Oneseason is gone…. OneseasonNation is alive and strong. In just over a year OSN has become more than a place to talk about OS.  The Nation is about all that is fantasy sports, jokes, arcade games, and the new casino games. Moving forward OSN will continue to adapt to changes in the fantasy sports market. We will continue to find new ventures (fanduel.com) in the online fantasy world. We look forward to the adventures ahead and hope to grow as a community over the next year and beyond.

OneSeasonPulse.com has notified folks via Twitter and their website today that they will no longer be maintaining and updating their site. IPO Alerts should continue to work normally, as long as nothing changes on the interface on OneSeason’s end. Here is the info straight from their site…

Shut Down Information

Unfortunately, OneSeason Pulse is shutting down. What does this mean for you? Well, hopefully nothing since the site should (hopefully) still carry on as expected. However, we will not be doing anymore active development or support for it. You should still get the free alerts, SOI price updates, and site alerts but instead of having someone to complain to when they don’t work, you just have to deal with it.

It’s been a great run but we need to refocus our energy and billable hours towards other projects. You can still drop us a line at support @ oneseasonpulse” or info @ oneseasonpulse and we’ll try our best to get back to you quickly.

Thanks and Happy Trading!

The OneSeason Pulse Team

Continuing to use the massive power behind Facebook, OneSeason has added the feature to update your facebook status automatically, to inform all your friends on facebook of your activity on OneSeason. This is a very popular trend amongst app developers currently. Apps for mobile phones such as the Palm Pre, iPhone, and Blackberry have this feature as well. This is a great way to harness the power of facebook, and slowly increase exposure of OneSeason. If you would like to remain private, the ability should be there. Check out the facebook button at the top of the log in screen.

OSN’s own Dancenham and BP did a “Virtual” Interview with Mike Sroka, CEO of E-Global Sports Network, and CEO of OneSeason.com to discuss the market, Vinny, splits, and more. It’s basically a Q&A session, but we tried to make it fun for OSN. We hope you enjoy!

Bullpup: Mike! Thanks for virtually sitting down with us today! It’s been some time since we’ve talked to you, How have you been? How have things been going for you guys?

Mike:  Thanks for having me guys!  Well, the Cubs are not going to make the playoffs and the Bears looked brutal last weekend but otherwise things are good.  It is great to be back in the fall sports season!

Dancenham: Yep, Fantasy Football is in full swing. Speaking of that, we’ve seen an interview with Ronnie Lott and now know has his own Fantasy Football advice site, ronnielottfantasyfootball.com. Have you been in contact with him recently? Is he more than just a name on the advisory board? Is there any involvement between his new site, and OneSeason?

Mike:  Ronnie is on our Advisory Board which meets about every 6 weeks and he has been great.  As you may know, he has strong relationships with the big networks, leagues and player associations.  He has also been involved with a number of start-up’s and is very knowledgeable about operating early-stage companies.  I think that the site you mentioned is actually part of CBS Sports which is one of the big networks that Ronnie has been working with.  He has also done a lot of stuff with Fox Sports.  We do not currently have any announcements relating to OneSeason working with the other companies that Ronnie is associated with.

Bullpup: Mike, regarding the social networking aspect that seems to be the phenomea of the internet lately…Heck, that term has even been used in a new Fosters Beer commercial, and we now know how australians do social networking…Do you guys run your own OneSeason twitter pages The NFL, NBA, NHL, MLB and onseasoncom ones? How about MySpace and Facebook?

Mike:  Boy are you right about the social networks growing like crazy.  Facebook is nearing 300 Million users and the highest growth has been occurring in the core Fantasy Sports demographic (30 – 55 year old Males).  We are managing all of our social media including the Facebook and Twitter pages here in our San Francisco office.

Dancenham: Mike speaking of facebook and things of that nature.. I know that creating a community via Facebook is one of your strategies right now. the only on-line community that i have ever been apart of is OSN.. no Facebook, no MySpace, noMatch.com.. For users that have been looking for a straight up sports based stock market like myself, should we be concerned about the current state of OneSeason?

Mike:  No, I don’t think you should be concerned.  We view Social Networks, Mobile devices, etc. as access points and distribution channels which are in no way mutually exclusive with a destination site or other 3rd party communities.  What I mean by this is that there are a ton of folks on Facebook and it is really easy and comfortable for them to interact there.  Mobile devices allow people to access functionality where they want, when they want it.  We are trying to get OneSeason out to as many people as possible in an efficient way and allow folks to participate from whatever community/platform they feel most comfortable.  Now, I notice you included Match.com in the question and I would add that you should be concerned if OneSeason ever offers dating features!

Bullpup: Well Hammy is getting married in less than a month, so I don’t think he’d have a use for that feature. Rockman though? I think he’d definitely benefit from some dating features on OneSeason. He has been trying for months to hook up w/ Slubs32 via the OSN forums…But also, with regards to facebook, we’ve seen a LOT of attention and focus being put on Vinny’s Sports Book recently. Is Vinny’s Sports Book, to you guys, a sizeable piece of the makeup of E-Global Sports Network? Or is it just for fun? It seems to me that looking at the 19,000,000 users monthly applications on facebook such as Mafia Wars has…Vinny has a huge profit potential for e-Global Sports network from the little free offers people fill out to get more chips.

Mike:  We built Vinny’s to create distribution for ourselves (OneSeason) and because we want it to exist.  It is a great way for us to develop a relationship with tons of sports fans (very targeted audience coming to us) and make them aware of the OneSeason services.  As a free service on a large social network it can grow like crazy organically which we have encouraged our users to help us seed and is also a lot of fun.

Bullpup: I gotcha, that makes sense, and to follow that up…is CRV’s investment we heard about months back..was that an investment in E-Global Sports Network? Meaning CRV has ties to Vinny as well? Or is CRV’s involvement only with theOneSeason.com site?

Mike: CRV’s investment is in E-Global Sports Network which is the owner and operator of our branded destination websiteOneSeason.com.  CRV shares our excitement for the opportunity in building text-based social games for sports fans and specifically the concept of a real-time trading system.

Bullpup: Also on this point…some folks are spending calculating commissions for OneSeason and saying there is no way OneSeason can survive on the revenue they are generating. Is OneSeason.com itself, just a small piece of the puzzle that makes up the e-global sports network? Is that situation like analyzing Fruit of the Loom and upon seeing that it’s generating no revenue, proclaim that Berkshire Hathaway will be bankrupt in a matter of days?

Mike:  I really don’t think it is appropriate for private companies to discuss the details of their financial operations but since the whole world seems to spend every day speculating on the financial viability of Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, etc. I will try to answer as best I can.  OneSeason is not currently operating profitably or at break even.  Very few start-up’s are able to achieve this in the first few years of operation if ever.  Unlike some of the companies mentioned above, OneSeason has had a revenue model from day 1 which has proven to be effective, the question is if we can create something that is compelling for a broad audience (Model + Scale = Success).

Dancenham: Mike, with regards to Fantasy Tycoons…Do you have any changes planned for the NFL version of Tycoons besides implementing position spots (if that’s even in the works). Right now it seems to be a little dry and there’s no incentive for me to play. Legends - if ya have an answer cool, if not no need to respond. Are we any closer to a Legend Based Tycoon Game?

Mike: Yes, we are working on some additional features to Fantasy Tycoons and think that being able to see other rosters and having cross-sport leagues are high priority.  Incorporating Legends into Fantasy games is quite difficult because there cannot be pay to play options due to legal constraints related to skill-based gaming.

Bullpup: We definitely need something for Legends. And how about teams? You mentioned a few months ago that we could expect teams to be coming back as available SOIs. Any more news on this topics? Are teams coming? Or are they on hold again?

Mike: We are still waiting to get more depth before moving into Teams or additional sports.  It seems like having more, closely comparable things is the most interesting rather than spraying wide and shallow.

Dancenham: I have a problem spraying wide and shallow often, but going back to E-Global Sports Network Besides the projects that we are currently aware of (OS, Vinny, Tycoons), are there any others in the works that would spark interest for your current user base?

Mike:  We really can’t talk about any potential future functionality but are working hard to build this company the best way we know how.

Bullpup: Alright, and speaking of the company, and the centerpiece of it all, the trading platform.. What about the market itself? We have lots of folks who have just become disheartened watching their values of their sportfolios dwindle, day by day. Someone pointed out recently that If you bought $2500 in OS SOI’s on 1/1/09, you’d have $1327 in SOI’s right now. If you did it on 1/14/09, you’d have $415. January 1st is coming, and deposits will be reset and some are on the fence as to why they would put in more money, considering the numbers we just heard. Could you give us some thoughts behind the markets performance this year so far, and what users should be paying attention to, or learning from this right now?

Mike:  For clarity, OneSeason is the platform.  We do not have any involvement in the price or movements of SOI’s.  When users achieve gains or losses that comes from other users and the ability to navigate a dynamic marketplace.  Additionally, OneSeason is built for fun and entertainment.  It is a place for sports fans to interact and express themselves as well as display their allegiances and sports knowledge.  Our hope is that it provides a LOT of hours of excitement and enjoyment connecting people with similar interests.

Dancenham: Mike we’ve also seen a lot of posting about reverse splits and There has been some grumbling about what actually triggers a r/s. Can you either deny or confirm the rumors that the algorithm behind splits has changed recently.

Mike: Splits and Reverse Splits allow the system to scale up and down as necessary to be appropriate given recent trading activity.  In order to prevent attempts to force these actions in situations where they may not have occurred naturally we moved to a system based on a SOI weighted average for a period of time (not specified) prior to closing.  With wide variances in trading volume, spreads in open orders, trading activity and the related flags we created for suspicious activity, we are constantly looking to improve our systems to best achieve the goals.  Splits and Reverse Splits do not change the percentage of ownership or Total Value so I’m not sure why some folks get excited about this.  If something is trading outside of the specified range $0.75 - $20.00 then it may get split or reverse split.

Bullpup: Confirm or Deny! Reminds me of that new PS3 commercial. I think we have several people saying what you just said about splits not mattering Mike, and others saying that reduced supply will help stabilize the market and find a true bottom. We’ll have follow up discussion on this from OSN for sure. Mike, where are we with the site being almost exactly a year old. Where is it now, from where you envisioned it when you created it? We know you mentioned a long time ago that the site was 25% complete, and you’ve also said that it will never be 100% complete. Where are we with it today, in the grand scheme of things?

Mike: It is crazy thinking back to October last year when we launched the site.  It seems like so much has happened since then but the time has flown by.  Since last fall we have gotten the platform stabilized, the user interface is much more intuitive, we have some great new applications and there is a whole ecosystem of 3rd party sites built around our start-up.  We still have plenty of work to do but there is a solid foundation in place.  Most importantly, we really need to improve the social nature of participation on the system and keep opening it up so other developers can build on top of it.  Finding creative ways to make people aware of our services and community as well as facilitating a great experience for both old pros and newbie’s is also top of mind.  We have a very small team and have bitten off quite a bit but I could not be prouder of the job everyone is doing and am excited to continue the adventure.

Dancenham: Mike, I have one more question..how concerned are you about state of mind for your current user base? Is it more of juggling around ideas to keep both new users and current users happy? Would you be concerned if all your current users just up’d and left?

Mike:  We want more than anything to create something that a lot of people like.  We have benefited from and appreciate all the feedback that we get.  The end of your question goes without saying, our success is measured by sports fans having fun.

Bullpup: We definitely are into having fun. Mike, thanks for your time today in doing a virtual sitdown w/ OSN. We appreciate the time out of your busy day. Tell DJ and the rest of the team hi for us.

Mike:  Thanks guys!  DJ said something about the Seahawks which always comes out my other ear as blah, blah, blah.  Talk to you soon!

Bullpup: The Bears suck. Thanks Mike!

———————————————————————————

There will be plenty of follow up and discussion about this “virtual interview” in the forums, If you aren’t part of the forums, feel free to post follow ups or questions here, and we’ll get them to Mike for a future Q&A session.

Albert Pujols "Sand Lot Batting Practice"

OSN has been doing several things for fun all over the internet. The most popular thing we have been doing is having a lot of fun for months in the OSN Arcade. I thought I’d highlight the top 10 most popular games in the arcade out of the 100+ we currently have in there. As always, it is 100% free to play the games. It is pretty competitive in there, with people constantly trying to outdo each other’s high scores!

We have it all in there, from Mario Brothers, to Donkey Kong, to Solitaire, Tetris, you name it. And as the requests for games come in, our OSN programmers are on it! There is a new game added with each new SOI that hits the market, as well as games being added and named after famous people in the OneSeason Nation community. Even Mike Sroka has his own game. Slap the IPO Monkey!

1. The first one, displayed above, is far and away a “home run” with OSN Members. It has been played over 5,000 times so far! We’ve named it “Albert Pujols’ Sand Lot” With 2 versions of this game (batting practice and career mode), Pounder (or lbs0219 to those who don’t know him) has shown dominance in both versions. This game is wildly fun, and my favorite is hearing the little kid say “god dammit” when he swings and misses. A fun game for sure!

Bejeweled Blitz

2. The #2 game will be number 1 eventually, and it is known all over the internet as being one of the most famous, and addictive games out there. OSN members have been battling each other non stop for the crown in this game. We’ve named it “Quizrox’s Bejeweled Blitz” after OSN legend Quzrox, who has an affinity for dominating in these type of gem break/match games. Oh, by the way, Sdog from AllSportsTalkRadio.com is the current champion. This game has been played over 4,000 times so far.

Adrian Peterson Archery

3. The #3 game, which has been played 3975 times at the time of this writing is Adrian Peterson Archery. It is a quick fun game of timing. We already have a perfect scores in this game, so you’ll have to see if you can equal the greatness achieved by Pounder. Perfect score is 60. Sdog has 59.

Rylin34's "Blast Billiards"

4. The game at #4 is a personal favorite of mine. Rylin34’s “Blast Billiards” is a very fun game in which you don’t hit pool balls into the pockets, you hit bombs. and you better sink them all before the timers on the bombs go off, or yer done! Very fun game. Been played over 3,000 times so far.

Marion Barber's "Snake"

5. Rounding out the top 5 is an old school classic that we used to play on our cell phones. Snake is a great game that is currently dominated by Hunter82. When this game was added to the arcade, Hunter warned us that he would be #1 in this game…and since then, he took the title and NOONE has been able to stop him. Can you? Snake has been played over 3000 times in the OSN arcade for a total of 2 days, 5 hours, twenty-six minutes and fourty-nine seconds.

Witt4three is back with a prediction for everyone he wanted to share. What are your thoughts? Here is the link to the thread discussing this topic.

There will be a big announcement Thursday! How do I suspect this:
1. It’s the start of the NFL season- They have to do something this NFL season, or they are done, so they will kick the season off with a BANG with a huge update/announcement/advertisement!
2. There was an IPO released on Tuesday- What does this mean? This means that they will release Brandon Jacobs on Wednesday, then everyone in the IPO request list will be at Vote Em Up! By the way, I think Jacobs has a ton of potential to breakout this year.
3. There hasn’t been an update of any significance in the past month. The last update was the profile pages a month ago. They opened up Fantasy Tycoons to football too, but they only have to click a button to do that. They can’t be sitting in their office just watching themselves lose money, they have to be planning something!
4. The weekly account e-mail- On the 2nd bullet, it says Countdown to Kickoff! Countdown to everyone’s portfolio skyrocketing in my opinion! I just have a weird feeling that they put the time and everything of the game on there because they will have an ad running during the game.

That’s my thoughts, but I am very optimistic about this site because I believe it has a ton of potential and I like the concept. Feel free to discuss!

OneSeason Nation moderator, aka the CEO of Contests, aka Ham, aka the Notorius P.I.G. has twittered to, and got a response from NFL star Chad “OCHO CINCO” Johnson. Ham twittered the flamboyant number 85, suggesting the ticker name for the wide reciever be “OCHO” when he finally makes his debut on OneSeason. Ocho Cinco replied back to Ham with a short but sweet “I like it”.

Is this the real Ocho Cinco? 70,000+ twitter followers of OGOchoCinco might suggest that it is. Great job ham! Who else will get a response from an athlete on Twitter? We know they are aware and OneSeason has been contacted by agents of certain athletes soliciting possibilities of endorsements. Things are getting interesting as we ramp up for football season!

Bullpup,

The latest OSN get together was the best OSN experience since Giona shared her opinion of TMAC. I hope you enjoy.

Sincerely ,

Jpup

We’re Baaaaaaaack! OSN Radio kicks off THIS Tuesday evening 9pm PST for a VERY special edition! We have Mike Sroka and DJ Burdick coming BACK on the show to discuss everything YOU want to know about OneSeason, Fantasy Tycoons (and the Market’s reaction), Fantasy Ratio, Future Plans, Fantasy Football kickoff, The OSN Fantasy Football 2009-2010 draft guide Best Buys, Worst Buys, and everything else under the sun about OneSeason! Tune in to hear valuable insight from our Fantasy Experts. This is one episode of OSN Radio you do NOT want to miss!

This was a question that hit the OSN community immediately. OSN contacted Mike Sroka, CEO of OneSeason for an answer. We also got clarification on a question brought up from someone about some of the legal language around what they can and can’t do. Here is the response. Enjoy!

Q: Why did you guys build Fantasy Tycoons?  I thought this was going to be left to 3rd Parties?

A:  We have been and continue building out OneSeason to the best of our ability.  The Fantasy framework (games, metrics, etc.) required having the platform stabilized and enough players available for participants to differentiate.  We have now accomplished those things and are able to move down the dev schedule which we have prioritized as we see logical based on your feedback and operational necessity.

OneSeason and users benefit from 3rd party application development and we remain committed to opening up our system more and more.  Account level integration is a big project that requires careful consideration of the many potential implications.  Operating data helps us understand usage patterns as we pursue these goals.

Q: Is this legal within the context of the UIGEA?

A:  Much of our research has been performed into the reported federal and state case law and criminal gambling statues.  This is a relatively new and rapidly evolving area.  There are many forms of skill based games including Fantasy Sports being operated legally in the United States.  The structures of participation, display and prizes vary among these.  To fall outside the prohibition of unlawful gambling in most states, the participation in a contest must “control or influence” the outcome of the competition.  Therefore, a key to the distinction between fantasy sports and sports wagering is that fantasy sports require the consistent and recognizable involvement of the contestants.  Success is related to knowledge, attentiveness, control and skill in assessing the landscape.  On September 29, 2006, the U.S. Congress passed UIGEA.  The Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006 prohibits the transfer of funds from financial institution to an Internet gambling site, with notable exception of fantasy sports, online lotteries, and horse/harness racing.  UIGEA applies to all unlawful Internet gambling activities. 5361 § 3(9) defines “unlawful Internet gambling” as “to place, receive, or otherwise knowingly transmit a bet or wager by any means which involves the use, at least in part, of the Internet where such bet or wager is unlawful under any applicable Federal or State law in the state in which the bet or wager is initiated, received, or otherwise made.”  The fantasy sports contests offered on the Fantasy Tycoons App through OneSeason.com are games of skill with a consistent and recognizable involvement by participants.  We will continue to review and monitor activity in the space and may adjust the display and/or structure if necessary or appropriate to maintain compliance.

Michael Crabtree hit OneSeason at approximately 1:15PM PST on Friday. As always, OSN was all over it via Twitter, via the forums, and via the chat. The correct answer of 41 was displayed on Twitter and in the chat room, as well as forums for OSN members to capitalize on! 350-650 shares of CRAB will be available for trading on Sunday, and will be out first ever Rookie to be issues on OneSeason before ever even playing for a team. Are you a fan? I’m thinking think Sanchez will be the top rookie of this draft.

OneSeason, true to form, has launched Fantasy Leagues right inside OneSeason! That’s right! And you form your team buy picking and choosing the SOIs YOU want to make up your team! Check out the site! It looks like all those smart folks in OSN who have been saying “Chill Out, they are waiting until they have enough players in the market to do something” were dead on! What are your thoughts on this exciting announcement?

Louiecards

Baby Louiecards

Selanne

While some people like to sit back and say a bunch of negative stuff about OneSeason, others are taking advantage of game that are being created around OneSeason where people can use their sports knowledge, SOIs, and skill to earn some significant Coin! Louie and Selanne each won $125 in OSFantasy.com’s 1st contests, the Cy Young Challenge, and the Triple Crown Challenge. Congrats guys! Louie, that buys you a lotta diapers my man! Selanne, that is a lot of drinks at the OSN get together in VEGAS! Congrats guys!

Red Sox fans do NOT mess around....

OneSeason, to me, means friends. OneSeason fans had their first real get together over the 4th of July weekend. Location? Boston, MA. In times when it seems some folks can only focus on how OneSeason “owes” them something….I was not surprised that during the weekend get together in Boston, market cap, IPOs, deposit limits, and OneSeason’s long term plan, was not even discussed. What was discussed was Red Sox vs. Mariners. (Mariners take 2 out of 3 at Fenway, but cannot complete the sweep on Sunday)

Center Field Bleachers. Fenway Park

Hot Chicks EVERYWHERE were discussed, as were the little known fact that the dudes in Boston definitely pop their collars, but also definitely do NOT iron their shirts.

Celtics Basketball was discussed, including Larry Bird, Red Aurbach, and Ray Allen being a TOTAL pussy.

Larry Birds Shoes

Had to wait for kids wearing Knicks gear on to pose for pictures w/ Red with their grimy fingers up his nose.

What was dicussed was Jpup’s decision to not wear all Yankee gear to the Sox/Mariners game in Fenway, was, on paper, a good decision and very heartfelt. But when he arrived, ready to go for the game wearing his Yankees hat and Mariners jersey, we had to walk him through how that scenario would probably work out for him, once he stepped foot near the ballpark.

Bob Rafferty, Jpup, Quizrox

Jpup should just get an OSN Jersey, and he can be popular in EVERY stadium! OneSeason has given many folks brand new friends, who they would never have had a chance to meet otherwise. Lifelong friendships have been forged. I got to meet one of the most amazing 2-year olds the world has ever seen.

Giona wants to hug a turtle

Future Owner of Larry Bird. (NOT the turtle)

Giona is still emphatic (I asked her) that Larry Bird is the best buy, and TMAC is the worst buy. We have posted article after article that people would be much happier about OneSeason if they just chilled out a little bit, relaxed, and it has been suggested they just get on a boat.

Bullpup is on a dock

"Looks like you blew a seal...." "Naahh. I just at a bowl of Vanilla Ice Cream is all..."

Did I mention Boston has AMAZING talent?

Coupla Drunky Brewsters

Ladies, please learn from this picture

Girls were everywhere. Boston rules.

A trip to Boston wouldn’t be complete without having a beer or twenty.

Red Sox and Yankees, arm in arm

On the way to find more beer

Obligatory Drunk Wound

Regardless of what the ‘market’ does. We are making life long friendships. We have people in every single state represented in OSN. While some people continue to bitch, moan, and whine about OneSeason, others are having fun, and making plans to go golfing together. Making plans to have beers together. Having fun playing contests in the forums. Oh, this dude has “Red Sox” tattooed inside his lower lip, by the way.

it says"Red Sox" It's a tattoo

I believe OneSeason will be around for the long term. CRV wouldn’t invest money in something that didn’t have a solid long term business plan with substantial growth outlooks. Several very smart, and very educated people would not be spending 10’s of thousands of dollars of their own money to create apps and games and sites based around OneSeason if it was going to fail.

OneSeason will be fine long term. Please take your complaining, and whining out of our faces. Have some fun. Meet people in your area. Go golfing. Play Beat the Bacon. I would like to thank OneSeason for giving me no less than 5 new friends in the last year who I would trust my life with, and hundreds others who I would be honored to call my friend. I can’t wait for the next 12 months.

The only question we have right now is where will the next OSN get together happen? Before or After the OSN Vegas Trip??

Have a great week everyone.

2 of my best friends in the world.(who I didn't know this time last year)