Vancouver-based online hockey-pool data provider Officepools is readying for a jump in revenue fueled by excitement about the National Hockey League (NHL) playoffs, which start today.
That excitement is higher this year given that this is the first time since the mid-1990s that there are Canadian teams from five provinces battling for the Stanley Cup.
Officepools was founded about that same time and was sold to Graham Lee’s Vancouver-based GSL Holdings in the early 2000s.
GSL is likely best known for other holdings such as the Western Hockey League’s Victoria Royals and arenas such as Victoria’s Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre and Kelowna’s Prospera Place.
But it is clear from those assets and from its countless real estate properties scattered around the province, including the large blueberry farm LeeBerry Farms, that it has the deep pockets necessary to expand its small fantasy sports operation.
“We’re going to be expanding quite dramatically over the next little while,” said David Miller, who is vice-president of marketing at GSL’s RG Properties division as well as being president of Officepools.
He hinted at possible acquisitions but other expansion could be morphing from solely focusing on the NHL to amateur hockey and even, potentially, to other sports.
“We see opportunities in the social community and other forms of gaming relating to hockey and other sports,” Miller told Business in Vancouver. “There are no specific plans but we definitely aspire to, and have vision for, a broader offering that involves aspects of social media and different leagues and in different levels of play.”
He stressed that his site is not one where there is any gambling.
Instead, participants in hockey pools select individual players out of groups of players in multiple groupings. That participants’ players’ points are then added up at the end of the Stanley Cup playoffs.
Current annual revenue for the eight-person Officepools is at least in the hundreds of thousands of dollars and could be in the millions. Miller won’t say.
He revealed that his venture counted about 600,000 unique users last year.
Most of its revenue comes from a $20 charge whenever someone sets up a hockey pool. That fee is the same if the pool has five members or 100.
Other revenue comes from online advertising and from its hockey pool visitors who go to Officepools’ online store and buy packaged data to help them select winning players.
The big challenge for the company is that large media competitors such as Yahoo and ESPN have free hockey pool offerings. There are also free upstarts such Pickuphockey.com.
“That a lot of competitors have sprung up and provided free entry into hockey pools has not dramatically affected Officepools,” Miller said.
He revealed that his venture counted about 600,000 unique users last year.
Most of its revenue comes from a $20 charge whenever someone sets up a hockey pool. That fee is the same if the pool has five members or 100.
Other revenue comes from online advertising and from its hockey pool visitors who go to Officepools’ online store and buy packaged data to help them select winning players.
The big challenge for the company is that large media competitors such as Yahoo and ESPN have free hockey pool offerings. There are also free upstarts such Pickuphockey.com.
“That a lot of competitors have sprung up and provided free entry into hockey pools has not dramatically affected Officepools,” Miller said.
