Website: Fantazzle

Interview With: Ryan Parr, founder

Is their more then one founder? If so, who are they?

Only one – Ryan Parr

What is your background and qualifications?

I have worked in the sports industry for the past four years and have been a fantasy sports fans for nearly 15. I graduated cum laude from James Madison University with a triple major in Economics, Marketing, and Marketing Information Systems with a minor in Computer Information Systems.

What does your website do?

Fantazzle provides short term fantasy games you can play for free or for an entry fee. All of our games give out cash prizes to the winners and are geared towards fantasy fanatics, individuals who do not want a season commitment, those who always seem to have issues getting leagues formed with their friends for various reasons, and others who may have had bad years in their traditional leagues and still want to have something on the line in fantasy games. At Fantazzle, you can create a fantasy team any day of the week and have fun rooting for your players during the pro games. The site offers several different types of games for fantasy football, baseball, basketball, golf, and auto racing games.

How do you generate revenue? If through ads, what ad network do you use?

We generate revenue by charging an administration fee upon game entry for setting up leagues and running the site.

How have your marketed your site?

Fantazzle is slowly ramping up its marketing and has used a number of different avenues including pay per click, banner ads, press releases, and working with non-competing sites to exchange exposure.

Funding: Self funded, Angel Investment, or Venture Capital?

Fantazzle is currently being funded by myself and friends and family.

Are You currently looking for funding?

Yes, we are actively looking for a partner to raise capital. We would like to find someone who believes in the opportunity and can add funding and resources to build something profitable and industry changing.

What type(s) of technology do you use?

We use PHP programming throughout the site to communicate with our back-end software. We also use an XML feed to connect with our stats provider.

What is your favorite feature on your website?

One of the coolest things Fantazzle offers is called FantaStock. You earn FantaStock when you do certain activities on the site like creating an account, making deposits, and more ways like playing games to come. You can use the FantaStock you earn to play in all of our games so its like free cash. While these types of loyalty programs are not groundbreaking, the FantaStock votes we will hold are. After every sports season concludes, we will hold shareholder votes for all of our players to vote on how Fantazzle runs its site and games. Votes will be on things like our scoring system, roster requirements, blog content, etc.The more shares you have, the more your opinion counts. This feature will put our players in power of how Fantazzle evolves.

Any Bold Predictions for Sports and Technology in the future?

As your site can attest, its an exciting time for the sports and fantasy sports online world. The development of Web 2.0 is really spurring the voice of the sports fan through social communities. All of the content and distribution of it will be a major benefit for fantasy sports. There are going to be some great innovations that will change the way we now play and view fantasy games and will make an already growing past time even bigger.

Smack Caster

Website: SmackCaster

Blog: SmackBlog

Interview With: Peter Barry

Is their more then one founder? If so, who are they?

Michael Gelfand, Joe Halpin

What are your backgrounds and qualifications?

Avid sports fans, plus…

Michael Gelfand
(co-founder, CEO) spearheads the online communications strategy for TD AMERITRADE. He has more than 16 years of leadership experience in online, interactive TV (ACTV Inc), and entertainment publishing (Hachette Filipacchi, CurtCo Media).
 
Joe Halpin
(co-founder, COO)
has been a performance technologist for 18 years specializing in solutions that cost-effectively impact the performance of workforces and businesses. He has been a successful business owner and raised more than $1M capital. Clients include Philips Electronics, Mindspeed Tech., Merck, Altera Corp.

Peter Barry
(co-founder, CMO), has 20 years of executive experience creating content and corporate strategy for large media companies (Hachette Filipacchi, CurtCo Media). As co-founder and VP of KnowledgeLINKS, a start-up Internet software company, he helped raise more than $28M and oversaw growth from 8 to 75 employees in less than 28 months.

What does your website do?

It’s a community for fans to talk about the teams they love and love to hate, share knowledge, and get into passionate exchanges.
 
How do you generate revenue? If through ads, what ad network do you use?

Currently, just Google AdSense.
 
Have your marketed your site?

Yes, virally through the Internet.

Funding:

Self funded

Are You currently looking for funding?

Yes

What type(s) of technology do you use?

Open Source Joomla! with multiple extensions
 
What is your favorite feature on your website?

Our video interface allows users to respond directly to other posters to create a video debate/conversation.

Swing Academy

Website: Swing Academy

Interview With:  Rick

Is their more then one founder? If so, who are they?

No, Only myself

What is your background and qualifications?

Golfer for 10 years, Developer for 20 years

What does your website do?

FREE Online community of golfers who submit videos for instruction by peers.  We use very sophisticated video analysis tools to enable our users to improve their games and to help others improve as well.

How do you generate revenue? If through ads, what ad network do you use?

Ad based revune. We use commission junction though that is about to change.

How have your marketed your site?

We haven’t. Our users are spreading the word at a decent clip although advertising and trade shows are in our future.

Funding: Self funded, Angel Investment, or Venture Capital?

Self-Funded

Are You currently looking for funding?

Yes.. but it must be on our terms.. so I guess “No” is a better answer.

What type(s) of technology do you use?

Flash video and application development. ASP.net for the web. We have created a proprietary method for video analysis.

What is your favorite feature on your website?

Community-based Video Analysis and Side-by-Side comparison of any 2 videos.

Any Bold Predictions for Sports and Technology in the future?

Well.. we hope to pioneer some new ways for golfers to learn and improve. We are just beginning to scratch the surface of what can be done.

Goal Line Blitz

Website: Goal Line Blitz

Interview With: Peter and Jesse

Is their more then one founder? If so, who are they?

GLB was Co-Founded by Bort (Peter) and DigitalDaggers (Jesse)

What is your background and qualifications?

Both of us have been plugged into the internet since were young, so we kind of grew up along with the computer.  We both love sports too, so GLB is a great fit for us!

What does your website do?

It’s an American Football MMORPG (Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games)

How do you generate revenue? If through ads, what ad network do you use?

Through the sale of teams, players, levels, equipment.

How have your marketed your site?

We have a referral system in place, that is currently our only marketing.

Funding: Self funded, Angel Investment, or Venture Capital?

Self-funded.

Are You currently looking for funding?

No thank you.

What type(s) of technology do you use?

Fancy intarweb codes / algorithms

What is your favorite feature on your website?

There are so very many things (aren’t there always), but we’ll go with Instant Replays!

Any Bold Predictions for Sports and Technology in the future?

Nothing but up for the Sports/Tech field…the number of people online worldwide will continue to grow.

eCouchCoach

Website:eCouchCoach

Interview With: Zach Harris

Is their more then one founder? If so, who are they?

I am a co-founder with another fantasy football guru Eric Mattingly.

What is your background and qualifications?

I have been an NFL follower and Fantasy League Commissioner for over 6 years now.  I am an IT consultant with lots of knowledge about the web and about football.  Also if you have suggestions for the site I am the man to ask, as I like to let the site have a little bit of something for everyone.  The site has been up for 2 years, however, this is the first year it has become public.

What does your website do?

It is a completely free fantasy football league website.  Everything from live scoring, to injury updates, to custom scoring, to custom league types, to news, to articles, etc. are all free.  I was tired of paying for what I wanted a fantasy football site to do so I decided to create my own.  Now that it is up and running I would like to share it with others.

How do you generate revenue? If through ads, what ad network do you use?

I am not looking to make a profit off this site.  I am just looking to pass the word about a completely free fantasy football website.

How have your marketed your site?

I have basically just used word of mouth so far.  I have used forums, to blogs, to telling people verbally.  The site is starting to pick up in the Indianapolis area.

Funding: Self funded, Angel Investment, or Venture Capital?

This is a self funded site.

Are You currently looking for funding?

No I am not.  I am just looking to get people interested in eCouchCoach.com.

What type(s) of technology do you use?

PHP, MySQL, Javascript, Ajax

What is your favorite feature on your website?

I really enjoy the free live scoring.  Most sites make you pay for that.  I also enjoy the free stat tracker and the “My Challenges” portion of the site.

Any Bold Predictions for Sports and Technology in the future?

Fantasy football is going to take off now (as if it hasn’t already)  that it is becoming so easy to following the NFL online.  So why not be able to do it for free?

Sports Data Hub

Website: SportsDataHub

Interview With: Kevin Goodfellow

Is there is more then one founder? If so, who are they?:

It’s just me.

What is your background and qualifications?:

During the week I’m a Data Warehousing consultant for Fortune 500 level companies. During the weekend I’m a 12 year fantasy football fanatic bulldozing my fellow league owners. In a previous life, I designed commercial aircraft mechanical/hydraulic systems for Boeing.

What does your website do?

Sports Data Hub provides interactive football data for avid sports fans and fantasy players.  Our point and click visualization tools allow fans to analyze football data the way their minds work – forward, backward, and sideways….in real time.  We make football data analysis easy, convenient, fun, flexible, and more productive.

How do you generate revenue? If through ads, what ad network do you use?

We have a combined revenue model: Ads, Subscriptions, and B2B white labeling of our tools. Fantasy Sports Ventures is our ad network.

How have your marketed your site?

As a start up we have a very small budget, so we have to spend our marketing money wisely. We have focused primarily on native search rankings, since they are relatively inexpensive to attain and can be grown if you have the time and knowledge. Our alpha site was up for a year prior to our beta launch for just this purpose and has resulted in our site being highly ranked in related search terms.  We are also including a small amount of print advertising in fantasy related publications, online banner ads, e-mail advertising, and some direct marketing near NFL events. Our schwag has been popular, with Post-it notes and fliers the size of a business card instead of something bulky.

Funding: Self funded, Angel Investment, or Venture Capital?:

To date we are self funded with team members, friends, and family investments.

Are You currently looking for funding?:

Yes. Depending on our success, we will be looking for a growth sized investment near the end of the year. This investment would be to grow faster and bigger than we could do on our own.

What type(s) of technology do you use?:

Top Secret.  However, we are big supporters of open source and without the open source community this concept would have been impossible. In fact, this concept would not have been possible just last year….it is that bleeding edge.

What is your favorite feature on your website?:

I like our analysis tools, they are the heart and soul of our site. I blow my own mind every time I use them.

Any Bold Predictions for Sports and Technology in the future?:

I think what we are doing at SportsDataHub.com is opening a new door of high technology tools for the sports consumer. Anything to get an edge…

Website: www.U-SCORE.net and www.U-SCORE.tv

Info: U-Score Demo (We highly suggest you watch it)

Interview With: Johnny Richardson

Is there more than one founder? If so who are they?

No.  Scratched and clawed to get it here.  But had some “friends and family” that came on to help along the way.

What is your background and qualifications?

Well, I had a technology background since before high school.  However, I started a design and engineering firm back in the mid 90″s and sold it and started this company in 2003.  Mainly been under the radar, during that time perfecting our technology and platform.  Basically, we have built something pretty great and scalable.

What does your website do?

In a nutshell, our platform/website provides users, fans, parents, student-athletes, coaches and scouts with real-time play-by-play video of 6 seconds after it happens of each play by a specific player (video, and stats) to our website and to any mobile phone.

How have you marketed your site?

We are planning on marketing in a big way this football season, nationally (grass-roots approach)

Funding: Self funded, Angel Investment, or Venture Capital?

Self-funded and angel investment

Are you currently looking for funding?

Yes,  we definitely looking for strategic and equity partners

What type9s) of techonology do you use?

LAMP, linux, PHP, MySql and Flex

What is your favorite feature on your website?

Our real-time capability of finding any specific player and just looking ONLY at that players video through the game or season, seconds after it happens

Any Bold Predictions for Sports and Technology in the future?

Well, my strong belief is people will  shift continually to consuming video content online, the more relevant and personal the better.

Fan Sided Blogs

Website: Fan Sided Blogs

Interview With: Adam Best

Is their more then one founder? If so, who are they?

Yes. My brother Zach is the other founder.

What is your background and qualifications?

I went to film school and studied English and theatre in college. I just kind of fell into sports journalism as a hobby, but I’ve been moonlighting as a sportswriter ever since. I also played college football at Emporia State, so I know the game well. Zach is a football coach and web designer who teaches business and computers. We compliment each other well, I think.

What does your website do?

All of our websites provide original op-ed content and views on news for die-hard NFL fans. Our home site, fansided.com, is where you can find content from all of our sites along with original content, including my own The Best View.

How have your recruited different blogs? Do you own some of the blogs in the network or all they all run by other writers?

We own all the blogs and have recruited all of the writers. Actually, a few writers have contacted us about joining the network, so that’s not entirely true.

Has it been hard to recruit bloggers?

Sure. It’s especially hard getting them to stay around through the early stages, when traffic is typically slow. As you know, getting a blog going isn’t easy.

How do you generate revenue? If through ads, what ad network do you use?

We use YardBarker’s ad network, but we also work with other advertising partners. Our biggest other partner is Coast-to-Coast Tickets right now. We do a lot of different things ad-wise.

How have your marketed your site?

We’ve advertised a tiny bit through AdWords, and done a few link and ad exchanges. But mostly we’ve just grown due to positive word of mouth.

Funding: Self funded, Angel Investment, or Venture Capital?

We’re a self-funded company.

Are You currently looking for funding?

We wouldn’t be opposed to it if the opportunity was right.

What type(s) of technology do you use?

Wordpress.

What is your favorite feature on your website?

My favorite feature is how our bloggers seem to have captured the collective voice of the fan. I also like our design, though. I think it’s very user friendly and sharp.

Any Bold Predictions for Sports and Technology in the future?

Let’s see…I think the sports blogosphere will continue to grow. You’re already seeing the MSM launch blogs and hire bloggers. I think the blogosphere might become more corporate over the next few years, with the big dogs devoting blogs to basically everything. Things are already moving in that direction.

Similar Features

• SB Nation
• Most Valuable Network

Website:  Team Pages

Interview With: Mike Tan

Is their more then one founder? If so, who are they?

The founders of TeamPages.com are Mike Tan, Jonathan Kerr, and Adam Palmblad.

What is your background and qualifications?

We’ve all been playing sports since we were small kids and are extremely passionate about trying to make the lives of coaches, parents, and athletes easier when it comes to managing their teams and athletics lives. Before starting TeamPages, we have all been involved with various successful start-ups and other venture backed companies. Together, we have a combination of over 21 years of business and web development experience.

What does your website do?

TeamPages provides amateur sport teams with simple and easy to use websites to post team information and send updates all in one place.  All websites can easily be created in less than 4 minutes with just a few clicks. We believe coaches and managers are stretched for time, spending too much time emailing, updating, and returning messages.  TeamPages solves this problem by providing tools tailored to improve communication between coaches, parents and players by updating the team in real time and ensuring the information only be communicated once.

How do you generate revenue? If through ads, what ad network do you use?

Currently, TeamPages earns revenue from advertising. To date, we have only been using Google Adsense. This fall we will be opening up the doors to local and national advertisers and we will also be launching our new premium service.

How have your marketed your site?

We are constantly out at conference, local sporting events, and on the phone talking to as many coaches as possible.  However, I would say most of our growth has come from coaches who are using TeamPages talking to other coaches about our service.

Funding: Self funded, Angel Investment, or Venture Capital?

At TeamPages, we’ve been through all three stages. We started off in 2006 by winning a student business plan competition which provided us with $10,000 to start up. From there we bootstrapped out of my one bedroom apartment, lived off of kraft dinner and canned soup, and raised a friends and family round over Christmas (instead of presents we received investments from our parents and friends). In September 2007, we placed 2nd in the New Ventures BC Competition and won $25,000 in cash. And in October of 2007, we raised our first round from Burda Digital Ventures and local Angels, and were finally able to move out of my one bedroom apartment (by which point we had 7 people working out of).

Are You currently looking for funding?

We are currently exploring various partnership opportunities and private equity, however it is not an immediate need for our business to grow.

What type(s) of technology do you use?

Ruby on Rails, AJAX, javascript, Mongrel, Amazon S3

What is your favorite feature on your website?

Our favorite features of TeamPages are the ability to post all of your teams information onto one simple and easy to use team website and that any time you make a change to the schedule or website everyone on your team will receive an email update.

Any Bold Predictions for Sports and Technology in the future?

We feel that within 2 years from now everyone involved with amateur sports (coaches, parents, players, and fans, like grandma and grandpa), will be able to get all their updates about their team such as schedule changes, scores, and stats in real time.

RotoHog

Website:  RotoHog

Interview With:  Chris Austin, Director of Marketing

Is their more than one founder? If so, who are they?

Yes, David Wu and Kent Smetters are co-founders of our site and the unique stock exchange platform that most of our games are based on. David and Kent met as student and teacher at Wharton. There’s actually an interesting story about it at http://www.rotohog.com/web/guest/content?id=NEWS_16 from Entrepreneur Magazine.

What is your background and qualifications?

I spent 12 years in the agency world as a Creative Director, Writer and Business Development person before moving into the fantasy sports industry. It helps to be a big sports fan and love what you do. Between advertising agencies and now fantasy sports, I’ve never really worked a day in my life. I get paid to get people to play games. Not a bad way to make a living.

What does your website do?

We offer fantasy sports in baseball and football as well power fantasy games for NBA.com and several other major brands and sports leagues around the globe. We’ve also significantly expanded the content and community side recently at RotoHog.com. More sports will come online in the coming months too as we ramp up NASCAR, soccer and more.

How do you generate revenue? If through ads, what ad network do you use?

Through advertising and development fees. We are currently partnered with the Fantasy Players Network.

Does your experience with ad agencies allow you to close more advertising deals or do you pretty much deal with Fantasy Players Network Exclusively?

We take display advertising for our site exclusively from Fantasy Players Network. We have developed numerous relationships with brands via agency connections for unique sponsorships. Those should start to be prevalent on our site in ’09.

How have your marketed your site?

A lot of different ways. We’ve done everything from the offbeat (tigersapple.com) to the traditional (Fantasy Draft mags). Gone are the days when a few channels brought the masses in. We have to open up hundreds of channels to build the user base we want. Lots of trickles versus one big stream.

Funding: Self funded, Angel Investment, or Venture Capital?

VC- Allen & Company, DFJ Dragon, Mission Ventures and Sports Capital Partners.

Are You currently looking for funding?

We raised a Series A of $10M

What type(s) of technology do you use?

I just leave that to the tech guys. I do know we have a universal platform that operates our brand and scales for major media partners and leagues.

What is your favorite feature on your website?

The Stock Exchange Fantasy Football game. It’s really unique, it’s free and you can win a lot of cool stuff, but I just think it’s a lot of fun.

Any Bold Predictions for Sports and Technology in the future?

I think we will see the continued convergence of sports and content to all screens – mobile, TV, web, etc. – and see fantasy sports games better integrate across all of those, and even unite them. I think you’re seeing that now with the Fantasy Football related features in the new Madden game, and that’s just baby steps of what is to come. I know all the fantasy sports groups are working to put new games in new places. Should be a very interesting go at things over the next few years.

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