SportAD wins Best New Game at prestigious 2018 EGR Awards

Startup’s innovative “FastFantasy” games see strong demand and performance in NJ and PA

Philadelphia, PA – June, 2018: SportAD — a Washington DC-based sports gaming startup — has won “Best New Game” at the 2018 EGR North America Awards, for its “FastFantasy” title, a game that combines sports betting formats and payouts with fantasy sports scoring. The early-stage company, which is part of the Verizon/AOL sponsored Fishbowl Labs technology incubator, beat out established heavyweights Scientific Games and online leaders BetConstruct, Ruby Seven and Ezugi, to win the category. FastFantasy, described as “sports betting lite” by reviewers, launched July 2017 into New Jersey’s regulated online gaming market through the company’s partnership with Resorts Digital, and has since expanded to other regulated states.

SportAD focuses on creating games for the “propositions” segment of the wagering market (estimated at more than 20% of the total US betting market). Using raw sports data and the company’s proprietary analytics platform, SportAD creates daily games that enable partners to offer real-money sports contests from the NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL and Soccer using their existing multi-channel gaming platforms, giving customers the ability to play via mobile, online and retail.

SportAD’s games appeal to highly-engaged and casual players alike. Their FastFantasy game, for example, combines popular “Over-Under”, “Matchups” and “Parlay” sports betting formats with fantasy sports scoring to create games that can be played by users quickly while allowing them to enter multiple times. Completing a FastFantasy entry takes less than a minute, providing a much more accessible experience compared to the time-consuming entry process of conventional fantasy sports games.

“It’s great to be recognized for being innovative, especially in an industry that tends to be ‘rinse and repeat’ when it comes to new betting technology,” Joe Brennan Jr., SportAD CEO said. “The opportunity of regulated sports betting in the US is outstanding. While states will use the next couple of years to hit critical mass with legal sports betting, we’re able in the meantime to creating a large, highly-engaged base of players legally through our ability to bridge the betting and fantasy worlds, and build market share ahead of the competition for our partners.”

SportAD’s FastFantasy game first launch in the regulated gaming market came through its partnership with Resorts Casino, offering as their game as the white-label branded “FastPick”, licensed by New Jersey’s casino regulators. The FastPick.com mobile and online sites launched in July 2017. In September 2017, the FastPick game launched within Resorts’ online casino and mobile apps. The game offers real-money parlays on “Player vs Player” and “Over/Under” contests, with wager limits of $10,000 per content and maximum payouts of $100,000 for players. FastPick features all major sports: NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL, top European Soccer and World Cup.

Since its launch, FastPick has performed very well, with an average bet of $24 per entry, and an average hold of 33% of all bets. The game’s natural retention has been excellent, with a 30-60-90-day average of 50%-35%-28% respectively, with less than 7% of deposits cashed out by players.

SportAD was founded in 2015, with offices in Washington DC, Las Vegas and London. The company’s early-stage investors include James Pallotta (Raptor Group, Boston Celtics & AS Roma), Stuart Porter (Denham Capital), John Forlines III and SoundBoard Capital.

Quote from Joe Brennan Jr.: “Our team at SportAD is honored to win ‘Best New Game’ at the 2018 EGR Awards. Our games have successfully tapped the pent-up demand for legal sports games, with formats that knowledgeable players can use to get an edge and win big. Our games let us tap up to 40 state markets today, enabling our partners to build a national audience while the number of states regulating sports wagering continues to expand through the next couple of years. Our ability to create games that bridge both markets and to appeal to players in each provides a huge growth opportunity for SportAD.”