Pair aim to turn games into cash

By WAYNE TIMMO

A pair of Waikato internet entrepreneurs are hoping a series of online sporting games in which fans compete to lead their team to virtual victory will be a winning business model.
Matthew Scoble and Jeremy Bell launched www.blackoutrugby.com on Saturday after almost two years of development. The site allows members to manage fictional sports teams and players in either weekly friendly, league or cup match competitions. Budding Graham Henrys choose and train players to build a team which a match engine then pits against each other in real-time games played out with text commentary and animated statistics.
Members' pre-match decisions and 16,000 lines of programming code then decide the result play by play. Positions such as age group and even national coaching spots are up for grabs providing armchair managers a chance to try their hand at a World Cup minus elaborate reconditioning programmes and thousands of miles of travel.
The concept is based on UK on-line soccer manager game www.hattrick.org, which has been running for more than a decade and has 940,000 members.
More than 2000 worldwide blackoutrugby members had signed up and begun building teams prior to launch solely through chat in gaming communities. It was hoped to get 4000 members within a few months of launch.
The pair claim it is the most in-depth and fair rugby manager game on the internet.
Members can play for free, with onscreen advertising providing the site with income, or pay $59 for 12 months to receive full player stats and game graphics. Which begs the question, why pay?
"A lot of people who play these games love stats and to get really involved they will want to pay," said Mr Scoble, an avid online sports gaming fan.
Members started paying up in February with no guarantees the game would go live and 50 were subscribers prior to launch.
The pair have trademarked the blackout name and bought numerous related domain names with a view to expanding into other sports, including cricket, and the global appeal of golf and tennis. Super 14 and World Cup versions are also planned.
While Mr Scoble holds down a fulltime telemarketing job, e-commerce graduate and website designer Mr Bell has worked solely on the game due to a weekly stipend from his father, who has bankrolled the project. The pair say the concept would have worked without the comfort of a family investor, although it would have taken longer and been prone to the membership losses of sites that don't fix bugs quickly.