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PrePlay Takes Next Step with $3.1 Million Venture Funding

July 12, 2012 by

If the first step is developing an app that will catch on with your target audience the next step is to have the funding to promote the original work — expanding your team, funding marketing activities and developing next generation products. PrePlay Sports has just made that second move.

The developer, which creates predictive game apps, has landed a $3.1m Series A funding round. The round is led by “wine guy” Gary Vaynerchuk, a well-known social media entrepreneur, and Matt Higgins who is the CEO of RSE Ventures, as well as additional unnamed angel investors.

PrePlay said that it intends to use the additional cash to flesh out its operations with additional staff, and develop additional content for its suite of games while also looking at additional opportunities in the entertainment space.

The company has done well without a major infusion of venture cash. It landed a major deal with the NHL, a real coup for a start up app developer, which included a host of content from Molson Canadian, a major sponsor. The company also had a big Super Bowl push with partner Subway.

Currently the company offers apps that enable predictive game participation. Players predict the next play just moments before it occurs and can compete with friends or just other users. They can gain bragging rights as well as points for correct predictions.

The free app is currently only available for Apple’s iOS platform and it has two apps available. With football season approaching I suspect we might see a NCAA or NFL focused version soon. However the company has said that it wants to expand out of the sports arena and also include areas such as reality, contests and award shows on television.

Filed Under: Apple, Apps, iOS, NHL, PrePlay Sports, Venture Capital Tagged With:

Golf GameBook Launches USA vs Europe Competition

July 11, 2012 by

Golfers are very competitive people- not a news flash I know, and Golf GameBook is seeking to leverage that, along with nationalistic pride, in its latest contest that is a virtual Ryder Cup in which any registered user can participate.

I guess I should have said any American or European registered user since the event is a mobile version of the Ryder Cup, at least in terms of the geographic roots of the players. However rather than a one week event this one, called The GameBook Cup: USA vs Europe, will take six weeks.

Starting on July 30, 2012 and concluding on September 9, 2012 the contest will allow participants to compete on a wide variety of categories that will have five different ones, one each week with the one in the first week being most birdies. Each week new categories will be revealed and weekly prizes will be drawn among the winning continent’s golfers who participated in the Cup.

For the last week there will all five of the previous categories to compete in, and the side that wins that week will win the Cup. Despite the geographic requirement of the continent of origin for the players, any golf course around the globe can be played in the competition.

To play you need the company’s app, which is available for both Android and iPhones. Rounds are automatically after completion when using the app. For those of you that are interested in the real Ryder Cup, it will be played at Medinah Country Club, Medinah, Ill., September 25-30, 2012. Team USA has British Open Champion Stewart Cink as the Captain, and Team Europe is led by European Tour golfer Johan Edfors.

Filed Under: Android, Apple, Apps, Golf, Golf GameBook, iOS Tagged With:

U.S. Open Sets Records for Online, App Viewing

June 20, 2012 by

We don’t have any definitive viewer numbers, but according to a press release from the USGA, the recent U.S. Open golf tournament in San Francisco attracted a record number of online viewers, especially for live online video and via mobile devices. This is hardly a surprise, since online golf viewership overall has been spiking this year, with no end in sight to the growth curve.

According to the USGA, which pioneered online coverage of golf, overall viewer visits to the U.S. Open website during the week increased 79 percent from the year-before totals, while views of live streaming video increased 210 percent from 2011. Though the USGA hasn’t provided exact numbers on page views and streaming video looks, it’s a good guess that the latter number is somewhere in the one- to two-million range, since approximately a half-million to a million folks will watch online video of a regular PGA event, according to PGA Tour reps. The U.S. Open’s website features were powered technically by IBM, which also helps produce the wonderful online experience for The Masters golf tourney.

The availability of an Android version of the USGA’s U.S. Open app helped spike visits to the mobile version of the Open website — according to the USGA, mobile website views increased 375 percent in 2012, with iPhone app downloads jumping up 44 percent from the previous year. In addition to live video the U.S. Open websites also included a live leaderboard, a photo stream and a unique feature that let you look at an interactive map of the course and see which players were on which hole. The USGA was also extremely active on Twitter, with the official U.S. Open Twitter feed providing constant scoring updates and links to feature coverage.

Even though the U.S. Open live online video wasn’t very comprehensive — on Thursday and Friday the coverage followed one “marquee” group throughout its round, and on the weekend the coverage consisted of only play at two holes — it was extremely well produced, with commentators that were critically judged by many observers to be better than some of the broadcast TV talent. It’s probably a safe guess to say that next year the USGA will continue to expand live online coverage of the U.S. Open, in sync with the expanded live online views coming next season from the PGA Tour for regular events. That’s good news for golf fans, who will apparently be rewarded for finding more ways to watch.

Filed Under: 4G LTE, Android, Apple, Apps, AT&T, ESPN, Golf, Golf Channel, iOS, iPad, iPhone, Live sports via mobile, Live Sports Video Consumption, PGA, Smartphone, The Masters, Tiger Woods, Twitter, US Open, USGA Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

Microsoft Delivers Surface: Its own Tablet Family

June 18, 2012 by

Microsoft used the created hype of a short notice major press event held in the heart of Hollywood to debut a major new product family, and a hardware one at that- welcome to the Microsoft Surface, a tablet family.

This is part of a much bigger effort by the company that when combined with its next generation Windows 8 operating system launch later this year the company hopes will propel it into the midst of two large high tech trends it has missed-smartphones and tablets.

After a day full of rumors, primarily that Microsoft was going to deliver its own tablets, Steve Ballmer, Microsoft’s CEO took the stage a bit after 4 pm PT and kicked the event off by saying that “Windows is the heart and soul of Microsoft”

He then went on to talk about how the company has been successful with a range of hardware products in its past as well from the Soft Card, different lines of mice and the Xbox. Microsoft Surface will now join that list of hardware products from a company known for its software.

The Surface is designed for Windows and will enable users to use Windows apps and games and is designed for both business and entertainment usage. It will feature an ultra ridged yet light, 1.5 lbs, VaporMG magnesium case. It will support high definition video on its 10.6-inch display and has a built-in kickstand so that you can set it up on a table to watch video.

The company will build them in a variety of colors and will have two basic lines; one will run Windows RT and feature either 32GB or 64GB storage and one that will run Windows Pro and have 64GB or 128GB storage.

Microsoft plans to sell them directly via Microsoft Stores in the US and online around the world. Release dates and pricing were not released but the RT version will be available first with the Windows Pro following about 90 days later.

There has been a growing buzz about Windows 8. Intel has been touting the number of its OEMs that are developing tablets that will be designed to run the operating system while Asus and others have given sneak peeks of their tablets at recent trade shows.

Still Apple’s iPad is firmly entrenched in the top position in this market and market research firm IDC has predicted that it will see its share grow over the next year. For 2013 IDC predicted that 142.8 million will be sold, up from its previous forecast of 137.4 and by 2016 it expects that 221.6 million will be sold. Apple’s iPad is expected to own 62.5% of the market this year, up from 58.2% last year. Android is expected to drop from last years’ 38.7% to 36.5% this year.

It is reported that Google will soon be selling its own tablets running its Android operating system, so that will make the two established platforms, Apple’s iOS and Google’s Android, soon available directly from the manufactures and Microsoft will expand that group. RIM also sells its own products.

Hard to say how this will come out- a lot of naysayers predicted that the Xbox would flop because Microsoft had no business in that market. I suspect a lot will depend on the Windows experience- it could really be a benefit in the corporate space where established security measures would make it much easier to adopt these products rather than the Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) that is now occurring.

Filed Under: Amazon, Android, Apple, Asus, Google, iOS, Microsoft, Surface, Tablets, Windows 8 Tagged With: , , , ,

Bantr Seeks to bring Soccer Fans Together

June 18, 2012 by

With the Euro 2012 tournament up and roaring along with the first round of eliminations I got to wondering about what type of chat and viewing options that was available for fans to catch up on scores and possibly talk a bit of trash to rivals and went looking.

Not surprising there is a number of apps available for a fan, including some we have talked about here previously such as Fancru. One i found that caught my eye was Bantr, an app that is designed to bring together soccer fans.

What made it noteworthy was it was one of the first fan interaction sites I have seen that is dedicated to a single group of fans, it is only about soccer, which I suspect is just fines with fans of that sport because the cross over talk would probably get pretty heated.

The free app is currently only available for products that run Apple’s iOS operating system including the iPad, iPod Touch and iPhone. It is obviously designed for European soccer and supports English, German, Northern Sami and Spanish.

It shares many similarities with other interactive fan sites: you can select your teams that you support, check into games; chant or banter with other fans and predict outcomes. Some interesting touches include in game voting on if a player dives, on cards and penalties and the worthiness of substitutions. You can also vote for player of the match, rate players, refs and matches, and vote on manager and player approval.

The company was founded in 2010 and has secured $328,000 is seed money, according to Crunchbase. If you want to get a taste of what is available but do not want to download the app just yet, or do not have an iPhone (Android support is supposedly coming) you can head over hear at Facebook and take a look at what is available.

Filed Under: Android, Apple, ESPN, Euro 2012, Facebook, iOS, Soccer, Startup Tagged With: , ,

Friday Grab Bag: Big Kindle Sale, Kentucky Derby Point System

June 15, 2012 by

Looking for a sports watch that can track your every move but dislike the bland sameness that seems to pervade the industry? Well Nike has teamed with TomTom to break that boredom with a set of Nike+ Sports watches that come in day-glo colors so that you can match your jogging outfit.

The upgraded GPS watch, which runs around $149, will support NikeFuel and provide users with a wealth of information including position, speed, and the ever popular calories burned. It also can be programmed with reminders and motivational messages.

Apple to kill Ping in next OS release?
Apple has been hinting for some time that Ping, its attempt at social networking, was on a short leash and now it sounds as if it is at the end of its short product life as the company decides not to spend good money after bad.

All Things Digital reports that the technology will be absent in future operating system releases. Of course in hindsight that seems quite obvious considering all of the Facebook integration there will be in the next release.

ESPN loses Premier League broadcast rights
Sports Illustrated has reported that ESPN was shut out of the latest round of broadcast rights for the English Premier League. The winning bid of $4.49 billion was submitted by BSkyB and BT for the domestic TV rights in a 3-year deal. The previous deal, which was split between ESPN and BSkyB was for $1.95 billion.

ITC throws out Google patents in Apple/HTC dispute
The International Trade Commission delivered some bad news to Google when it threw out five of its patents that it had assigned to HTC. HTC needed the patents in its legal battles with Apple where it is trying to bar the import of select Apple products into Taiwan.

According to Foss Patents the court rejected an investigation into the assigned patents and said that it cannot sue Apple over violating patents that it does not own, and which it appears is just renting from Google for the trial. HTC said that it will appeal. Both Apple and HTC/Google have a series of patent lawsuits against each other ongoing around the globe.

HTC buys some patents
So if you can’t rent them, buy them. HTC has confirmed that it is buying once high flying graphics processor developer S3 Graphics, and that a driving reason behind the deal is to get its hands on the company’s patent portfolio.

While not the largest in the industry S3 does own approximately 270 patents, some of which are licensed to other third party developers. HTC is one of the major companies that has been fighting it out with Apple over patents used in mobile devices such as smartphones.

Kentucky Derby Follows NASCAR’s Lead
Ever wonder how a horse qualifies for the Kentucky Derby? Well wonder no more because the races organizers are taking steps to spell out how and why horses manage to gain entry to one of the premier racing events in the world.


Churchill Downs has developed what it calls the “Road to the Kentucky Derby” and will use a point system much like NASCAR’s that will assign points to horses that run select races, based on how they finish. The program will start this fall for the current crop of two year olds and will be used to determine next years crop of horses for the race.

Android growth still strong
Google’s Andy Rubin, who is the head of the smartphone operating system, said that the daily activation of devices running the Android operating system is now averaging 900,000 devices a day. Last year at the same time it was 500,000.

Asus confirms Google Tablet-off the record of course
Android Authority said that it sat down with an executive from Asus at the recent Computex show who confirmed that his company was building a Google-labeled tablet that will enter the 7-inch form factor fray.

Expected to be powered by Nvidia’s quad-core Tegra 3 processor the device is expected to be priced in the $150-$250 range. Look for Google’s big Google I/O conference at the end of the month as the launching pad for the device.

Want to make your pillow a touchscreen? With MaKey MaKey you just might be able to
MaKey MaKey is the latest startup to catch my limited attention span has appeared at Kickstarter, a project that seeks to turn everyday items into functioning touchscreens with the ability to interact with the Internet.

Sound too good to be true, well it is not reality yet but there is a some interesting demos over at Kickstarter. It is simply a board, some alligator clips and an Internet connection via a PC and in no time you to could be using bananas as a keyboard.

Its funding effort, which ends today, has been a tremendous success. Seeking a $25,000 goal it went over the top and at the time of this post had already received pledges worth $533,313 with close to 11,000 backers. Nice bit of overkill.

Kindle scores big with State Department
While Apple gets most of the publicity due to its tremendous success with the iPad the Kindle just scored a major deal with the US State Department. According to a piece from The Atlantic Wire, the State Department will be purchasing thousands of Kindles.

The total value of the deal has been reported at $16.5 million and will call for the tablets to come with a teaching program. The initial buy for the project is 2,500 devices and they will be sent to libraries and other education around the world.

Filed Under: Amazon, Android, Apple, Asus, English Premier Soccer League, Google, iOS, Kickstarter, Kindle, NASCAR, Startup, Tablets Tagged With: , ,
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