David Ortiz: We are a sports league and sports content creator. We do first-party fantasy sports. Then we provide content for anyone who wants to use it to do sports betting around it. We operate like the NBA or Premier League etc. What is exciting about us is that we provide the ability for people who are passionate about action to have access 24/7 365. We never sleep, as the tagline says.
How is the 24-hour aspect affected during a period when there isn’t a game taking place? What would be happening during that?
DO: Right now during our beta, we’ve got games running from 9AM Pacific to about 1AM Pacific. So we only have about an 8-hour lull. Our whole system is a sports metaverse that’s living, breathing, AI-driven and with human input. It is a world where we’ve got amateur and college sports happening all the time, which are growing and developing the players that ultimately land on the pro teams you’re watching. So during those down periods we can do a few different things. We can run matchups of the amateur games so you can get an idea of who’s coming up next. We’re going to be launching the 32 teams. We’re going to grow to 64 teams, so there really will be next to no time when there isn’t a game on. By the time we’re in season two and then we’re going to continue to add more sports.
Do you have a plan for what sports you’ll be adding in the future? When do you plan to add them?
DO: We hope to add one more sport by the end of the year. But we’re planning for them to show up at the beginning of next year. The very next sport is soccer. Then cricket and basketball, all live over the next year. Baseball, boxing and racing will also be a part of everything we d. We know that cricket, basketball and soccer are going to be big international hits.
Is this for a North American audience, or are you planning to put this out all over the world?
Tom Goedde: We absolutely intend to be an international company. Hence our inclusion of cricket specifically, which there’s nearly no market for in North America. But soccer is our number two sport. That’s where we really intend to push. We started with American Football because David and my background is deepest in American football. Also from an AI simulation standpoint, it’s the most difficult to create. So you start with the hardest one; that way we can kind of roll downhill. We don’t put hurdles in our future once we’ve launched. But we are already actively building the foundation for international soccer and cricket. We have some great partnerships on the way there. I look forward to expanding beyond North America.
What’s the impact of having ex-sportspersons and Hall of Famers involved? Are you hoping to have more partnerships with more ex-sportsmen and women?
DO: 100%. I think the immediate impact is that it brings initial visibility to the platform. More importantly for us, it brings authenticity to the gameplay. We’re really blessed to have these Hall of Famers. These guys are really passionate about the sport and they’re competitive. These guys want to see their franchises do well. The impact for us out the gate is going to be that familiarity and visibility. That comes with the same reason why a lot of different games link up with sports licences. It’s familiarity with fans and their passion to see players or clubs they’re familiar with. We want to be able to draw attention. In the long term, we want to be able to provide authenticity, accuracy and familiarity. I think those relationships provide all of that. We are going to do this with the other sports and other territories. With football and basketball, we’ve already got some of the best people you could ever want to partner with. So we want to carry them in all the other sports that we’re in.
TG: The other thing I’d add to that is no one’s attempted a product like this before. Virtual sports certainly exist in real-money gaming; but this is long form, as if you are watching an EPL or NFL game. It just hasn’t been tried. Any time you’re dealing with an innovative product where you need to build consumer trust, bringing celebrity into the mix is an immediate validation for the entire group. So that is a really strong point of ours. David and I have been working in video games and real-money gaming for 30 years each. Just as an example, Jerry Rice! Who is one of our first big celebrity owners. I worked with him for the first time in 1994. So we’ve worked across four different companies now for almost 30 years.
This is really a culmination of David’s and my background. An interesting blend of Madden, FIFA, NHL, NCAA football, Tiger Woods PGA Tour Golf, all those combined with real-money gaming to create something completely new. So it’s a unique team. It’s a unique opportunity and because it is so unique in our deep history in these industries, we’ve been able to attract some of the best athletes and spokespersons in the world. It’s an exciting time.
Who are your competitors? Do you have any concerns that others are going to start doing something similar to what you’re doing?
DO: If you look at what we’re doing, we don’t see any competitors at this time. There are other folks doing things in AI-based gaming and digital sports. But we are evolving in the space. Folks have been making great sports games for years like EA, 2K and Konami. However, the way we’ve brought things together in the blend of what we’re doing, I think it’s going to be hard for someone to jump right in and compete. It’s taken us this long to build this because it’s a complex system and we’ve really tried to think it through in terms of what would be a good user experience, and where we’re trying to innovate.
So I think competition ultimately is inevitable and somewhat flattering. Yet, at the same time, I think if you really understand all the things we bring to the table, we’ll always stay a step ahead in what we’re doing. There are a slew of real-money betting companies. This is a big pie. We’re excited to try to be real innovators in the space.
TG: We don’t see those traditional, fantasy and real-money gaming companies as competition at all. We augment their experience because they work against real-world sports. So we’re not trying to replace the EPL. We're not trying to replace the NFL. We just want to augment it for those times that those competitions are not available. That’s our consumer promise. You have these opportunities 24/7 365, while there are off-seasons or injuries or pandemic shutdowns, or any of these things that get in the way of real world sports. We eliminate that. We fill the gaps. We actually are open to partnerships with those companies and we can put instances of our experience on their platforms.
What are your main goals overall?
DO: I’d say our main goal is to be able to provide access to entertainment any time of day. We look at the world and this has been our experience. Our pitch this whole time is the world of entertainment is digital and bingeable. It’s: you can get what you want when you want everything you’ve experienced up till now. Video games, poker, movies, music, TV; it’s all on demand when you want it. Sports? If you’re a person who likes action, that’s not on demand. Because you’re around for a human to kick a ball, throw a ball, catch a ball. We look at this experience and the way people like to consume their content, and it’s depleted of live sports content just because of the seasonality of the sport. We want to be the ones to fill that gap so that people can be entertained with the sport the way they want: to get action on it any time of day, wherever they are in the world. That’s the goal of this business.
