New U.S. daily fantasy sports operator boasts a different format
News on 13 Jan 2016
News on 13 Jan 2016
A new Stanford daily fantasy sports start-up boasts that it is positively changing the fantasy sports player’s experience by offering a different real-money format that allows players to compete in 10-minute fantasy sports leagues that are centered around live events fans can watch on TV, instead of drafting a line-up and then waiting a day to see the results.
The company claims that a three-month beta test has proved the popularity of the concept, leading to the company’s operational launch in the real-money environment this week.
“Just as DraftKings and FanDuel improved upon the old fantasy sports model, we are doing the same with daily fantasy sports,” said Stephen A. Murphy, co-founder and CEO of Boom Fantasy in a statement Tuesday.
“At Boom, we cater to real fans who actually want to watch the games – not necessarily the number-crunchers who use complicated algorithms to outperform other line-ups.”
Murphy claims that Boom Fantasy does away with the drafting process and instead allows players to answer questions like “Will LeBron James score more than 8 points this quarter?” or “Will Adam Vinatieri make this 50-yard field goal?” during live events.
All real-money tournaments incorporate multiple events, but are centered on a primary game where players compete against one another by answering between 7 to 50 questions, depending on the tournament format.
The company recently completed a $1.4 million seed round, led by angel investor and Zynga CEO Mark Pincus, the Stanford-StartX Fund, and Rubicon Venture Capital. The round also includes five Stanford business school professors, two professional athletes, and several top mobile gaming executives.
“We’ve built a sophisticated and interactive real-time platform that is completely unique in the market,” said Assaf Einat, co-founder and CTO of Boom Fantasy. “Based on the overwhelming growth of in-game play in Europe, we believe that in-game fantasy sports is the future of the industry.”
Boom Fantasy’s team has several decades of experience in real-money gaming and technology, having previously worked at MGM Resorts International, Google, and High 5 Games. The founders of the company joined forces while completing Stanford’s MBA program.
“Boom Fantasy has been very smart in how they have structured their product,” said Jeff Ifrah, an attorney who advises top gaming operators, including the leaders of the daily fantasy sports space.
“Boom Fantasy is operating under the same federal and state requirements as the market leaders, but the company has formatted its gameplay in a completely unique way.”
Boom Fantasy launched its real-money product in 12 U.S. states – California, Kansas, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Missouri, Nebraska, New Jersey, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Virginia.
