Fantasy Football Business - YOUbeQB - Has Lots Of Potential
“Armchair quarterbacks will be able to put their play calling skills to the test this football season thanks to a new online fantasy game from a Bellevue startup called YOUbeQB.
Unlike other fantasy leagues in which points are accumulated by the performance of individual players or the outcomes of games, YOUbeQB allows laptop-wielding fans to test their football smarts by choosing what offensive plays will be called during NFL and college football games.
Some heavy hitters have already lined up behind the 10-month-old startup – including hall of fame football players Ronnie Lott and Joe Montana who invested – along with former San Francisco 49ers offensive lineman Harris Barton – through their Woodside, Calif.-based venture fund HRJ Capital. Other investors include former Seahawks president Bob Whitsitt, Neah Power Chief Executive Paul Abramowitz and Bill Savoy, the former president of Paul Allen’s Vulcan Ventures.
YOUbeQB is led by Kris Billmaier, a 26-year-old Notre Dame graduate who after college spent two years playing right field for a Detroit Tigers minor league team.
Billmaier, the son of Melodeo chief executive Jim Billmaier, came up with YOUbeQB while watching football games with friends and family at his Kirkland home. Sitting around the television watching Notre Dame and Seattle Seahawks games, Billmaier and his guests would attempt to predict what plays the coaches would call. They had so much fun – including an occasional monetary wager – that they created a prototype board game that served as a predecessor to the online version now being rolled out.
More than 13 million people participate in fantasy sports leagues, with a report conducted by the University of Mississippi’s Kim Beason indicating that about $1 billion is spent on fantasy sport publications, league fees and other services each year. A report released this week by the consulting firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas estimated that U.S. employers could lose between $230 million and $435 million per week due to employees playing fantasy football at work during the upcoming NFL season.
“Anyone who denies that it is a distraction in the work place is kidding themselves,” said Challenger Gray spokesman James Pedderson.
Fantasy football is obviously a lucrative and growing market, one in which Billmaier is looking to tap. His plan revolves around an unique advertising model in which corporate sponsors can acquire naming rights for the 57 virtual stadiums in YOUbeQB.
The sponsorships would include the ability to run video ads on the “virtual jumbo tron” scoreboard that sits in the middle of the online game board. Billmaier declined to disclose ad rates, though he said the naming rights will cost ‘a lot less then they would in a real stadium.’”