Company: Allstar Stats / Rotoworld.com / Sandbox.com (NBC Sports Fantasy Division)
Launch date: January 1, 1989 (Internet March 1995)
Became full-time operation: 1989
No. of employees: 10

This week we debut a new format for the business profiles, where one or more representatives of the company tell you about the operation via a Q&A format. This first edition draws together several businesses under the NBC Sports fantasy umbrella, with answers provided by Rick Wolf, director of business development for NBC Sports.

1) What was the impetus for the creation of Allstar Stats? What did it offer in its earliest stages?

Rich Pike and Mike Oliveto were high school friends and coworkers at Friendly’s restaurant in Thornwood, N.Y. In 1988, Oliveto worked as a developer at the Power Authority and Pike worked in marketing for online services CBS/IBM/Sears joint venture Prodigy. They played in a fantasy league and hated the reports. Oliveto took the data from the reports and generated better ones. The next year, they decided to run the business out of their parents’ house. Oliveto would do technology and Pike would focus on marketing. They bought a stats feed, bought ads in magazines and started running leagues.

The leagues came in very fast, so they bought hardware and worked long hours to make sure that their customers had the highest level of service and the best reports in the biz.

• In 1992, they added an IVR (interactive voice response) system so people could do transactions by phone.
• In 1995, they went on the Internet with an automated transaction system called the Evaluator.
• In 2002, they brought on Rick Wolf and his Full Moon Sports consulting company.
• In 2003, they hired Gregg Rosenthal as lead NFL writer.
• In 2004, they hired Rick Cordella, who wrote as a stringer to program Rotoworld.com. Cordella quickly became part of the management team and has carried the vision for Rotoworld.com from 2005 to today.

2) How did Rotoworld.com come about, and what has driven it to its current position in the industry?

Rotoworld.com was created as a news source for Allstar Stats leagues in 1998. Matthew Pouliot and Troy Beech approached the Allstar Stats owners with the idea of working for advertising money. Those four initially split all revenues for Rotoworld.com. In 2002, it became a destination site when Allstar spent money at a new design and Pike and Wolf developed our first online draft guides and Assistant GM products (now called Season Pass).

3) What kind of startup costs did each incur, and how did you come up with any necessary capital?

Pike and Oliveto started Allstar as a side job in 1989 and they quit their day jobs in 1990. They spent $10-15k on print ads the first year that they got back in signups in 1989.

4) Was there a big break, a specific occurrence, move or chain of actions that vaulted Rotoworld.com to its status as a leader in fantasy content?

Two moments: The first major moment is when Fox decides (in August 2003) to buy fantasy content instead of hiring writers. They pay us MUCH less than what they would pay a staff, but it allows us to invest EVERY dollar back into the site/personnel. It allows us to keep all our best people and extend technologically and content to achieve our leadership position, especially in content premiums.

The second major moment happens when Rotoworld.com takes a risk on an idea from Rick Cordella on how to maximize advertising on the site. In August 2004, Rotoworld.com begins to use ad networks to fill inventory that is not sold. An innovative method of using five to six ad networks at the same time results in triple the ad revenue for Rotoworld.com. Again, Pike and Oliveto are smart enough to pump it ALL back into Rotoworld.com and rebuild infrastructure of Sandbox/Allstar Stats, automating most of the two legacy sites.

5) How much of the revenue is connected to Rotoworld’s various deals to feed player updates? How many partners does the company have on that front?

Rotoworld.com has only a small number of clients (about a dozen). The content is also distributed to the 235 affiliates of NBC Sports.

6) How did the arrivals of Rick Wolf and Rick Cordella alter plans for or directions of the businesses?

Rick Wolf would never have played fantasy sports if it wasn’t for Rich Pike. In 1989, Pike, who played softball with Wolf, convince an owner in the Prodigy Rotisserie league to add Wolf as his partner since Wolf was on the development team for Baseball Manager, the first online fantasy baseball game. Wolf returned the favor in late 2001, by creating a set of suggestions for how to grow the Allstar Stats business, including private label games for media companies, Rotoworld.com as a destination site and content premiums. In January 2002, Wolf’s Full Moon company contracted with Allstar Stats in a heavily performance-based deal to raise top-line revenues.

Lost in the Allstar Stats success story is the impact of Rick Cordella. His advertising system innovation that tripled Rotoworld.com’s revenues starting in 2004 turns out to be the critical Allstar Stats/Rotoworld.com innovation since it drove high-margin revenue and set the stage for NBC’s involvement.

Most important is Cordella’s daily focus to quality, coupled with his ability to find, sign and most importantly retain great fantasy sports writers and understand what great sports content is. This is what makes Rotoworld.com continue to lead in fantasy news and premium content products.

7) How did the relationship with NBC generate?

NBC bought the rights for NFL football and wanted some contests and fantasy content for their soon-to-launch NBCSports.com. They called their old friend Brett Vandermark, who worked for the Arena Football League. Sandbox.com did the official Arena Football League games using an Allstar Stats engine and content from Rotoworld.com. VanderMark recommended Allstar Stats and Wolf, then acting chairman of Sandbox.com.

Allstar Stats execs worked with NBC Sports veteran Kevin Monaghan to create a partnership deal to produce games/content. At that time, NBC Universal became interested in owning it all to jumpstart its new NBCSports.com initiative. NBCU purchased Allstar Stats, Rotoworld.com and Sandbox.com on August 18, 2006.

8) What have been the biggest benefits of NBC’s acquisition of Allstar? If you could go back, is there anything you would do differently?

NBC brings a level of expertise, passion and economies of scale that taught us how to be better at what we do. They have shown a keen interest in the Rotoworld.com property as a breaking sports news property and continue to be very supportive of the premium content business. It really is a family.

As for what I would do differently, I believe you should never go back. Look ahead and the future is bright!

David Bowie said: “Things that happened in the past only happened in your mind. Forget your mind and you’ll be free.”

9) What examples can you point to of NBC’s commitment to the fantasy platform?

We had 30-second spots on preseason games. We have had integrated information in all telecasts and in every Football Night in America. We have been promoted in every type of NBC Sports telecast.

Most importantly, they include fantasy in EVERY discussion. NBC Sports simply gets it on all levels.

10) What can we expect to see from you guys going forward?

We will continue to innovate whether in content premiums, fantasy content and/or content strategies. We will continue to dedicate ourselves to speed of delivery and depth of coverage. We will continue to expand fantasy sports news to be thought of as sports news.

Company: Mock Draft Central
Launched: 2002
Site: www.mockdraftcentral.com

Jason Pliml concedes right on his site’s about page that the growth rate has surprised even him.

“I guess I should have known that when you mix an addicting hobby, technical know-how, hyper-ambition and a cold beer,” he writes, “anything is possible.”

If you think about it, though, the rise of this particular company could be even more indicative of the place that fantasy sports has taken within the broader sports/entertainment culture than any of the other companies profiled on this site.

There are the fantasy games providers, those who actually host the leagues and present the contests, providing outlets for those fans looking to enjoy themselves. Then there are the myriad content providers, offering advice for those who want to enjoy themselves a bit more than the leaguemates they’re trying to beat.

Then there is Mock Draft Central. Although the site provides some content, it basically acts as the batting cage in which you work out before facing the live-game pitching that is your actual league draft. Of course, that is oversimplifying the venture.

Mock Draft Central is an ambitious software hub that is based at a site that focuses on delivering a multisport mock draft lobby. The idea generated from a fantasy player/software engineer who found his own draft preparation to be cumbersome.

“I used to endure a laborious preparation process for my upcoming fantasy drafts,” Pliml, the founder and president of MDC, tells FSB.com. “I would lay out several spreadsheets and predict which players would be selected by various teams. Not only was it boring and redundant, but it incorporated all of my own biases regarding the players. I thought, ‘Wouldn’t it be great if I could practice against people that knew what they were doing, but not in my actual league?’ The seed was thus planted.”

That seed was initially fed by funding from Pliml’s previous work as a software-engineering consultant. Beginning at age 21, he worked on a wide variety of projects in areas that ranged from real estate appraisal to nuclear power plant operation and a few others that most of us would need advanced degrees to even talk about. By 25, he had co-created a consulting firm that did nearly a million dollars worth of business over the first year and a half. It was after splitting with his initial consulting partner that Pliml eventually dreamed up and put together MDC.

By 2005, though, MDC was looking to move beyond what the early sources of funding could support. That led Pliml to the Grand Angels investment group of Western Michigan — where MDC is based — who liked his business model but reportedly liked the company leader more.

“The classic line is that investors bet on the jockey and not the horse,” Grand Angels president Jody Vanderwel told the Grand Rapids Business Journal at the time. “I think he has a great business model and a very robust technology, but behind that is a man who is not only very technologically able but a bright man who loves what he does. His passion for this business is so obvious.”

Plenty of small-business owners have entered their respective markets with passion, though, and Mock Draft Central would not have become successful in such a competitive field without delivering a strong product. The company won the 2007 Fantasy Sports Trade Association award for Best Draft Tool and carries an impressive list of licensing partners, which currently includes Rotowire, Open Sports, U-Sports, AFFL, NFFC/NFBC, RotoBowl, FFPC, Quest Fantasy Leagues and My Fantasy League.

In addition to licensing use of the MDC draft software and helping to integrate it into partner sites, Mock Draft Central has aided in software development for contest and content sites, provided content editing services and farmed out its average draft position statistics to what Pliml says is more than half of the fantasy magazines out there.

“In short, we are uniquely skilled and well-positioned to do a lot of different things,” Pliml says. “We’re always on the lookout for opportunities that maximize the utilization of our skills and our technology.”

In addition to football, the site has handled baseball, basketball and hockey drafts since its inception and has added college football and basketball, golf, NASCAR and arena football to the menu. Pliml says that the company is considering jumping into soccer and cricket as well, though no immediate plans have been made.

All of this comes from a company that employs just one other full-time staffer, Geoff Stein, as well as a regular rotation of two more part-time workers. Pliml says the part-time contingent can grow to four in the busiest times.

The continuing rate of rapid growth in the fantasy sports industry could produce more of those busier times for Mock Draft Central. After all, no matter what sport you wish to play, where you decide to host your league or whom you go to for advice, it all starts with the draft.