New technology from startup ventures is transforming the global sports industry. This Startup Series has introduced over 300 startup companies in the sports technology space to a broader audience by allowing Founders of promising new ventures to tell their story and pitch their idea. Feel free to submit your startup’s answers to the below questions or contact us if you know of a startup that should be considered for inclusion in this series.
Company name: sportsQ™
Founder(s): Don C. Williams, Jr.
Headquarters: Washington, DC
1. What is your elevator pitch?
sportsQ™ is an Artificial Intelligence, Natural Language Processing (NLP)-based Sports Information and Social Media platform. The concept won the “Elevator Pitch” segment at a Fantasy Sports Trade Association (FSTA) conference.
Our platform provides both Daily and Season Long Fantasy Sports Players as well as avid Sports Fans the ability to query for complex Sports Statistics and Information and set a sportsQ™ Alert.
For example in preparation for an upcoming draft for their Fantasy League, a User can query “Give me the top 5 QB’s in the NFC and AFC who lead in TD’s, passing yards and interceptions in 2014, 2015 and 2016”, and have the result immediately returned.
Users can also set a sportsQ™ Alert (via Twitter and Facebook also) to be notified when their selected player or team meets the metric set. When setting the sportsQ™ Alert, the User can also embed the link for their Season Long or Daily Fantasy game for the player. For example, “Alert me when Tom Brady passes for 300 yards or a TD”, “Alert me when Ezekiel Elliott has a TD or a fumble” or “Alert me when the Denver Broncos have 3 sacks”. Once the metric has been attained and sent via text or e-mail, the User can click on the embedded link to go immediately to their Fantasy League or Daily Fantasy Game for an immediate update.
2. Problem & Solution
As a long time Fantasy Sports Player for over 10 years across multiple Fantasy Sports, i.e., NFL, MLB and NBA, I was always frustrated that I didn’t have one platform where I could find all the Fantasy Sports information and data I wanted and needed, without having to search across and keep open multiple Fantasy Sports websites. This was especially crucial during my Fantasy draft preparation and during the season to track my players performance which was the genesis of the sportsQ™ Alerts.
3. Market – your target market and the overall market
We look to target not only the almost 58M Season Long Fantasy Sports Players and Daily Fantasy Sports Players but also expand our reach abroad to include Soccer and Cricket, the #1 and #2 sports in the world. We currently have a relationship with the No. 1 Fantasy Cricket provider who is based in India.
4. Business Model – how do you make money and what has been your revenue to date?
Our revenue model will be based on member subscriptions, brands and marketers embedded advertisements in the sportsQ™ Alerts and sponsored brand and marketer revenue generated from having our API embedded into Fantasy Sports and Sports News websites.
5. Management Team – with titles
Don C. Williams, Jr – President/CEO, sportsQ™
Erin Patton, Advisor – Former Nike Executive responsible for the launch of the Jordan Brand
Patrick Graf, Advisor – CEO of Enablest and Sociallity, LLC. Co-Founder/CTO of Revolution Money with Steve Case, Founder of AOL and Ted Leonsis, Owner of the Washington Wizards, Washington Capitals and the Verizon Center. Revolution Money was acquired by American Express.
6. Financial needs: are you currently looking for investment? Have you raised investment already? If so, who are your investors?
We have self-funded to this point and currently have interest from outside investors including a former All-Pro Player in the NFL.