New technology from startup ventures is transforming the sports industry. The mission of this series will be to introduce startup companies in the sports technology space to a broader audience and allow Founders of promising new ventures to tell their story. Feel free to contact us if you know of a startup that should be considered for this series.
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Company: Hopscotch
CEO: Laurence Sotsky
Headquarters: El Segundo, CA USA
1. What is your elevator pitch?
Hopscotch is a leader in mobile-platform technology. We help sports organizations, college athletic departments and live-event operators get closer to their fans than ever before, whether the fans are at the game or watching from afar. Our customers include more than 30 sports teams, colleges, venues and live-event operators, including Ole Miss, Dover International Speedway and all 12 teams in the Philippine Basketball Association.
2. Problem & Solution
In an era of declining game-day attendance, sports organizations have to work harder than ever to engage their fans — especially millennials.
They are faced with three challenges:
- how to make the in-venue experience more engaging and convenient.
- how to keep the larger audience of at-home fans glued to all the action.
- how to leverage new and innovative digital-revenue channels.
Hopscotch helps teams launch, manage and monetize mobile apps that give fans the news, scores, videos and excitement they crave – both in venue and out of venue.
Our platform integrates with a wide range of best-of-breed mobile technologies, essentially consolidating functionality from multiple apps into a single team app. This means fans can rely on a single app to get team news, interact with players via social media, buy tickets, watch video replays, upgrade seats, and order merchandise and concessions.
Last but not least, our apps empower teams to monetize the content they create and the fan engagement they create. Most teams are literally giving their content away for free to Facebook and other social-media giants. We offer a way for them to drive incremental revenue through advertising, sponsorships, fan-loyalty programs and m-commerce.
3. Market – your target market and the overall market
Our target market is sports teams, sports leagues, college athletics and venues. In just six months, we came out of stealth mode to win significant market share in minor-league hockey, delivering apps for dozens of teams. These small, scrappy teams with limited budgets forced us to be innovative, and we’re now applying these innovations to college and pro sports. We just launched our first college app for Ole Miss and are in the process of launching apps for all 12 teams in the Philippine Basketball Association.
4. Business Model – how do you make money?
We make money three ways: (1) implementation fees for getting teams set up on our mobile platform, (2) Software as a Service (SaaS) monthly subscription fees, and (3) a share of m-commerce, advertising and sponsorship revenues.
5. Management Team – with titles
- Laurence Sotsky, Chief Executive Officer
- Oleg Sandler, Chief Technology Officer
- Mitch Gordon, Chief Revenue Officer
- Michael Gleason, Chief Financial Officer
6. What else do you want the audience to know about your venture?
We are a technology company that integrates, develops and rapidly deploys the latest technologies, so our clients can win and give their fans the most amazing experience possible. We are firmly focused on helping teams go beyond just providing news, scores, photos and videos in their mobile apps. Giving fans the info they crave is an important first step, but it’s just that — a first step. Lasting fan engagement is about letting fans do more and more in their favorite team’s app, so that app becomes one of the trusted few that a fan will open again and again. And as that app becomes more and more sticky, it provides more and more nonintrusive, value-added ways for the teams to drive m-commerce, advertising and sponsorship revenues.
Bonus Questions: If you were stuck on a desert island with any three athletes, who would they be and why?
Ha! What a great question…Ok, here goes!
- Lionel Messi, because I’m obsessed with Spanish soccer and there would be no one better to hang out with during the day…I could work on my Spanish and my soccer.
- Bill McConnell from Discovery’s show, Dual Survival. He’s a primitive survivalist and could probably help teach us to survive until rescue. I love the show and the respect he shows even to the animals he has to consume to survive.
- Alex Morgan. Well, ummm, she’s Alex Morgan. We’d need a woman’s perspective on survival of course…
If you could go to any sporting event, what would it be and why?
I still haven’t seen Barcelona play at Camp Nou. I was just in Barcelona, speaking at the Mobile World Congress, but unfortunately, the team was out of town. I’d love to see them play Real Madrid or Atlético.