Archive for the ‘Volleyball’ Category

Sep 09

RotoHog Syndicates Fantasy Football Salary Cap Game For Bloggers And Online Network

by Kelly Perdew Baseball, Entrepreneur, Fantasy Sports, Football, Leadership, NASCAR, NBA, RotoHog.com, Soccer, Sports, Uncategorized, Volleyball No Comments

New offering from one of the world’s fastest growing game developers enables any independent publisher the ability to brand their own high impact fantasy football game at no cost

LOS ANGELES, CA—(Marketwire – August 25, 2010)- RotoHog, one of the fastest-growing and most innovative fantasy sports and entertainment game operators and developers, today unveiled their latest product offering, a syndicated version of their award-winning, Fantasy Football Salary Cap game for independent publishers. The new game is first in a series of sports and entertainment games to be syndicated in the coming months.

As consumer content engagement continues to shift towards niche sites and games, RotoHog recognized the opportunity to extend its games-as-a-service model to deliver a turnkey solution for publishers who search for new ways to engage and monetize their audiences without the expense of licensing or managing a game themselves.

RotoHog has been developing and operating custom and configurable games for some of the world’s leading media and sports companies, and in so doing has developed a highly scaleable, sophisticated gaming platform. “We are excited to be offering an accessible gaming solution for an expanding market,” said Kelly Perdew, RotoHog CEO. “Our syndicated model will provide our associates an engaging, branded game experience and introduce new audiences to the quality of our games.”

The syndicated Fantasy Football Salary Cap game launches this week with SportsFanLive, the premier sports content and social network, dozens of independent bloggers, and Weplay, the leading online youth sports network participating.

Publishers that join the RotoHog’s Associate Program, will have access to personalization and marketing tools to co-brand the RotoHog games and share in the revenue generated by their audiences.

RotoHog is currently accepting applications and inquiries for their syndicated Football Salary Cap game. For more information go to http://bit.ly/clAVJ9 or email Associates@RotoHog.com.

Jun 22

Game Changer

by Kelly Perdew Apprentice, Baseball, Entrepreneur, Fantasy Sports, Football, Leadership, NASCAR, NBA, RotoHog.com, Soccer, Sports, Volleyball No Comments

‘Apprentice’ champion turned fantasy sports website into major player by adjusting the game plan.

By Alfred Lee, LA Business Journal link: Game Changer Story with Photos

Monday, June 21, 2010

Today, RotoHog hardly bears a resemblance to the fantasy sports website Kelly Perdew took the reins of in June 2008.

The Westchester company has recently made a name for itself as a creator of fantasy games for other businesses, including Sporting News, NASCAR and Us Weekly. But it was initially launched in 2006 as a stand-alone game site that could compete directly with fantasy sports giants like ESPN and Yahoo Sports.

The 43-year-old Perdew was brought on as the company’s new chief executive two years ago with one main objective: to make it profitable. His resume included running companies such as amateur sports website Eteamz.com, but he’s perhaps best known as the winner of season two of the NBC reality television show “The Apprentice.” He beat other contestants for the chance to work for Donald Trump under a 14-month contract.

Almost immediately after arriving at RotoHog, he put into motion a complete transformation of the company’s strategy.

“I don’t think a lot of people could have pulled it off,” said Kent Smetters, who co-founded the company with his partner David Wu. “Kelly evolved the model into a different kind of company.”

Rotohog.com went live in early 2007 offering fantasy leagues for the National Football League, Major League Baseball and other sports with a twist. To make the leagues more competitive and protect against bad trades among contestants, each player was valued in a unique stock exchange.

However, despite raising about $9 million, the site struggled for nearly two years. The problem? Perdew saw that bigger competitors such as ESPN had a captive audience by virtue of their news content, whereas at the end of the football or baseball season, RotoHog’s users left the site.

“They had spent a significant amount of money to drive eyeballs to the website,” Perdew said, “but there was no path to profitability.”

However, Perdew knew that ESPN and other competitors such as Fox Sports were running their games on older computer platforms that would likely need significant upgrades in a few years. He saw an opportunity for the company to reposition itself from a fantasy sports website to a games provider for other brands, moving from a consumer model to a business-to-business model.

“So I said, OK, we should become a platform that could basically replace their entire back end,” he recalled.

Not only that, Perdew moved for the company to expand its games beyond sports to broaden its appeal to other industries that want to use online games to interact with their customers.

After selling RotoHog’s board on the idea, Perdew had the company hunker down for a year while it developed a new Internet platform that could serve as the template for scores of websites.

Within the first three months, he had let go of 25 of the company’s 40 employees, many of whom had been hired to build content for a website that was no longer the focus. But the head count went back up to about 30 as he hired a new team of software developers.

“Don’t mention that time to any of the guys here,” he said, referring to the turmoil.

In September 2009, after more than a year of development, RotoHog launched its new platform. In the 9 months since, it’s developed 37 games for other companies, including those in the entertainment, consumer brands and gaming industries.

Online future

Among the games are one developed for ABC reality television show “The Bachelor,” which features trivia questions and gives out sponsored prizes, encouraging users to go back and watch old episodes online to get the answers. Another for Us Weekly allows fans to guess who will be featured in the magazine.

“I think more brands and more webites are looking at different ways to engage readers, and gaming for a certain demographic is interesting,” said Romina Rosado, executive producer of UsMagazine.com.

The company has also been working on a fantasy game on Facebook for newly launched Bloomberg Sports, which sells sports analysis to fans and fantasy players. The game will challenge users to pick successful hitters and will go live by the end of June.

Bill Squadron, the head of Bloomberg Sports, said the idea behind the game was to encourage users to buy the company’s baseball analytics for a leg up on the competition.

“Hopefully that’ll both let them know about it and drive sales of that product, and at the end of the day that’s the real goal we have,” he said. “You’re going to see a big number of major brands experimenting with this in different ways.”

RotoHog hasn’t yet reached profitability, but Perdew said the company is “this close.” Competitors such as Fanball also provide fantasy games for other companies, but Perdew claims no other providers cut across as many industries.

Another edge appears to be Perdew himself. He said the recognition from being on “The Apprentice” has helped the company get exposure through media coverage and speaking engagements. It’s even helped get meetings with potential investors.

“We’re pretty much able to get to anybody we need to talk to about stuff,” he said. “It’s a nice icebreaker for discussions. People are always asking me what’s up with Donald’s hair. I never answer that question.”

RotoHog

FOUNDED: 2006

HEADQUARTERS: Westchester

CORE BUSINESS: Creates and manages online games for varied clients.

EMPLOYEES: 30 (up from 15 in 2008)

GOAL: Profitability.

THE NUMBERS: More than $1 million in revenue in the last 12 months.

Jul 02

RotoHog Open Letter from Kelly Perdew, July 2009

by Kelly Perdew Baseball, Entrepreneur, Fantasy Sports, Leadership, NASCAR, NBA, Networking, RotoHog.com, Soccer, Sports, Volleyball 1 Comment

July 1, 2009

Dear Friends and Colleagues,

Approximately two months ago I sent along a first quarter “progress report” letter to keep everyone up to date with all the new developments at RotoHog, as we expanded our partnerships and secured the necessary additional funding we would need to take the business to a new level. At the end of the letter I mentioned that more good news was coming, and today I wanted to pass along the latest advances we have made in the business as we continue to make the company into the most innovative fantasy sports gaming developer for major brands and professional sports entities.

Our leadership position in this very competitive marketplace is expanding almost daily. Just in the last few weeks we have been able to announce:

• A landmark partnership with The Sporting News, where RotoHog will build, activate and market all online fantasy games for one of the most established online properties and storied names in sports and entertainment publishing. http://tinyurl.com/necqpo

• A partnership with Chris Russo and the folks at Fantasy Sports Ventures, the fastest-growing independent site on the web, to build games for FSV’s extensive list of sites and ever-evolving business partners, brands and sponsors. http://tinyurl.com/n2kkju

• A strategic partnership with online news and content provider Operation Sports to produce, manage and market their 2009 Stock Exchange Football Game. Operation Sports is a leading news and content provider focused on the sports video game industry with over 100,000 members. http://tinyurl.com/cszvzh

These new deals, in addition to our existing partnerships with the NBA, Turner Sports, FOX en Espanol, Pro Football Weekly, the AVP and others, give us the widest range of strategic partnerships to develop and build games in the industry today, and the best part is we are just beginning to establish our brand.

In the next few months we expect to continue to grow partnerships with additional media entities around the globe, as we shape RotoHog into the ultimate destination for brands who want to provide “best in class” and innovative gaming applications to their loyal subscribers ubiquitously on their sites, mobile, and social media channels.

Once again, we want to thank you for your support and interest, and as always, if there is anything we can help you with, please let us know.

And please come play our famous Stock Exchange Football Game here http://tinyurl.com/nhfw96.

Regards,

Kelly Perdew
President & CEO, RotoHog

Apr 30

The AVP and RotoHog would like to formally congratulate our first Weekly Winner

by Kelly Perdew Fantasy Sports, RotoHog.com, Sports, Volleyball No Comments

The AVP and Rotohog would like to formally congratulate our first Weekly Winner in the AVP Fantasy Salary Cap Game! The winner in the Global League after Riverside is Dan Madden. Dan, who beach volleyball fans may know as “Danny Kinda,” is the Art Director of KindaGood.com, a website that focuses on beach volleyball players and their lifestyle.

“I’ve been training my whole life for this tournament. My coaches always told me that when it came to volleyball, fantasy came natural for me,” said Danny.

In addition to bragging rights, Dan has won an official game ball signed by the 2008 Beijing Olympians and two VIP passes to an AVP event of his choice in the 2009/2010 season. Dan has now also been entered into the running for the Grand Prize of a VIP Trip for two to the AVP Las Vegas Event. Grand Prize includes hotel, VIP tickets, Player Party Invite and a Trophy Presentation right on the sand. Congratulations Dan!

In order to keep Dan from winning two weeks in a row, you need to up your game for San Diego, taking place May 1-3 at the Rincon Harrah’s. An AVP Wilson bag with prizes and two VIP passes to an AVP event of their choice in the 2009/2010 season is at stake, so get to it!

AVP Fantasy players can set up leagues for free, invite their friends, and compete for valuable prizes at AVP.com. PLAY HERE!

Mar 06

ROTOHOG, AVP PRO BEACH VOLLEYBALL TOUR CREATE PRO BEACH VOLLEYBALL FANTASY GAME

by Kelly Perdew Fantasy Sports, RotoHog.com, Volleyball No Comments

One of America’s leading media distribution companies to create new online fantasy sports platform for one of the world’s most popular sports

LOS ANGELES, CA—(Marketwire – March 6, 2009) RotoHog, one of the fastest-growing and most innovative fantasy sports operators and developers for major brands and professional sports, today announced that they have formed a partnership with the AVP Pro Beach Volleyball Tour to create an exciting new fantasy game for the sport and its fans. The game will begin at the end of March and run through the end of the AVP season in September, and will allow fans to create their own lineups and follow the statistics of their favorite players through the AVP website, avp.com.

“The AVP is one of those unique sports properties that has everything a fan could want…great male and female athletes, individual and team play, a loyal following, recognition amongst the casual fan and loads of statistics, all of which makes it prime for the fantasy sports world,” said Kelly Perdew, CEO of RotoHog. “We are very excited to be able to build out this first-ever fantasy game for the fans and the athletes, and are looking forward to a long partnership as the game evolves.”

“The AVP is all about the experience, and having a fantasy game will now give our fans an opportunity to experience the thrill of our events in another way, and follow the tour and their favorite athletes even more closely each week,” said Leonard Armato, CEO and Commissioner of the AVP Crocs Tour. “We are very pleased to be able to work with Rotohog in bringing this new digital opportunity to our fans.”

The 2009 AVP Fantasy Challenge powered by RotoHog, will be launched in mid-March, and will give fans the opportunity to follow their favorite players on the AVP Crocs Tour all season. Fans will also be able to sign up at any time, and prizes will be rewarded for short-term contests as well as for the full season. The winners will be those who score the most fantasy points based on AVP player statistics such as aces, blocks, digs and hitting percentage. In addition to the game’s presence on the Tour’s official website avp.com, it will be promoted onsite, online and in AVP broadcasts.

RotoHog is the leading fantasy sports platform provider, with partners NBA.com, Turner Digital, Pro Football Weekly, AVP, Fox Espanol, GoDaddy, and LG Electronics.  RotoHog is privately held, and based in Los Angeles, CA. Investors include Allen & Co, DFJ DragonFund, Mission Ventures and Sports Capital Partners Worldwide.

For more information on RotoHog, or to sign up for league play, please visit www.rotohog.com/corporate

 
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