Then on Sunday, my friend started charting the other entries online and he texted me to say, ‘I think you have a chance at a Top 10, maybe a Top 3!”

The roller-coaster ride struck bottom for Bassewitz when he watched Spieth double-bogey the 17th hole Par 3 at Chambers Bay, the ramifications of his three-putt from within 40-feet just sending pain through Bassewitz as he watched helplessly and figuring Spieth and Johnson would end in a tie to force an 18-hole playoff on Monday.

In order to win the tournament and a $1M, Bassewitz needed Dustin Johnson to miss, not just once but twice. If there was a playoff, he would have lost. The putt was essentially for $900,000 as Draft Kings’ second place finish was worth $100,000

“When Dustin Johnson missed that last putt, I was stunned and in shock and didn’t think it was real,” said Bassewitz. “My phone was blowing up with my friends from around the country. It didn’t sink in until I was contacted by Draft Kings about 30 minutes after the US Open trophy presentation to Spieth.

“This is something my father would have loved as he taught me a lot about the game when I was growing up. This is the second best Father’s Day I’ve ever had,” said Bassewitz, referring to best day, when his son, a recent college graduate, was born. “Think about it, on June 11th, I entered this fantasy tournament with one $20 team and now I’m a millionaire.”

Yes, a good guy from within the sports industry and a first-time daily fantasy player is now a millionaire, thanks to a wild finish at the US open and a Dustin Johnson three-putt, but more importantly, the daily fantasy fortune was awarded to a guy who has his priorities straight.

Mondogoal Takes a Gamble on FIFA’s Women’s World Cup

By TERRY LYONS, Contributing columnist for The Daily Payoff
@terrylyons

The United States of America’s Justice Department’s beat-down on the upper echelon executives of FIFA brought a bit more than a small share of criticism and focus upon the governing body for world futbol. It brought an all-out public relations disaster as the lead story on every network newscast in the world, and even worse, FIFA’s downfall became the punch line for comedic genius such as “Last Week Tonight with John Oliver” or “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart.”

The early morning arrests of several FIFA executives by Swiss authorities at the posh Baur au Lac hotel in Zurich fast-became the b-roll for a generation of FIFA’s critics. As the raid was barely underway, with charges under the USA’s Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO), detailed accusations and background were printed in the morning editions of The New York Times which brought a level of seriousness that organized futbol has never seen, but its fans had long expected. The accusations were wide-ranging and were enough to eventually cause the resignation of longtime FIFA president Sepp Blatter. The fall-out will continue for the rest of the year as the US Justice Department’s Attorney General Loretta E. Lynch, builds the case.

The focus of the alleged corruption and bribery charge was centered on FIFA’s designation of Russia (2018) and Qatar (2022) as World Cup event sites but caught in the crosshairs of the scandal is the fact the 2015 Women’s World Cup is being staged in Canada from June 6 to July 5, right on the front doorstep of the FIFA scandal. One might think the highly visible RICO charges for such a highly visible world event might be cause for the sponsors and affiliates of the Women’s World Cup to run for the Hudson Bay, but that has not been the case as the women kick-off in Canada.

Event sponsors, already neck-deep in their investment, have turned a blind eye to the off-the-pitch misconduct and are focusing on the athletes and competition itself.
One such affiliate is Mondogoal, a relatively new player in the daily fantasy sports world, which is staging a daily fantasy game for the Women’s World Cup. While not an “official” sponsor of FIFA, Mondogoal operates globally and focuses its efforts in the United States, Britain, Canada, Ireland and Brazil – all hotbeds of international futbol. The company is incorporated out of the Isle of Man and has business operations in the USA. Mondogoal’s Women’s World Cup offering will be the first fantasy game ever staged for women’s sport.

“The Women’s World Cup is a phenomenal platform for the game, and will draw not just passionate soccer fans but a casual audience interested in women’s sports and a global event,” said Shergul Arshad, CEO of Mondogoal. “By creating this game for a global audience we will provide a new engagement platform, which we believe, will raise the visibility and interest not just for soccer but for women’s sports as well.
“In North America, daily fantasy sports has taken off, and interest in soccer is at an all-time high. We are making sure the North American soccer fan not only can play fantasy contests involving the popular European leagues, but also from the best soccer, locally,” he said.

To that end, Mondogoal is offering fantasy players a way to blend both the Women’s World Cup players with those of men’s competitions being staged at the same time, notably in North America’s Major League Soccer (MLS), Europe’s Champions League final and the Copa America. The new blend will be the first time fantasy sports is offered on a “Co-Ed” basis.

Digging into the particulars, daily fantasy players can pick a team of 11 female players from the four Women’s World Cup matches on event days, using Mondogoal’s salary cap style of play to build a fantasy team. If the fantasy player doesn’t like the full offering from the women’s matches, they can mix and match with the men’s contests taking place the same day. As with all fantasy products, points are accrued for positive “on-the-pitch” statistics, such as goals, and assists. The fantasy winner is the person who picks the perfect fantasy team of players who compile the most positive statistics for the entire day.

Mondogoal has a deal with Perform’s Opta Sports to compile all the various stats – in real time – and tracks the nuances of the obvious stats, but also tackles won-lost, shots on goal, passes completed, or stats for goaltenders, like saves and shut-outs.
The take-away from Mondogoal’s foray into women’s sports, via the Women’s World Cup, is the fact the daily fantasy sports world is moving full speed ahead and flourishing. While some may think daily fantasy is a little too close to actually gambling on the outcome of a game, the fact of the matter is that daily fantasy might just have more credibility than the FIFA executives carted off in the dawn air in Zurich.

THE DP INTERVIEW: Joey Levy, Draftpot, founder & CEO

THE DAILY PAYOFF sat down with Joey Levy CEO & Founder of Draftpot, an innovative daily fantasy platform that offers restricitonless gaming, for a conversation on student entrepreneurs, big data, and of course how Draftpot’s unique approach is disrupting the fantasy space. You can find Levy on twitter @Draftpot where he welcomes interactions

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The Daily Payoff [TDP]: You’re getting a lot of attention – and its well deserved – you have a proprietary game mode without salary cap restrictions.

Joey Levy [JL]: Yes for sure, but we do have a traditional GM mode which caters to people who want the strategy involved with the salary cap – but our most popular setting is fan mode which does not have restrictions. This allows us to tap into wider demographics and acquire users with little to no fantasy experience and the feedback has been tremendously positive.

TDP: How can we sign up?

JL: The site is https://Draftpot.com the great thing is that you can play instantly without cumbersome signups and logins. We don’t want any restriction from our users being able to enjoy Draftpot. Of course we welcome registrations but at your convenience.

TDP: Did Draftpot come from pure innovation or necessity? A bit of both?

JL: I think its been a combination, I knew there was a need for an alternative platform to offer restriction-free games. I started doing more research into the nature of DFS. I was always a player but when I heavily got into the business I realized how big of an opportunity it could be. It really is the instant gratification of the games that drive the revenue. The space is in its infancy but nevertheless moving. The industry provided its viability but at the same time was early enough to develop a product to differentiate itself. That’s where Draftpot fills the gap.

TDP: data is very closely linked to the fantasy game. Are you working with any data providers or analytics companies?

JL: We work with Sportsdata LLC (subsidiary of Sports Radar). They provide the API calls for all the sports we’re involved in. That’s how we get the data. As far as the web development itself – that’s done in house by the cofounders

TDP: Tell us about the endeavor – founding the company, developing the platform, raising capital – all as a Columbia student.

JL: Its been a challenge dealing with classes while trying to build a business., especially one that requires so much time and effort. That being said we have been able to manage our classes, develop the website, administer it, and improve it constantly. My partner (fellow Columbia University student) directly oversees the web development. We currently have over 2,000 users and have amassed 20K in entry fees. My job is to continue that trajectory. We are constantly coming up with new and innovative ways to market this

TDP: So Draftpot was founded by a fantasy player/college student the result filled a void and introduced fantasy sports to a much larger demographic — given this perspective any other “first of its kind” claims that Draftpot can make?

JL: Sure thing. We have the first user driven chat area where you can talk trash during competitions. This is an element of the game that was taking place offline for years but Draftpot allows that user interaction online. If you go to Fanduel or Draftkings or any other site when you are tracking your contests in real time it really just a list of whose participating and the order – while we provide that information because its necessary – we also have a chat box on that same page where you communicate with those same participants. It can get quite fun – we’ve had tournaments where there has been over 600 people all interacting and talking smack.

TDP: What sports do you currently offer and what’s next?

JL: Of course we offer the major domestic leagues. We will be adding college football and college basketball when those seasons start. We will have PGA up before the US Open, MMA is coming very soon, we are also exploring adding Esports to our platform – we would be the first site to offer both traditional and Esports.

TDP: Any advice for the student entrepreneur?

JL: Defiantly going to require full time commitment. To do it right you can’t do it on the side. To be successfully your venture simply has to be full time. Pursue what you want to pursue but understand what you are getting into and commit accordingly.

TDP: Okay, time to plug Draftpot

JL:We always want more users, so please go to https://Draftpot.com to sign up for an account with promo code “TheDailyPayoff” and get a free $4 coupon to start. To any interested investors: we are raising capital and are wrapping up our seed round now, for more information please reach out to me [email protected]

Egaming: Bigger Than The NHL?

By Joe Favorito @JoeFav

“We are going to be bigger than the NHL,” declared Major League Gaming head Mike Sepso several months ago about the growth of his company and the sport of E-Gaming.

And to hear the numbers thrown around on engagement Tuesday night at a New York Sports Venture Group forum on the fast-rising sport, it might be hard to argue his claim.

For the uninformed, especially those over 30, Rod “Slasher” Bresleau, perhaps the most informed media member on Egaming and now the lead for the first Egaming news website portal “The Score” in Canada, explained the phenomenon in the simplest of terms.

“If you look at the games themselves, like World of Warcraft, as a sport unto itself like soccer, then view the industry and all its individual games as the Olympics or the XGames,” he added. “Each game has its own stars, its own storylines and its own followers, many of which are now in the millions, and all are very engaged consumers of every aspect, both as a player and as a viewer.”

How engaged? Both Craig Levine of ESL, one of the largest event creators and developers in the space, and Don Reilley EVP of Global Sales for MLG, talked about stadium audiences in the tens of thousands and viewership in the tens of millions, easily eclipsing traditional sports viewership in some of the biggest events.

“Everything that I thought would happen is happening,” Reilly said about the growth. ”We have to balance the needs of the people at the events with those of the people watching at home, watching their favorite players.”

Levine mentioned sellout crowds watching gaming events in places ranging from Korea and Croatia to New York and Seattle, with fans showing up armed with dollars to buy merchandise just like they would for a hometown sports team. The difference is really in the audience demo, which is the one that brands and traditional sports leagues crave; the dominant egame follower, according to most research is male, 18-34, highly engaged and very passionate about every aspect of the game he follows. Think UFC and NASCAR of a new era.

So what is the secret sauce for egaming? Reilley said that for MLG it’s not that different at all from what brands and broadcasters have been doing for 50 years on television, albeit with a key twist.

“We provide great content for a passionate audience, most of the time with events in a live environment, just like the networks have done with MLB or the NFL for 50 years. It is that live engaged audiences that brands crave and are now activating against,” he said. “However the big difference is in how and where we engage. Unlike traditional broadcasts our audience does not have to be plugged in. They can engage on whatever device they choose and do so wherever they are. We deliver the programming to them however they like, and that is what sets us apart from traditional sports right now.”

Another aspect of egaming’s success has been the accessibility of the gamers to an engaged audience. Like the UFC of five years ago or the NHL of 10 years ago or NASCAR, egaming providers boast about the ease of contact fans have with the elite players. Send them a text or an email and you get a response, and the response is seen by millions, not just a few hundred.

That sort of access, they claim, is what is missing from today’s traditional sports, where despite all the trimmings of social media, athletes are locked behind a wall of handlers, team officials and brands who say the stars of baseball, football and basketball are accessible, but in reality the chance to email Bryce Harper or Kobe Bryant and get a response is less than zero.

“Because we are still evolving and the elite players are almost of the same age and background of many of their fans, the relationship is different and is much more intimate right now,” added Levine. “That means a great deal to a generation that is used to access without barriers, and that type of access has great value to brands as well.”

The numbers for egaming engagement that are thrown around are certainly staggering. Over 32 million live followers for a recent “World of Warcraft” event. A gate of over 30,000 for a live event in Croatia, a billion dollar investment made by Amazon to buy streaming service Twitch, which provides highlights from any series of games to millions of followers 24/7. But for all the success, there are some growing pains.

“It’s the Wild West for sure,” Bresleau told the packed room of approximately 150 representing a wide spectrum of interests. “Companies come into the space with a great deal of capital and find ways to engage with fans, and the people with the real brand value, the players, are now seeing greater opportunity to monetize their success at a new level. Right now it’s all great and any success helps the sport, but down the road there may be a consolidation as the business settles in.”

Another example of global growing pains comes in the form of what traditional sports have seen; game fixing. Bresleau added that as many as 18 professional players in the past few months have been banned for fixing games for money. Illegal gambling it seems, has also found itself into big time gaming.

There is also the question of wider appeal to a casual fan who would be willing to watch egaming in person or online, along with the question of whether massive stadium events are just one-off phenomenon’s or are they able to sustain a repeat audience. It is a similar question the UFC has had to address time and again as a new sport on the traditional block, and they too have handled the issue well.

“We see a fan as one who is very engaged and he or she will come back again if they have an amazing experience,” Levine added. “We can’t oversaturate a market and we are still building, but all signs are the business sis not just here to stay, it is growing at a very fast rate.”

And what about traditional sports as a form of egaming? Millions has been spent on creating marketing and selling products like FIFA 2015 and Madden for years, but those sports games, although successful, have not migrated into the new egaming space.

“Those games are great for their audience, but when you can watch a live NBA or NFL game with real stars playing it, the level of professional egaming is diminished,” Bresleau added. “What captured the egaming world is the ability for the gamer to really be someone else, to travel to another planet or be a superhero or an elite warrior, that’s the transcendent appeal that is drawing millions in.”

And are the elite gamers actually athletes like those in the NBA or NFL or the Olympics? “They train, they travel, they sacrifice and they have great skill, so my argument is yes and it’s why egaming is an amazing sport,” Bresleau added.

The panelists all believe that despite the mainstream media covering egaming as a novelty event up until now, coverage of the live events and the sport itself is about to ramp up considerably.

Engaged audiences, young demo, brand activation, young stars and global appeal. Egaming is rising fast, and it will be interesting to see how high and how far it will go as a business of the future. Look out not just NHL, but MLS, MLB and anyone else in a traditional business. The sports world is changing.

Sportsjam’s Doug Doyle talks with TheDailyPayoff Scandale

The Daily Payoff Co-Founder Frank Scandale

Episode: 2015-03-25. Frank Scandale is the co-founder of The Daily Payoff, a website dedicated to informing the public about the gaming and gambling industry. Scandale, a long-time New York Mets fan, is a former editor with The Record (Bergen County) and The Denver Post.

see more here http://www.wbgo.org/internal/mediaplayer/?device=m&podcastID=6207&type=sportsjam