Fantasy Sports comes to the Movies

It had to happen. Fantasy Sports is an ever-increasing popular obsession among sports fans, dating back to the Rotisserie Baseball that started in the 1980's. Constructed by bored sportswriters who were looking for ways to amuse themselves, they created a game where an individual player's stats gave him "points." You could assemble a team of players, and the points they earned for their individual achievements would be your total score. Soon, the concept spread from baseball, to football, to basketball...it's now a HUGE business, and, with the arrival of the Web, it became even easier to manage a league, trade, etc.

The problem? For non-sports fans, it's not only boring, it's aggravating. And, for fans of football (like me), who the heck cares about baseball, for instance? Many have tried to look at ways to make fantasy sports more universally appealing, but failed. Others, such as the Sports Guy, have made noble attempts to help, offering his legendary US Magazine Fantasy league for the Sports Gal. But nothing has really captured attention.

Until now.

Fantasy Moguls is open for business. EVERYONE loves the movies, and everyone is a critic. Now's your chance to prove you can run a major studio. Amazon just invested almost $1 million in this, to drive traffic to the IMDB. As Techcrunch had to say:

You can draft movies and earn points based on how well they do at the box office, number of weeks in the top 5, per-theater average, and their IMDb review score (IMDb is Amazon.com owned). Traditional fantasy sports leagues allow you to draft players and earn points for how well they perform in games.

So, I'm throwing down the gauntlet. Although Lani will, most likely, clean our clock, there are still 6 other slots available in a league I have created. I am inviting readers of this blog to join. If you can't use the link for some reason, it's the Ultimate Mobile league (Lani named it). Yes, you have to sign up (it's free). Winner gets...well, I'm thinking either a bunch of movie tickets or Netflix rentals. You decide.

In any case, I'm looking forward to seeing who plays for 2nd place!

Comments

Loyalty Review: Kohl's Yes2You

As some of you know, I've spent over 15 years in the customer loyalty space. So, when I come across a new retail loyalty program, I can't help but see the pluses and minuses. After this many years, it's kind of ingrained. Periodically, I'll share my thoughts with you. Today, it's Kohl's turn under the scope. Let's have a look, shall we? I've divided the review up into three sections: what's good about the program, what's bad about the program, and what I'd change about it. That last one has some actual value: I charged hundreds of dollars per hour for loyalty program consulting, and had over a dozen clients, before I moved to JustAnswer FT. But, being a pandemic and all, I'm giving it away for free here. Kohl's, you're welcome. Here we go! The Good Sign up is opt in Seems odd to praise Kohl's for this, but in department store loyalty, this is a rarity, and a smart one. It means the customers who are opted in are already prime...

Revisiting Star Trek: The Next Generation: Season 1

I recently started rewatching Star Trek: The Next Generation from the beginning. I have nothing but fond memories of the original run in the 1980s, given how excited I was for a new Trek series in my lifetime (I had only reruns and the movies to stoke my Trek interest), and it recently occurred to me that, while I diligently consumed every TNG episode, I had not experienced the series since it's original run. Why did I do this? Well, a few reasons: With the triumphant return of Sir Patrick Stewart to the smaller screen as the venerable Jean Luc Picard , I thought it would be interesting to contrast this version with the previous, and see how far he has come. It would add color to the character, as well as Sir Patrick. Frankly, with the COVID19 lockdown, the series I have binged upon have been intense, dark, and disturbing. Combined with the activity of the world, including insane politics, homicidal police who seem to view people of color as "prey," rather than their ch...

The Icarus Effect

This morning's news started with the latest grim proof of overdevelopment in a tough sector: SkyBus Airlines shut down , less than year from when it started. Never heard of Skybus? Not surprising; they chose to focus on trips from Ohio to the West Coast for ridiculously low fares. Yes, you read that right: the airlines' unique niche was that they focused on trips from Ohio . Was air travel such an amazingly profitable business that we needed that much segmentation and focus? Of course not. A year ago, when Skybus was just getting off the ground (har har), fuel costs were at an all time high. United was still in bankruptcy; Delta, a fellow airline with a major hub in Ohio, was just exiting Chapter 11. And yet, "irrational exuberance" led investors like Nationwide Mutual Capital, Huntington Capital Investment Co., and Battelle Services Co. to ignore the obvious signs of risk, and dive into what was a dubious investment. Today, they, and the passengers who were lured by ...

Tretakoff Musings

Search This Blog