Fantasy Judgment

What is your name?

Michael A. Stein

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

I am the sole founder of Fantasy Judgment and I serve as the Chief Justice. However, the Fantasy Judgment bench is comprised of four other Associate Justices who help render legal decisions on disputes presented: Marc Stein, Ari, Teplitz, Nick Steffens and Jeff Mickletz.

What is your background and qualifications?

I am a lawyer and currently work as a complex claims director for a large insurance company in New York. I have over 25 years of experience participating in fantasy sports, both as a league member and as a commissioner. Through the years, I have seen just about anything and everything that can happen in a fantasy sports league. This, coupled with my professional experience and legal writing skills enable me to author Supreme Court-like decisions based on fact, precedent, and common sense.

What does your website do?

Fantasy Judgment provides independent, expert dispute resolution services for fantasy sports issues. We also provide assistance and guidance in drafting fantasy sports league constitutions, as well as advising on appropriate and effective league management decisions. I also utilize Fantasy Judgment to analyze and comment on the fantasy sports industry itself in various media outlets.

How do you generate revenue?

If through ads, what ad network do you use? I charge $15.00 per dispute or $100.00 for unlimited disputes per sports season. I did not begin this venture with the goal of quitting my job and earning a living solely based on Fantasy Judgment. I think there is truly a niche and a need for such a service. I know there are a few other websites out there that provide similar services, but I feel Fantasy Judgment has a superior bench with impressive backgrounds that lend to credibiity, reliability, and accuracy. I also am very passionate and enthusiastic about the fantasy sports industry as a whole, and I would like nothing more than to be able to contribute to the business that has provided me with so much enjoyment over the years.

How have your marketed your site?

Because this is currently a side venture, I did not have a lot of capital to start it up. The costs of building a website, obtaining a trademark, purchasing business cards, and filing the appropriate paperwork to create the entity pretty much exhausted my initial funds for Fantasy Judgment. So I have aggressively utilized free mediums of advertising, such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Google, and word of mouth.

Are you profitable?

Not currently. I believe that once I am able to spread the word effectively within the fantasy sports world, the business will take off and perhaps spin a profit down the road.

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

I am 100% self-funded.

Are You currently looking for funding?

As much as I would love to maintain my status as the sole decision-maker and owner of this entity, I am also realistic about its ability to grow, survive and thrive. I am not actively looking for funding, but it is something I know I will need to do. I want to build up some sort of database of customers and/or contacts to provide me with some credibility and sustainability so I can effectively negotiate with any potential investors.

What type(s) of technology do you use?

I have my own website for Fantasy Judgment, which also includes a blog. I have a Facebook page dedicated to Fantasy Judgment, and I use LinkedIn to promote my services as well.

What is your favorite feature on your website?

My favorite feature is the archived links to my previous decisions and articles. My writing skills for the decisions and articles I write are what will sell my abilities, so I take a lot of pride in being grammatically, factually, and conceptually accurate.

Any Bold Predictions for Sports and Technology in the future?

I foresee a mixed bag for fantasy sports down the road. I see there being a lot of backlash against the industry, including lobbying efforts to include fantasy sports under the ambit of gambling. However, I think fantasy sports has successfully attained mainstream status in the United States, and I do not see the business or industry slowing down at all except in the event that Congress or the U.S. Supreme Court does something inexplicable to contradict itself.

Interview With: Nigel Eccles

How many founders does Fanduel have and what are their names?

Nigel Eccles, Tom Griffiths, Rob Jones, Chris Stafford and Lesley Eccles

What are the founders’  backgrounds and qualifications?

I’ve worked in online gaming industry since 2000. From 2000 to 2002 I was a product manager for a person-to-person betting site called flutter.com. I led a project to re-launch it as a betting exchange, which lead to it merging with its nearest competitor, Betfair, at the start of 2002. Betfair, and the betting exchange concept, has gone on to revolutionize the online sports betting industry. Since then I’ve worked for another online betting site (BETDAQ) and the management consultancy McKinsey & Co. My co-founders, Tom, Rob and Chris have significant start-up experience having previously set up an online meet-up site called Groopit. Chris also has deep experience developing banking systems for HBOS PLC so we rely on him keeping our systems robust. Finally, Lesley, our marketing director, has around 10 years experience in technology marketing, most recently with Cap Gemini.

What does your website do?

Fanduel allows people to draft a team from players who are playing in sports games today. They can then pitch their team against a friend or another Fanduel user – for real money. The player whose team has the most fantasy points at the end of the day’s games wins the cash prize.

The game is a competitive draft rather than salary cap – making it much more challenging.  However unlike traditional competitive draft both players don’t have to draft at the same time. The way it works is one player drafts their first pick and a back-up for each position. They then order their draft and submit their roster. When they are matched with another user (a friend or another FanDuel user) the system works through each player’s draft in priority order. You get an email telling you and your opponent’s final roster and then you can watch the live stats on both fantasy teams update in real-time as the games progress.

It is purely fantasy baseball right now but the fantasy football game will launch with the start of the football season. Fantasy hockey and fantasy basketball will also follow.

When did you launch?

July 2009

How do you plan on building your community?

In the past we’ve found that it is vital to very attentive to your early users. They very quickly come to understand your product much better than you do. So one thing we are investing a significant amount of time into is in building and listening to that community.

What types of marketing do you utilize?

Affiliate Marketing, SEM, SEO, social media and some display. Additionally, we are in active discussions about implementing a co-brand with a number of large sports sites.

Do you have any revenue streams besides advertisement? Who is your ad provider?

We don’t have any plans to put advertising on Fanduel. Our current objective is to make playing on the Fanduel the best experience possible so putting on advertising isn’t a priority.

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

In December 2008 we raised $1.2 million from Pentech Ventures. On current growth projections this should be sufficient to see us through to profitability.

Are you looking for more funding?

Not at the moment.

What is your favorite feature on your site?

The ability to challenge your friends to see who can pull together the better draft. This has created real rivalry in the office as we try to figure out what strategy our opponent is using. We are also planning some new functionality here to better show you your win/loss ratio against each of your opponents.

What type(s) of technology do you use?

Fanduel is built on a LAMP stack, with PHP as the development language. The sports data is provided via a live XML feed from our sports data partner.

Any bold predictions for sports and technology in the future?

I think that the casual and social gaming markets have seen a lot more innovation than fantasy sports in recent years. My expectation is that fantasy sports will catch up and we will see more social games with better integration with social networks like Twitter and Facebook. Additionally, I think we will see games that require less commitment to play. Season long fantasy games are great however, I think there is a huge un-tapped demand for more pick-up and play type games. Finally, as the advertising recession hits I think you are going to see more providers offering pay to play games. People are prepared to pay for a game that offers more significant prizes (which ad funded games can’t offer) and having a robust business model means the operator can invest in making high quality games.

Jesse and his buddy Sean had been following Shaq on Twitter and weren’t sure if it was really Shaq.  When he Twittered from a restaurant that was near them, they decided to check it out.  They walked into the restaurant and there he was.  They didn’t necessarily have the balls to talk to him but when Shaq twittered, ” I feel twitterers around me, r there any twitterers in 5 n diner wit me, say somethin.

Sean spoke up and this picture was born

Check out Sean’s Blog for the rest of the story.

Founder: Dan Mezick

instantARENA™ platform allows instant, no-barrier entry into the booming fantasy sports gaming marketplace

North Haven, CT (PRWEB) February 11, 2009 — Player Ventures LLC today announces the immediate availability of instantARENA™, the world’s first brandable, white-label fantasy sports gaming solution.

“What instantARENA™ means for the industry is simple: Any web site with sports-related web traffic can now turn that traffic into immediate cash”, says Dan Mezick of Player Ventures LLC. “Our platform eliminates all the barriers to offering full-featured “pay to play” fantasy sports games. This is the world’s first brandable, turn-key, white-label, fantasy sports
game platform.”

The platform is a full-featured, comprehensive “turn key” solution for any web site owner who is looking to offer a branded, fun, revenue-generating game to online sports fans. The turnkey instantARENA™ solution includes total technical support for players, total site administration services, credit card payment processing, support for an affiliate network, and complete 24 X 7 on-line reporting.

Fantasy sports games are based on skill and are 100% legal in the Unites States. The market for these games of skill is growing very rapidly. Player Ventures is reviewing applications from select web site operators who have substantial sports and gaming-related web traffic.

Interview With: Ricky Joshi

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

Karim Motani

What is your background and qualifications?

Director of Business Development at GMR*Works and Kaleidoscope (IPG Companies). Sourced and led IPG’s investment in Facebook.

What does your website do?

Team Social Networks, largest sports video site om Internet. Second most popular sports MySpace Applications (bigger than Citizen Sports)

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

Advertising, merchandising, and team driven Fantasy (future rollout)

How have your marketed your site?:

Organic. Have reached 500K unique visitors (look at our quantcast stats) in 4 months from almost nothing in August.

Are you profitable?

No

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

Incubated by Kaleidoscope as Angel.

Are You currently looking for funding?

Yes.

What type(s) of technology do you use?

LAMP architecture (Linux, Apache, php, MySQL

What is your favorite feature on your website?

Team Social Networks

Any Bold Predictions for Sports and Technology in the future?

Local communities will continue to grow.

Interview with: Hans Steiniger

What is your background and qualifications?

I am an avid NFL Super fan that has been captivated from an early age by the product that plays out in NFL stadiums across the nation on Sundays. I started a journey in 2006 to challenge myself to attend a game in every NFL stadium. I realized early on that the NFL experience takes regional ces from the area around the team. Each NFL city through local food, climate, and culture has made their impression on the NFL frachise that calls the city its home. My Quest is about experiencing what it’s like to be a fan of every franchise in the league. To that end, I show up in each city for the weekend, I try to hit local hotspots and then on gameday I tailgate with local fans, wear a home team jersey, attend the game, and then write a review about my experience.

What does your website do?

My website began as a place to collect all the links and internet research tools that i’ve used to setup my trips around the league. I then figured out that if these tools were useful to me, they would probably be useful to other NFL fans that wanted to make a similar journey. So I include stadium directions, local weather, NFL ticket links, Fan forums, mileage charts, NFl schedules, and ticket prices. Anything an NFL fan would want to setup their trip or check out the area before heading into enemy territory.
How do you generate revenue? If through ads, what ad network do you use? Some ticket Sales, but I’ve developed one of the web’s best underground fantasy football cheatsheet. That helps alot.

How have your marketed your site?

I try.

Are you profitable?

Not really.

What type(s) of technology do you use?

Very simple for the website I’m running Microspft FrontPage. But my vehicle, is filled with technologies to help make the long roadtrips easier. I’ve built an audio mixer that allows me to stream multiple audio sources (either at the same time of separately) to play on the speaker system in the truck. I have my ipod streaming bluetooth audio. I have a DVD player, CB radio, and my cell phone. I also use a GPS unit everywhere I go to find each stadium and restaurant.

What is your favorite feature on your website?

I enjoy reading the reviews. Helps me remeber some of the crazy things I’ve done as part of the Quest for 31. I’ve been on the Star at the 50 yard line in texas Stadium, ran go routes in the endzone down on the field at the Edward Jones Dome, and hung out on the Priate ship in Tampa. I’ve also tailgated with some of the League’s best. I hung out with Pinto Ron, the guy that cooks all of his food on garden tools on the hood of his ford Pinto (Buffalo, NY). I broke bread with Wayne Vandevort, the Bruce Wayne of Tailgating. I met up with the commissioner of Tailgating Joe Cahn and Jay the Tailgate guy.

Any Bold Predictions for Sports and Technology in the future?

I’m looking forward to the days when the NFL will place a small sensor in the valve stem of the football. the sensor will calculate the exact dimensions of the ball and use these dimensions to determine Touchdowns and boundary limits, assess penalties, determine wether or not acatch wat made. It will take us into the huddle so we can hear what the players are saying. Basically eliminate all human error in the game. Technology will also continue to revolutionize tailgating. With our satellite packages and flatscreens that seem to bring our homes out to the parking lot with us, the trend will continue in terms of entertainment, cooking, and creature comforts.

Interview With: Darrel Owenby

When did you start your blog?

We started our blog this past July, but SECRivals has ran a message board for five years.

What made you start it?

We all read a lot of sites, some we agreed with, some we didn’t. Basically, a couple of us decided that we could do the same thing, except better.

What is your background?

I have @ twelve years of blue collar work, ten years of sales experience, three years of training/development and have been online since 1996.

Do you blog for fun or are you trying to make it a career?

Fun.

What is your goal with this blog?

Develop a solid base of regulars inside as well as outside of the SEC.

What was your tipping point? What put you on the map? (if you bring in more the 5,000 uniques a month)

Creating an affiliation with MoonDog Sports really got us going. Our message board has over 1k members and we already had a decent amount of traffic, BUT the blog was put on the map with MoonDog’s help.

What type of blogging software do you use?

Wordpress

What ad network(s) do you use?

Adify through Yardbarker.com, Google adsense and Commission Junction.

How much money do you make off your site monthly?

Not a whole lot, like we said, it’s fun.

If you could get something for free to help you out with your blog, what would it be? (Ex: design, marketing, ad optimization, etc)

Wow, good question. Our biggest area would be marketing; we could always use extra traffic.

What are some of your favorite blogs?

MoonDog Sports, EDSBS, A Sea of Blue and Vanderbilt Sports Line.

Any bold predictions for the future of sports on the internet?

We haven’t scratched the surface yet. A lot of people are screaming that blogging is dead, but video is only now being played with. Podcasts were huge a couple of years ago, but the next big thing will be for video podcasts by regular people. Imagine “Jake and Luther on Sports”.

Citizen Sports is well positioned to be the sports lead in the app market for facebook, myspace, and the IPhone.  Now that they have positioned themselves well it will be interesting to see how they actually make money off these applications.

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.

Interview With: Billy Buckles

When did you start your blog:

August, this year.

What made you start it?

I used to randomly write pieces and e-mail them out to two friends, came across Bleacher Report one day, posted a humorous NBA Mock Draft on there and just sent a link out to my few friends who’d care to read it. Some people gave me compliments, so I wrote a few more pieces. Then I wanted a customized site that could make my friends laugh, but I’m worthless with coding/design… So I asked a good friend to go halfsies on a domain name/server and design me one. We chose Kornheiser’s Cartel because it’s been our team name of choice for College Bowl, Intramurals, Fantasy Leagues, etc… It stems from an online game called PimpsLord we played years ago.

What is your background?

23 years old, Leo, blue eyes, great hai— er, 2008 Purdue graduate, extremely knowledgeable fan of a ton of sports, and I’ve had some interesting working experiences in the sports world. My co-founder is one of the nation’s best trivia competitors, and we took Purdue’s College Bowl team to nationals. But we’re not nerds. We’re not!

Do you blog for fun or are you trying to make it a career?

I’d always like to write on the side, and I’m open to writing opportunities, but it’s hard to envision writing eight hours daily.

What is your goal with this blog?

To entertain. And I like to have a vehicle to spread ideas and opinions I care about.

What was your tipping point? What put you on the map? (if you bring in more the 5,000 uniques a month)

We went into this expecting to get 200 hits a months, but we somehow received 5,000 UV’s in our first week, and almost 50,000 UV’s in September, our first whole month. We’ve been fortunate to have some heavyweight blogs appreciate our writing, and that’s how we get a decent chunk of views. Additionally, we’ve had a number of pieces receive thousands of views from StumbleUpon.

What type of blogging software do you use?

Blogger

What ad network(s) do you use?

Yardbarker, AdSense, Ad-Brite

How much money do you make off your site monthly?

Over a hundred bucks a month.

If you could get something for free to help you out with your blog, what would it be? (Ex: design, marketing, ad optimization, etc)

A few more writers…

What are some of your favorite blogs?

Indy Cornrows, Ball Don’t Lie, The Offside, Deadspin