In late 2017, Nigel Eccles and Rob Jones left FanDuel, the daily fantasy sports company they had co-founded eight years earlier. They had helped FanDuel become ubiquitous in the United States with a stream of television, online and print advertising and a development but chose to start another business, called Flick, knowing that they liked a starting environment than a giant company.
In the nearly 3 years since Eccles and Jones began creating Flick, their business style and strategy have been replaced several times, but Flick, who recently raised $5 million in a Serie A investment circular and officially presented this year after being in beta. Mode for about two years, now focuses on being the leading online platform where sports enthusiasts can come together and talk about their favorite teams.
With Flick apps for iOS and Android, others exchange messages in the same way they do through text messages from organizations or online forums. Membership is loose for everyone, but Flick aims at so-called sports influencers, whether American or fan teams that have developed many fans on YouTube or Instagram. The concept is that those influencers will be attracted to Flick because it gives them a position to talk to their enthusiasts in a simple, lively and real-time way. Eccles and Jones app is best suited during matches, however, it can also be used to talk about exchanges, off-field news and other team news.
So far, Flick has had the ultimate fortune with European football; for example, AFTV, a YouTube channel created through Arsenal fan Robbie Lyle in 2012, now has more than one million subscribers. AFTV also has an Flick band with more than 25,000 enthusiasts. Another example is TalkFCB, which was founded in 2014 as a YouTube channel for FC Barcelona enthusiasts and now has more than 400,000 subscribers. The TalkFCB band at Flick has more than 20,000 enthusiasts.
When Eccles and Jones first designed the concept of Flick, they thought they would get the rights to show the games and highlights in the app, but soon realized that it would be too expensive and too long to negotiate with the leagues.
Then they began to focus on creating an online platform where e-sports enthusiasts simply met, but discovered that those enthusiasts and players were already the Discord app for chatting and Twitch to watch live tournaments and highlights of matches.
Eccles and Jones said the eSports landscape would be too competitive, so they chose to refocus on classic sports such as basketball, football and football, which lacked a platform aimed solely at the debates of large organizations. interested in watching games in the Flick app and chatting at the same time.
“Users need (live games and chat) to be separated,” Eccles said. “It’s not a credit that they’re on the same screen. Everyone watchs (games) on their TV or streams them online. They have their phone loose (for chat via Flick) ».
However, Flick is in the early stages of attracting the attention of American sports enthusiasts. A band called All Things Dallas Cowboys has the most enthusiasts with 1,500 enthusiasts, however, no other team in the United States has more than 500 Flick enthusiasts.
In any case, the platform has attracted investments from several leading venture capitalists who in concept and co-founders, especially given the eccles and Jones paintings in FanDuel. In 2017, Fan Duel generated $124 million in profits and had 1. 3 million active customers, according to a record when the company merged with Paddy Power Betfair in 2018.
“In fact, they sold the company themselves to make sure they got all the justice and eliminated all shareholders,” Eccles said last week.
KKR and Shamrock earlier this year told the Scottish Business Insider that “we are sure the facts will show that the allegations in this trial are absolutely unfounded. “
Eccles noted that it will most likely take a few years for the trial to be discussed or resolved, but it would not save him from focusing on Flick.
Two years ago, Flick raised $4 million in initial financing from a few angel investors, as well as Bullpen Capital, Everblue Management, Amity Ventures and Courtside VC. The 4 corporations also participated in last month’s $5 million Serie A, led by AlleyCorp, which invested in more than 30 start-ups and founded 14 corporations, adding Business Insider corporate online media and Zola online marriage registration.
Flick plans to use the latest budget for its application and focus on product development. He plans to add some software developers and engineers to his current team of 16 people.
“This is a company we win or lose by having a very smart product experience, so that’s where we invest,” Eccles said.
Eccles did not want to disclose the number of other people who signed up for Flick, or what the latest funding circular valued to the company or the profits generated through the company, but said the company planned to make the most of its cash through partnerships with sports companies. .
“The path to monetization is clear,” Eccles said. “We must integrate (Flick) much more into sports betting. “
Eccles noted that Flick recently signed an agreement with BetMGM in the United States and GVC Holdings in Europe. Flick will integrate lines, supplementary bets and in-game bets into the app with links to BetMGM and GVC. When users click on those links and bets, Flick will get a share of the action. Flick plans to implement those features in the first quarter of next year.
Today, 12 states and Washington, D. C. , have legalized cellular sports betting, according to ESPN, while six others have legalized face-to-face sports betting but do not allow cell betting. However, betting is more appropriate and states seek to generate more revenue. , Flick and his investors expect more states to allow bets and more corporations to seek to attract potential customers.
“The amount these companies (sports betting) spend to attract new consumers is billions of dollars and is developing very quickly,” said Kevin Ryan, founder and CEO of AlleyCorp. “Our bet is that this will continue in and around the United States. “
I have covered professional, school and secondary sports for almost two decades. I’ve been an editor at the Sacramento Bee Sports Department for 4 years before.
I have covered professional, school and secondary sports for almost two decades. I was an editor in the Sacramento Bee Sports Department for 4 years before winning my Georgetown University MBA in 2009. Since then, I have worked for medical and monetary media corporations and have written independent sports articles for The New York Times, USA Today, Vice Sports, Bleacher Report and many other publications and websites. I grew up in Rhode Island, graduated from the University of Notre Dame with a degree in psychology and now I live in the Philadelphia suburbs with my wife and two daughters.