Matt Williams found himself in a unique position when he assumed control of his office's weekly football pool. Instead of merely collecting money and announcing winners, Williams found himself spending an inordinate amount of time working at his newfound second job.
“We had a survivor league where we had 300 people join for a $100 buy-in, so the grand prize was $30,000," said Williams. "It got to the point where I was spending several hours a week managing the league."
From this experience, Williams was able to identify sports pools as an opportunity: something that was informal, inclusive and something that could be enjoyed by rabid and casual sports fans alike. That opportunity turned into online sports pool
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As feasibility tests on Easy Streak progressed, the explosive growth that daily fantasy sports sites were seeing began to slow due to major legal concerns. Through a gauntlet of legal consultations, Williams and co-founder and CTO Nobel Chang were able to identify a business plan that would allow them to avoid the questions of legality that daily fantasy sites were facing. By eliminating consideration (or money) from the platform, Williams and his consultants found a way to develop under sweepstakes law. For inspiration, the company looked to McDonald's.
“In the [McDonald’s] Monopoly game, consumers buy a burger or a drink and are given Monopoly pieces; that's how they play the game,” Williams said.
Similarly, users of Easy Streak don't pay to enter contests: they subscribe to “Fan Packages” in order to receive “Insider Articles” and “tokens,” which serve as contest entries. While the legality of sites like DraftKings and FanDuel is being determined by the states, Easy Streak is free to operate because it is an entirely different entity in the eyes of the law.
With a strategy revolving around creating the best product possible, the completely self-funded company launched its application in September 2015. Looking forward, Williams admits he isn't worried yet about the lack of faith that venture capitalists have in the market.
“Really only a month or two ago did we enter the growth phase,” said Williams. “All the things that are scaring venture capitalists away are really things that are helping us in the long term. There aren’t that many businesses that can say their competitors aren’t in 11 states, and we are. That’s a huge opportunity.”
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