RotoHog was the consumer facing

fantasy sports A fantasy sport (also known less commonly as rotisserie or roto) is a game, often played using the internet, where participants assemble imaginary or virtual teams composed of proxies of real players of a professional sport. These teams compete ba ...

website for Fastpoint Games, a digital platform developer that designed, implemented and marketed fantasy services for media and advertising partners. The company developed and managed fantasy sports games for media companies, sports brands, and professional sports leagues, which were often co-branded. Their signature game was a fantasy draft game with a stock market-style trading floor for

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball sport played between two team sport, teams of nine players each, taking turns batting (baseball), batting and Fielding (baseball), fielding. The game occurs over the course of several Pitch ...

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appro ...

American football American football, referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada and also known as gridiron football, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular American football field, field with goalposts at e ...

, and Association Football (soccer). The company also offered traditional commissioner and pick-em style fantasy sports games. RotoHog also branched out to entertainment games with the Rose Ceremony game for the

reality TV Reality television is a genre of television programming that documents purportedly unscripted real-life situations, often starring ordinary people rather than professional actors. Reality television emerged as a distinct genre in the early 199 ...

show '' The Bachelor'' and the ''

Us Weekly ''Us Weekly'' is an American weekly celebrity and entertainment magazine based in New York City. ''Us Weekly'' was founded in 1977 by The New York Times Company, which sold it in 1980. It was acquired by Wenner Media in 1986, and sold to Ameri ...

'' Celebrity Fantasy League.

Fantasy Game Platform

RotoHog was also the provider of nba.com's

NBA The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball league in North America composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada). The NBA is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United States and Ca ...

Stock Exchange and commissioner games and Brazilian media company Grupo RBS's first ever Fantasy Soccer game. In 2009, RotoHog began to provide games for Fox Sports en Español and the AVP Pro Beach Volleyball tour. In June 2009, RotoHog closed a multi-year deal with

Sporting News ''The Sporting News'' is a website and former magazine publication owned by Sporting News Holdings, which is a U.S.-based sports media company formed in December 2020 by a private investor consortium. It was originally established in 1886 as a ...

to power the sports media company's suite of fantasy sports games. In March 2010, RotoHog began powering the MySpace Bracket Challenge for the NCAA college basketball tournament. At the same time, the company announced that it would be launching its first commissioner-style baseball game on its own site. Like most fantasy sports games, the core elements of RotoHog's flagship stock exchange game involved building a team and setting a line-up to earn points. To this traditional core game, RotoHog added a liquid

market Market is a term used to describe concepts such as: *Market (economics), system in which parties engage in transactions according to supply and demand *Market economy *Marketplace, a physical marketplace or public market *Marketing, the act of sat ...

for players that all team managers use to trade players. Players could be traded at almost any time and player prices reflected up-to-the minute supply and demand. RotoHog differed from fantasy sports stock simulations in that the goal of the game was to score the most fantasy points by fielding the best team of players. Stock simulation games focus on increasing the value of a player's

portfolio Portfolio may refer to: Objects * Portfolio (briefcase), a type of briefcase Collections * Portfolio (finance), a collection of assets held by an institution or a private individual * Artist's portfolio, a sample of an artist's work or a ...

by anticipating price movements of players. RotoHog also provided a

social networking A social network is a social structure consisting of a set of social actors (such as individuals or organizations), networks of Dyad (sociology), dyadic ties, and other Social relation, social interactions between actors. The social network per ...

platform that allowed users to compete in unlimited size leagues grouped by location, team allegiance, or company affiliations in addition to smaller private leagues. An example of a large group of connected individuals using the site was the non-profit group ''Hire-a-Hero'', which used RotoHog as a way to help military

veterans A veteran () is a person who has significant experience (and is usually adept and esteemed) and expertise in an job, occupation or Craft, field. A military veteran is a person who is no longer serving in the military, armed forces. A topic o ...

connect with each other and transition back to civilian life.

Prizes

RotoHog has awarded various prizes include cash to the top teams in weekly, monthly and season long contests. The 2007 baseball and football champions won $100,000 each. The owner of the second place football team won $25,000, and third place $10,000. The remaining top 100 finishers also earned cash prizes.

Company, financing and sponsorship

Sports Composite DE, Inc., the company that operated the RotoHog website, was founded by entrepreneur

David Wu David Wu (born April 8, 1955) is an American politician who served as the United States House of Representatives, U.S. representative for from 1999 to 2011. He is a member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party. Wu was born ...

and

Wharton Business School The Wharton School ( ) is the business school of the University of Pennsylvania, a private Ivy League research university in Philadelphia. Established in 1881 through a donation from Joseph Wharton, a co-founder of Bethlehem Steel, the Wharton ...

Professor Kent Smetters in 2006 and is based in Inglewood, California. Kelly Perdew, winner of season 2 of '' The Apprentice'', was named CEO in May 2008. The company raised $6 million in its first

venture round A venture round is a type of funding round used for venture capital financing, by which startup company, startup companies obtain investment, generally from venture capitalists and other institutional investors. The availability of venture fundi ...

in August 2007. This funding was raised via DFJ DragonFund China and Mission Ventures, with additional investment coming from Allen & Co. and SCP Worldwide.

StubHub StubHub is an American ticket exchange and resale company. It provides services for buyers and sellers of tickets for sports, concerts, theater, and other live entertainment events. By 2015, it was the world's largest ticket marketplace. While ...

co-founder

Jeff Fluhr Jeffrey Fluhr is an American business executive, currently a general partner of Craft. He co-founded StubHub and was its CEO from 2000 until 2007, when it was acquired by eBay. He also established the social video platform Spreecast in 2012, which ...

also invested in the firm. The company raised an additional $2 million in March 2009. The round was led by Mission Ventures and DFJ Dragon. Sports Composite DE, Inc. earns revenues from advertising and optional statistical packages. RotoHog leagues and competitions have been sponsored by former American football player

Marshall Faulk Marshall William Faulk (born February 26, 1973) is an American former professional American football, football running back who played in the National Football League (NFL) for 12 seasons and is the current running backs coach at the Colorado ...

and former baseball players

Fred Lynn Fredric Michael Lynn (born February 3, 1952) is an American former professional baseball center fielder who played 17 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB), mostly with the Boston Red Sox and the California Angels. He was the first player to wi ...

Wade Boggs Wade Anthony Boggs (born June 15, 1958), nicknamed "Chicken Man", is an American former professional baseball third baseman. He spent 18 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB), primarily with the Boston Red Sox. He also played for the New York Ya ...

, and

Ozzie Smith Osborne Earl Smith (born December 26, 1954) is an American former professional baseball player. Nicknamed "The Wizard of Oz", Smith played shortstop for the San Diego Padres and St. Louis Cardinals in Major League Baseball, winning the National ...

. In April 2009, RotoHog developed an exclusive partnership with RazorGator that allowed RotoHog users to purchase tickets to live events through the global ticket reseller.

Awards

RotoHog was the recipient of the following industry honors: * 2009

Fantasy Sports Trade Association The Fantasy Sports & Gaming Association (FSGA), formerly the Fantasy Sports Trade Association, is a Middleton, Wisconsin-based trade group representing the fantasy sports and gaming industries. In 2019, the FSTA changed its name to the Fantasy S ...

Baseball Stats Projection Accuracy Award * 2009

Football Stats Projection Accuracy Award * 2009 AlwaysOn OnHollywood Top 100 Media and Entertainment Companies: Enabling Technology category Winner * 2009 Tech Industry Awards: Entertainment & Gaming category finalist alongside Future Ads, and category winner Blizzard Entertainment, Inc.Article – Reuters
retrieved 1 July 2009

References

External links

Official SiteHardball Times: Building a statistical model for RotoHog
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rotohog Online games Fantasy sports websites Privately held companies based in California