Fantasy sports contests are widely played among office mates for small stakes. However, these games are also run nationwide for larger stakes. Our client first ran contests in the early 1990’s using only an automated touch-tone phone system through which contestants could make trades, purchase souvenirs and request reports. With the advent of the world-wide web, a web site was added to allow more interaction with the contest for the players. Contests were licensed and run for NASCAR racing, Major League Baseball, NCAA and NBA basketball and the National Football League. Contest partners included many major newspapers throughout the U.S. and Canada.
Irish Rose Consulting worked with this client from the company’s founding in the early 1990’s until the profitable sale of the company to a Canadian internet sports company in the dot-com boom of 1999.
We developed a wide range of software to support the company’s efforts. This software basically consists of behind-the-scenes software used by the client for contest administration, and software used by the players to participate in the contest, both through the internet web site and using touch-tone telephones.
Irish Rose Consulting developed a long-term relationship with this client as their company grew. We were able to assist the client in understanding and updating their systems as new technology became available. When the client’s subscriber base grew from a few hundred contestants to over 250,000, Irish Rose Consulting scaled the contest systems and interactive
phone system so that they could handle the substantial processing required to run such contests.
Technologies Used