Buzz

SidePrize - raising the stakes in fantasy leagues

June 23, 2015

If you have ever played in a fantasy league, you know one of the biggest pain points (other than losing) is collecting the money. Trash talking and side bets abound each season, but when it comes time to pay up, friends can become mysteriously absent. This problem has now been solved. Daily stakes, trash talking, and immediate payment now all come together with Adam Wexler's newest startup- SidePrize.Launching it's platform just last week, this fantasy sports startup brings the excitement of daily fantasy games to season-long leagues by enabling players to set real-money challenges on their own fantasy matchups. Best of all, SidePrize guarantees winners get paid in-full and do not have the burden of collecting money from their friends (wahoo!).Their first integration is with longstanding fantasy authority RotoWire and their MLB Commissioner platform. “It’s always refreshing to see new companies and new ideas enter the fantasy space,” said RotoWire Founder and President Peter Schoenke. “I believe SidePrize adds an interesting angle to season-long fantasy, and I’m excited about the possibilities ahead.”When an opponent is sent a challenge, they have the opportunity to accept or counter with a new prize amount (and appropriate trash talking). Once accepted, the application debits each player’s account. While you watch baseball, SidePrize watches your matchups. When a winner is determined, their account is credited with their winnings. It's a beautiful thing.Adam already has two statups under his belt and he successfully grew insightpool to a graduation in the Village this past December. We look forward to watching SidePrize become another great success. In fact I'm so confident, I'd even be willing to challenge someone to a sideprize on it....Here's a couple of questions I asked Adam about his newest venture.

Why did you choose to grow SidePrize in the Village?

"I love the Village. I've traveled to many of the biggest cities in the country during my startup journeys to date, and I have yet to come across a more exciting and more advantageous building in the whole country. I completely agree with how David Cummings described the ATV as 'an accelerant' -- i experienced it first-hand as we grew Insightpool from six guys to a team of more than 50 awesome people in our time at Atlanta Tech Village in less than two years. When SidePrize started to take flight, there was zero doubt in my mind where it would be housed. I love how my real estate friends used to try to offer comps based on sq ft price -- In reality, the primary value of being a part of the Village is nothing that will be quantified on paper."

What are you most excited about with SidePrize?

"I am a big believer in finding startup opportunities centered around domains that involve your greatest passions. Over my three startups to date, I've been fortunate to identify opportunities in the music industry, social media, and now fantasy sports. SidePrize affords me the ability to get back to my B2C roots of GoRankem while also applying everything I learned along the way at a B2B venture like Insightpool. My past experience offers a healthy blend of artistic and scientific approaches to help me develop the ideal go-to-market strategy. With SidePrize, we find ourselves with pole position of a niche within one of the fastest growing industries in the world, Fantasy Sports. As Bart Scott would say, we 'CAN'T WAIT' for what lies ahead!"SidePrize is now available on RotoWire’s MLB Commissioner platform for the 2015 MLB season, and have plans to be available on a number of NFL fantasy platforms this fall.[caption id="attachment_7367" align="alignnone" width="625"]

Sam Solomon, Adam Wexler, Tareq Dowla founders of SidePrize.

Sam Solomon, Adam Wexler, Tareq Dowla founders of SidePrize.[/caption]

June 23, 2015
Karen Houghton