New technology from startup ventures is transforming the sports industry. The mission of our Startup Profile Series is to introduce startup companies in the sports technology space to a broader audience and allow founders of new ventures to tell their story. This particular article is profiling one of the ten startups in the Dodgers Accelerator with R/GA, which is culminating in a Demo Day on November 10th at Dodger Stadium.
Company: Juke
CEO: Andrew & Jared (Co-CEOs)
1. What is your elevator pitch?
Juke is a mobile platform making fantasy sports simpler, quicker, and way more fun.
2. Problem & Solution
Fantasy sports are too time consuming and too complicated for many fans. Season long leagues require too much commitment and are difficult to organize, and daily fantasy players are overwhelmed with endless lists of contests and details. Casual and serious fans want to be able to play fantasy on their own time – quickly, hassle free, and on the go – and there really is no fantasy platform that allows you to do that.
For those reasons, we created Juke. Juke doesn’t look, sound or feel like any other fantasy platform – because its not. You’ll have a beautifully simple, curated feed of fantasy goodness. Simply swipe 10 cards to play a contest.
3. Market
There are almost 52 million fantasy players in the US, a market worth $19.5 billion annually. But as big as the industry is, it could be so much bigger, because the casual fan doesn’t really have a place in the current market.
In addition to the more serious sports fans seeking an additional, lightweight fantasy experience, we’re looking to take the millions of casual fans effectively on the sidelines and put them in the game.
4. Business Model
The casual fan is a demographic that hasn’t been captured by any fantasy platform to date. That presents a prime opportunity for brands to sponsor targeted contests rich with multimedia, advertisements and content. In addition, our user experience and user interface lend themselves perfectly to having white labeled, third party contests from teams, leagues and influencers, allowing them to engage their audiences with our platform.
5. Management Team
Andrew Balogh – Co Founder
Jared Cohen – Co Founder
6. What specifically attracted you to the opportunity to join the Dodgers/RGA Accelerator?
A better question would be, what didn’t? We wanted to align ourselves with one of the premier brands in sports. We also wanted the opportunity to work with the number one digital agency to improve our user experience, user interface and brand. The opportunity to work alongside other ambitious, creative entrepreneurs, and to receive guidance from a group of esteemed mentors was also too good to pass up.
Bonus Question:
What do you want the audience to know about your venture?
We left Yale to pursue this dream because we know its going to make a big splash in the fantasy space. The mobile age has shown us time and time again that simple, reductive experiences win the day. Why should it be any different for fantasy?