Comments on: WePlay Takes $1.87 Million, Wants Rights To Kids Videos Before They Are Stars

By: Riot Games Raises $7 million for online games | Editechial

Riot Games Raises $7 million for online games | Editechial — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 19:37:17 +0000

[...] as an investor and board member of consumer technology emerging companies including Live Gamer, weplay and [...]

By: Sports teams social network My Team Zone raises $2.3M » VentureBeat

Sports teams social network My Team Zone raises $2.3M » VentureBeat — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 21:04:32 +0000

[...] and parents raised $2.3 million from private investors. Competitors include WePlay, which has raised $4.5 million in funding, Highschoolsports.net, Rivals.com , Eteamz, and Digitalsports.com. Tags: co:my team zone [...]

By: Sports Taxi

Sports Taxi — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 21:21:17 +0000

I went to http://www.sportsdrive.com and it’s pretty good stuff. I gave the sports assessment to my 16 year old son and it really let me know as a father/coach how to approach his learing skills on the basketball court. thanks for the info DaNae.

By: Greg Burton

Greg Burton — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 13:16:09 +0000

The problem is that WePlay, now open for the public, is extraordinarily droll. This is an off-the-shelf social net reskinned. Scheduling? Videos? Done better. Social net? Not even really possible on the site. Boring…

Try out http://www.Zoosse.com/ (prototype). Right now it’s a social network satisfying the social and scheduling needs of athletes and teams (and doing it well), but when the Beta launches in June, they will add complete informational portals for each of the participating sports; to help people learn about their sports, train better, win more, and get connected and recruited. Already, with no advertising, and only open for a few weeks, they have Olympians, pros and ranked athletes on board. Dynamic.

Most interesting: They are partners with a company that is promising them a million young athletes a year for the next five years.

This is the best athlete social net out there, and if their Sport Portals are as solid as expected, they may have the right combo of social/functional services for athletes…and the audience!!…that will make this THE athlete space on the Web. Watch http://www.zoosse.com/

By: DaNae

DaNae — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 19:15:33 +0000

check this out: http://www.sportsdrive.com. much more potential than all othe published on sports & internet within the last two years. This is a buzzer!

By: scoobypop

scoobypop — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 14:41:48 +0000

Z baby

zAthlete……………

By: JJ

JJ — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 10:59:33 +0000

Do this…. Google WePlay and click ‘images’ with safe filtering off. I’d like to think that pros like Jeter and Manning would have a team of advisors around them who would vet every opportunity.

By: Jason Craig

Jason Craig — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 21:44:12 +0000

I love this space but I don’t think the winner will be any of those listed. I’ve tried most of those, yourteamonline and teamsnap and opolis, I don’t like how they’re attacking the market, and haven’t had much use for my teams with them.
I watched a video of this CEO pitching at some conference, has nobody noticed that the MySpaces and Facebooks of the world were started by the KIDS who actually wanted to use the service? If this was a social network for parents of kids who play sports that’s one thing, but adults trying to build social networks for young kids is something different entirely.
I’m guessing the community (if they get one) won’t post a single video the second it leaks that their rights to that content are gone.
I feel like I’m missing something. Is this guy friends with Derek Jeter?
Thumbs down.

By: Adrian Nadeau

Adrian Nadeau — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 21:23:40 +0000

I agree with you there, that is totally uncalled for (taking the rights of the videos that are uploaded to make a $$ off of them).

By: Search Engine Optimization Journal

Search Engine Optimization Journal — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 20:31:19 +0000

Agreeing with many on here…overcrowded field and not sure about the rights to kids videos before they are stars…does any other video network online do that?

By: Adrian Nadeau

Adrian Nadeau — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 19:32:44 +0000

I don’t know if it’s that crowded. I believe all of them serve different purposes. Some are for team management only (managers), others are more social network oriented, and some are systems are for teams to manage/host their team website only. However, some are combinations of all 3. All depends what the users are looking for.

By: Jim Nguyen

Jim Nguyen — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 17:43:01 +0000

What a crowded field. Which site do you all think will rise to the top?

By: Adrian Nadeau

Adrian Nadeau — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 17:25:44 +0000

Thanks for the props TC! It should be interesting to see how everything unfolds! Thanks to everyone else for their YTO (www.yourteamonline.ca) votes as well!

By: Chris Nadeau

Chris Nadeau — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 17:18:27 +0000

Good point Charles! If you invest in http://www.yourteamonline.ca you will definitely get a better return.

By: Craig Allen

Craig Allen — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 17:17:15 +0000

Good point Charles… I think you might get a better return at: http://www.yourteamonline.ca

Leave the gambling to Pete Rose…!

By: Hagia Sophia

Hagia Sophia — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 17:10:59 +0000

I the title the prize is $1.87 million, in the article the prize is $1.97 million

By: Charles Barkley

Charles Barkley — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 17:10:29 +0000

Pete: I feel ya, bro. I invested in YourTeam.ca but they don’t even own YourTeam.ca and I think all of their money gets spent on stock graphics from iStockPhoto and on blog shills. Good thing I only gambled $500 on them. How much are you into WePlay for?

By: Chris Nadeau

Chris Nadeau — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 17:08:20 +0000

TC thanks for the mention. We think this is an exciting space that combines two passions - the web and sports!

By: Soccer Dad

Soccer Dad — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 16:48:01 +0000

I came to much the same conclusion (http://onthepitch.org/2008/03/26/weplaycom-do-youth-teams-need-a-social-network/) - this seems like an all around bad idea given how it is mostly a generic social networking site, and there are a lot of other services like those you mention, or http://teamsnap.com, that do so much more. I just don’t see the coaches buying into this, and if they don’t, the parents and players aren’t likely to jump in.

Great catch on the license stuff!

By: Dan Martell

Dan Martell — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 16:32:32 +0000

I personally know the guys at YourTeam.ca, and they know the space and execute like nobodies business - my monies on them as well!

By: AdvertiseSpace

AdvertiseSpace — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 16:15:39 +0000

@ Pete Rose
I guess you didn’t learn you lesson last time.

In that line up, I’d put my money on Yourteam.ca

By: Craig Allen

Craig Allen — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 15:52:55 +0000

Good to see some momentum building in the amateur sports sector…

By: Pete Rose

Pete Rose — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 14:12:28 +0000

Disclosure: I am an investor in WePlay. Am I gambling with my money?

By: zack

zack — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 13:06:50 +0000

the domain name refers to a sporting goods company, people always after money as usual….uh

By: anonymous

anonymous — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 12:23:27 +0000

it blows my mind that you guys never mention highschoolsports.net (bought by ganett for 50m), rivals.com , eteamz , and digitalsports.com, which each have thousands of schools using their back office not to mention they’re gigantic media networks. I guess you guys like to mention the tiny players that have no real traction.

techcrunch journalistic ability = epic fail , per usual