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CrowdPicks.com Press Kit |
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About CrowdPicks
CrowdPicks.com is a sports picking, social networking website that has a fantasy sports and gaming feel. CrowdPicks launched in the fall of 2007, but has recently released a new website in September of 2008. At CrowdPicks, members make predictions on sporting events and their accuracy is tracked. Members are asked to make specific score predictions on games instead of the traditional "pick-a-side" style used by most websites. Scores are then aggregated to create a member based game prediction that is available for free. This “Wisdom of Crowds” approach goes one step further in that the picks data can be filtered by historical member accuracy with our "CrowdFilter" tool. The CrowdFilter delivers an aggregate prediction from only those members that meet a certain criteria, such as members that are 70% accurate, or the top Dallas Cowboys pickers, etc.
CrowdPicks has typical social networking functionality in profiles, blogs, chat and messages, but everything centers around a member’s sports credibility. By picking games, members build their sports credibility and depending on how well they do, they get recognized more throughout the site with things like exclusive invites to the weekly college football poll, trophies for their personal page and a more decorative avatar.
CrowdPicks is unique because of our revenue sharing program. Like typical social networking websites, CrowdPicks relies on user-driven content to drive page views, which in turn drives ad revenue. Unlike typical social networking websites, CrowdPicks shares this revenue back with its member base. CrowdPicks is monetizing the site now through subscriptions, store sales, and ad revenue and it shares these rewards with the CrowdPicks community in exchange for helping grow the business. |
Management Team
CrowdPicks was started by two former TD Ameritrade employees with over 15 years of combined experience in Product Development and Competitive Intelligence. They currently base operations out of the Scott Technology Center Incubator in Omaha Nebraska, on the South campus of the University of Nebraska at Omaha. The company is self-funded and has no debt.
President/Co-owner – Jeff Murnane Jeff worked at TD Ameritrade for 10 years prior to starting CrowdPicks. At Ameritrade Jeff started and built out the first Competitive Intelligence department at the company. As Director of CI Jeff was responsible for identifying competitive strategy and market trends, these skills eventually led Jeff to discover opportunities as an entrepreneur in not just the financial marketplace, but other markets as well.
VP/Co-owner – Cassius Almeida Cassius worked at TD Ameritrade for over 13 years, most spent in the Product Development area. As a Senior Product Manager Cassius invented several products for TD Ameritrade including QuoteScope®, Cassius also helped design interfaces for Streamer, Super Stream Machine, Market Motion Detector and Snap Ticket. Cassius is an expert in product design, online usability and knowing what consumers need and want. These insights led Cassius to try his hand as a business owner where he can put his skills to use for himself.
Lead Developer – Jeremy Heeg Jeremy has always been fascinated with computers and taught himself how to write code before his 16th birthday. During his freshman year in college at the University of Nebraska at Omaha he had earned the position of Assistant Network Administrator, for three departments at the university. In 2006, Jeremy became the lead developer and network administrator for CrowdPicks. Jeremy is proficient in .NET, SQL, Ajax, and Server Administration. |
Fact Sheet
- CrowdPicks.com launched public Beta in August 2007
- The company is self funded and has no debt
- Web Metrics since launch
- 3,600 members to date
- 650,000 total game picks
- 1.5 Million page views
- Avg. of over 9 page views per visit
- Avg. time on site of 10 min. per visit
- 70% member retention rate
- 62% of all unique visitors to CrowdPicks.com have visited more than once
- Differentiated Features
- Picks Entered by Score – Allows for the aggregation of picks data to create more accurate score predictions. Members welcome the challenge of this method.
- Revenue Share Program – A unique hook that motivates members to participate more to drive site traffic by rewarding them with cash.
- Member Avatars– Are based on reputation and not selected by members. It offers a quick way to separate great performers from average performers. It also motivates members to be more competitive.
- The Trophy Case – Is a place for members to collect awards based on participation or picking achievement. Members are very motivated by collecting accolades.
- The CrowdFilter – Is a tool that aggregates all picks data and displays a community score prediction. Basic functionality is free, however subscribing members have the ability to filter out average performers and get “smart” predictions.
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Press
8/30/2007 - Globeandmail.com
1/2/2008 - Sports Tech Now
8/6/2008 - PR Newswire - Company Press Release
Former TD Ameritrade Employees Launch Social Networking Sports Site
9/10/2008 - Mashable.com
11/10/2008 - Omaha World Herald
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Contact Information
WSC Group, Inc.
6825 Pine St.
Omaha NE, 68106
402.505.7979
Jeff Murnane
402.505.7977
Jeff.murnane@crowdpicks.com
Cassius Almeida
402.301.4877
Cassius.almeida@crowdpicks.com |
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