[Updated] Fantasy football analytics startup launches hilarious crowdfunding campaign
August 12, 2015 | Bobby Burch
Kansas City-based Edge Up Sports launched a crowdfunding campaign Wednesday to support its platform providing fantasy football players insight on their picks.
With CEO Ilya Tabakh in full pads, Edge Up’s Kickstarter campaign video tackles the playful aspects of fantasy football — trash-talking, devastating losses and rowdy fans — to appeal to would-be backers. The company is eyeing $35,000 to support the build of its analytics platform, which taps high-tech services such as IBM Watson.
As of Aug. 17 — or five days after launching its campaign — Edge Up Sports reached its goal. The company’s campaign has exceeded $38,800.
“We want to help you completely blow out your fantasy league,” Tabakh said. “We clean up all these disconnected and disparate data sources by using techniques to put that information into context for things that matter to fantasy players. … We want to tailor our tools around making fantasy football fun again and find ways to allow users to talk smack in a more interesting way and ultimately be competitive in their league.”
In addition to using IBM Watson, Edge Up’s platform looks at variables such as a user’s team, player statistics, matchups that week and even the weather. It also will pull data from social media interactions, analyst write-ups, news stories and more. By offering such information, the company hopes to snag part of a nearly half-billion dollar pie.
About 57 million Americans and Canadians will play in fantasy leagues this year, according to the Fantasy Sports Trade Association. That massive group will spend around $465 million on fantasy games
Serving as an assistant coach to fantasy players, Edge Up Sports hopes to appeal to some of the estimated 10 million casual users with its mobile platform. The company plans to charge $22 for Edge Up’s basic platform, or $55 for its “cognitive tier.” The cognitive tier uses IBM Watson technology to process a wide sampling of data available around the NFL to help users make informed picks. It also will look at trends over a set period of weeks.
The company is now in the business incubator Digital Sandbox KC, which awarded it a $25,000 grant. Additionally, Edge Up also has secured $30,000 in funding, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The company also has received loads of press for its platform, including WIRED, Fast Company and the Kansas City Star.
Check out the company’s Kickstarter campaign and video here.
Featured Business
2015 Startups to Watch
stats here
Related Posts on Startland News
Rick Usher: How coffee shop culture fuels KC’s startup ecosystem
Editor’s note: Opinions expressed in this commentary are the author’s alone. Coffee shops play a significant role in the growing success of Kansas City’s startup community. Back in September, Startland News readers offered their top picks for best coffee shops for meetings and I’m taking off on that topic now to dig deeper into the…
LaunchKC grants contest to offer $100K grand prize in 2017
Kansas City’s popular grants competition LaunchKC has raised the stakes for applicants in 2017. Instead of allocating $500,000 via 10 equally-sized grants, LaunchKC will dish out eight awards of $50,000 and one $100,000 grand prize. In 2016, LaunchKC drew more than 400 tech startup applicants for the second year in a row. Applications open on…
Three tips to landing in the Techstars KC accelerator
Techstars new local accelerator is on the lookout for ten tech companies to join the Kansas City accelerator’s inaugural class. In an effort to cull suitable applicants, Techstars KC managing director Lesa Mitchell recently shared some of the top traits the program is looking for in companies. “The Techstars team in Kansas City is…
Photo gallery: Pipeline pitches and the Innovators gala
Pipeline Entrepreneurs celebrated 10 years in style Thursday at the Midland Theater. Check out this photo gallery of the organization’s pitch contest and gala. For more: Here’s a feature story on the gala. Here’s a news story on the award winners. Here’s more background on the organization and its leader, Joni Cobb.