It’s nearly summer, and baseball is entering the heat of its season. There’s a new way to watch live games on TV, predict the game’s outcomes and potentially win cash prizes. That’s the model behind WinView Games’ newest addition to its lineup of app-based sports prediction games.
The skills-based game is free to play and offers cash prizes to its top competitors. (It follows gaming laws in all 50 states.) How do fans reach that level of play? They accurately predict the outcomes of an endless number of scenarios that could play out in the actual baseball game. Playing in rooms of up to 20 people, whether against complete strangers or versus friends and family, participants wager in-game points on a number of possible scenarios —”propositions,” as WinView founder and CEO David Lockton calls them — that could occur in the game. During play, fans predict each at-bat: they can choose simply “safe” or “out,” or wager on a more specific outcome.
At WinView, producers watch live baseball games and create propositions on the fly. Mathematicians calculate the odds of any given outcome based on Major League Baseball statistics. Propositions are delivered to fans in real-time during inning breaks, and predictions lock in once the first pitch in an inning is thrown. Propositions are situational and can range from stolen bases to home runs.
Lockton said the game is designed so that fans can make predictions and possibly win cash prizes during the breaks, but then tune in during gameplay to see how their predictions on individual at-bats play out.
“WinView Games essentially allows you, the sports fan, to play along with the game you’re watching on TV using an app and the touch of your finger on a tablet, smart phone or PC,” Zach Leonsis, the vice president of Monumental Sports Network — who along with his father, Ted Leonsis, invested in WinView Games — wrote in Medium. “It’s a totally revolutionary second screen experience for hardcore sports fans that allows you to interact with your teams and use your skill and knowledge to accurately predict the plays on the field in order to win cash prizes.”
Get The Latest Sports Tech News In Your Inbox!
Players rise and fall in their room and overall standings based on how many points they accrue or lose from making predictions. Players can also leave their room at their will and, if they have enough points, come away with a cash prize. There are also varying levels of play; beginners start in “bronze” rooms, and can move up to “silver” and “gold” rooms based on their performance. Cash prizes are supported by WinView Games’ advertisers, among which are Pepsi and Mountain Dew.
Lockton thinks that with the new baseball game, WinView Games can tap into a market that might otherwise have no connection to baseball. He wants especially to reach the game’s younger fans and the millennial generation, and he is confident that he can engage the large user base for fantasy sports games, as well as the hundred-plus million fans who watch live sports on television.
“We see this game as attractive for baseball fans of all ages and we have significant evidence that it also converts new [fans] from sons and daughters and spouses playing against dad,” Lockton wrote in an email to SportTechie.
The app, which Lockton said has downloads in the six figures, is available on the App Store and Google Play Store.
