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.

Late breaking news in the OSN community as “FRITO” the voice of OSN TV and radio personality in the mid-west just sent us this text to share with the community…

“I’m not taking my phone for fear of getting it damaged, but in about an hour I’ll be ON A BOAT in the Gulf of Mexico. Feel Free to inform the OSN community. LOL”

So there you have it OneSeason fans. Frito is definitely about to be on a boat…

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?

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)

OSN analysts are starting to believe that one of the unknown components of the splitting and reverse splitting formula, is that outstanding buy/sell offers are figured into the calculation as well. This would explain why the others didn’t split when it looked like they were gonna. The formulas we will never be able to pin down, and that is a good thing. The reason they are vague in the first place is to prevent manipulation, and you can be that if it was discovered the exact calculation to makes players split, then people would force them again, like they were doing in the early months of OneSeason.

OneSeason are smart dudes. You can count on them to put a lot of time, effort, and energy into stuff like this that in the long run, benefits us by making the trading platform as sound as possible.

More stuff continues to unravel, showing people that OneSeason is *NOT* messing around, and are in it to win it. The much anticipated arrival of International trading is now here. OneSeason officially set up shop in Canada today, as their first round of International expansion. If you remember, it was originally said this would happen, and we’ve heard things like “Soccer is the most popular sport in the world” and “Cricket is the most gambled upon sport in the world….” OneSeason continues to build out their site, and follow their long term plan exactly as they have drawn it up. Great Job OneSeason!

No? Check out the news at the bottom of this week’s mailer from OneSeason!

SITE NEWS
We have a few BIG announcements coming in a few weeks. These are some major items that we think everyone will be VERY excited about.

We do know that the notorious Bubba Pup reared his ugly head recently, and as history has shown, when he does this good things happen for OneSeason! Lately there has been a LOT of talk of gloom and doom by folks who have watched their accounts dwindle in value as people continue to sell for losses. OneSeason says there are some major items that everyone will be excited about. If this is indeed items that the trading community will be excited about….then the people who’ve been dumping shares at a loss recently will be sorry, and the folks who’ve been getting these shares at a premium will be VERY happy. What kind of stuff do you think we’ll see coming up? Do you think Bubba Pup should just hang out and talk trash all the time, so OneSeason can continually climb in value? LOTS of dicussion in the forums! Have a great rest of your week everyone!

What do these 3 Men Have in Common?

It seems like some people are making more state of OneSeason posts than usual, and I am a copy cat so I will chime in.

It currently kind of blows if you have a lot of money in.

It is still moderately fun if you are playing with $50 - $100 and can see 5 - 10% gains off IPO hits.

Everyone will likely continue to go down thru the summer.

Football SHOULD see some renewed interest, but existing players likely will not recover overly quickly as new options will continue to come to market.

If you have a TON (60+% of FRTE) of someone, you are kind of screwed short term.

If you have a few shares of every football player, you will likely be able to make a few measley dollars.

Bullpup theorized today that perhaps OneSeason is correcting to where they expected it. I interpreted that to mean that he thinks it is possible they are only after very small casual players.

The fact of the matter is that if the rent on their office is $5000 (laughable low for SF) and they are getting 1% commission in each direction they need $250,000 worth of shares traded a month to cover that cost.

I have also heard it theorized that they may be getting as much as 7% interest on the money in the system, and that is how they intend to profit.

5 employees (less than we know they have) making $50,000 each (pretty standard for 20 something college grads) would mean they need $3,571,428.57 in the bank at an AMAZING interest rate to afford those employees, and we haven’t even discussed traditional and non traditional benefits yet.

I think the final theory is that CRV giving them 3.5 million dollars buys them time.

Startups are not usually given 2nd phase money until they hit the 2nd phase.

3.5 million would BARELY cover the advertising they are doing in addition to their hosting fees and operational costs.

The reality is that something WILL change in the very near future.

OneSeason out of sheer necessity can NOT remain in it’s current state.

The logical move? You tell me

OSN Legend and Hall of Famer “Sdog” is currently running a contest in the OSN Arcade. It ends on June 31st. Simply put, the top 3 scores in Silver Slugger (which is shown above) will win a Target giftcard. $25 for 1st, $10 for 2nd, and $5 for third. Sdog’s Radio show “AllSportsTalkRadio” is sponsoring this contest and the current high score stand at a little over 10k. If you have time time to kill, it’s a fun game to play, as well as hook you up w/ the possibility of winning a giftcard! Have Fun and Good Luck! Brought to you by the OneSeason Nation, and AllSportsTalkRadio.com.