Israeli start-up sProphet Ltd. has developed a Facebook application for the 2010 World Cup. The company's social gaming platform offers users a new way to share, participate and make predictions about sports events.
sProphet CEO Eyal Baumer, and Yoav Maiman, the son of media, energy and infrastructure tycoon Yosef Maiman, founded the company in 2009, along with Ran Goldshtein and Tom Bronfeld. Baumel told "Globes", "Our Facebook application makes it possible to bet on every sports event in 15 categories, including football, tennis, and basketball, and to verify their information."
Baumel adds, "Anyone can use the application to bet with their friends, against their friends, or against the house, and updates on the bets pop up on the user's personal page. Anyone can see how their friends bet."
sProphet uses virtual currency, the sProphet dollar, for the betting. If a user loses his bets and all his virtual currency, he has to wait for another day to get more sProphet dollars. The virtual currency is not convertible into real cash, but it can be used to compete for real prizes, including cash awards.
"Globes": What is your business model?
Baumer: "Users who want to increase their chances in a competition can do this by buying with real money more virtual currency."
sProphet also collaborates with websites for an additional source of revenue. "Sports sites that install our application as a widget on their sites will share with us revenue coming in from bets with real money," says Baumel.
Baumel claims that sProphet already has revenue, even though the application was launched just three weeks ago at the "TechCrunch" Disrupt conference. The application has gone viral with the help of the World Cup, with 30,000 active users worldwide and 200 more joining every hour.
Baumer says, "We're not just a Facebook application. Our goal is become a key platform for online sporting needs."
sProphet has raised $250,000 to date from a private US investor, as well as $100,000 from the founders. The company is currently planning a financing round.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on June 17, 2010
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