SAN FRANCISCO, May 15, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- WinView, Inc.
(www.winviewgames.com), the nation's #1 second-screen live TV
sports prediction platform, announced a $12
million Series B funding round with participation from a
first-class investor group, including Graham Holdings Company,
Discovery Communications, Ted Leonsis' Monumental Sports &
Entertainment and LionTree Partners. The funding will help WinView
further develop and market its skill-based mobile app across a
range of professional sports, including baseball, basketball and
football (MLB, NBA and NFL), by converting fans and TV viewers from
spectators into play-along-live participants.
The WinView Games app brings together the worlds of live TV
sports, mobile apps, games of skill and interactive advertising so
that sports fans and fantasy players can enjoy sports on TV in a
new way by having more fun and interacting with their favorite
teams, and with each other. Available on iOS and Android, WinView
Games allows users to play along in real time with live televised
sports and compete to accurately predict the plays on the field in
order to win cash prizes. WinView Games is an ad-supported app that
is 100% free to play. The games covered by WinView are produced in
a live studio by a team of producers based on what is happening in
real time.
Investors in the Series B round include:
- Graham Holdings Company (NYSE: GHC): A diversified holding
company whose principal operations include Graham Media Group,
which owns seven television broadcast stations in major markets and
Kaplan, a global provider of educational services. The Company also
owns Slate, an on-line magazine; Panoply, a premium podcast
network; SocialCode, a leading social marketing solutions company;
Graham Healthcare Group, and several manufacturing
businesses.
- Discovery Communications (NASDAQ: DISCA): A leading global
media and entertainment company reaching 3 billion cumulative
viewers with a portfolio of premium nonfiction, lifestyle, sports
and kids content brands. WinView looks forward to pursuing
opportunities to deepen its relationship with Discovery and its
content brands, including Eurosport the leading provider of locally
relevant, premium sports across Europe.
- Ted Leonsis, Founder of Monumental Sports & Entertainment,
and Zach Leonsis: Own and operate five professional sports teams
(Washington Capitals, Washington Wizards, Washington Mystics,
Washington Valor and Baltimore Brigade) and the Verizon Center in
Washington, D.C. Ted Leonsis also
serves on the board of governors for the NBA and NHL, and he was
previously president of AOL (1993 to 2006).
- LionTree Partners: The merchant banking arm of LionTree LLC, a
differentiated global investment and merchant banking firm founded
in 2012, with a focus on media, technology and
telecommunications.
The funding round was driven by cable television and next-gen TV
pioneer Tom Rogers, who is Executive
Chairman of WinView, Inc. Previously Mr. Rogers was Chairman,
President and CEO of TiVo, President of NBC Cable and Executive
Vice President of NBC and Chairman and CEO of PRIMEDIA, Inc.
"This first-class group of investors is a major validation of
our live TV sports prediction platform and its upside potential to
engage TV viewers in a new way to enjoy televised sports," said
Tom Rogers, Executive Chairman of
WinView, Inc. "The WinView Games app fills a sports culture void by
converting fans and TV viewers from spectators into play-along-live
participants. Following last fall's successful start, these
investments will enable us to take a significant step forward
toward reaching our mobile, social and gaming business goals while
capitalizing on fan excitement across virtually all professional
sports including basketball, baseball and football. We also will
strive to be part of the in-stadium experience, enabling fans to
predict plays from their seats."
"The WinView Games app is changing the way fans watch live TV
sports," said David Lockton, founder
and CEO of WinView, Inc. "Our two-screen technology now backed by
40 patents enables sports fans to get closer to the action and
create social connections while testing their knowledge of the
sport through in-game predictions. With a skill-based multi-sport
platform that offers immediate gratification, we are fueling
competition among fans while also driving greater tune-in to live
televised sports."
Added Lockton, "Predicting what will happen next is core to the
sports viewing experience, as fans are constantly thinking ahead
during the game and trying to anticipate the action on the field.
As the changing landscape of sports and technology continues to
evolve with millennials defining the dual-screen age, the 85% of
sports viewers who watch sports with their mobile device in hand,
can now get into a free game and win money while testing their
knowledge."
Timothy O'Shaughnessy, President
and CEO of Graham Holdings Company, said: "WinView's platform is a
fun, exciting and dynamic new way for sports fans to engage during
the most popular live programming on TV today. WinView is well
positioned to establish its product as the new social interactive
paradigm where fans and friends are competing to predict what's
going to happen from the first to the very play of the game."
David Zaslav, President and CEO
of Discovery Communications, said: "WinView's products complement
Discovery's goal to reach and engage our superfans around the world
and across all screens. The company has strong expertise in mobile
and sports; a business and engagement model poised to help drive
consumption of live content; and a top-notch leadership team. We
are pleased to participate in this round of funding to support the
growth and development of their platform."
Ted Leonsis, founder and CEO of Monumental Sports &
Entertainment, said: "As a team owner, any avenue that creates a
greater relationship between the fan and their favorite team and
players, as well as greater fan excitement and intimacy, is what
local sports franchises are all about. It's my belief that WinView
locks fans more deeply into the game experience and rounds out
their desire to interact with other fans and prove their knowledge,
predictive power and understanding of the sport."
Zach Leonsis, Vice President and General Manager of Monumental
Sports Network, said: "WinView really capitalizes on what so many
fans are already doing: scrolling around on their mobile devices
while they watch games on the big screen. It makes fans a part of
the action and it drives huge user engagement. That's a big
piece of what's so powerful about real-time sports gaming – it
gives fans the chance to become players, and gives us all a shared
experience that builds on the intense passion of being a sports
fan."
Aryeh B. Bourkoff, founder and CEO of LionTree LLC, said: "In
our role as investor and advisor, we recognize that delivering
content, particularly to younger audiences, in new, interactive and
exciting ways is critical to success. WinView's platform provides
users with a unique and innovative experience that deepens their
engagement with content, and one another, in real time. Given the
success of play-along mobile sports and gaming in Europe, we are confident that WinView has a
significant opportunity to advance this trend in the U.S. and we
are excited to be a part of driving this business forward."
Launched in 2014, WinView Games previously raised
$8 million and represents the next
evolution of two-screen TV entertainment in the U.S, as in-game
sports predictions already has caught on and become more popular
than daily fantasy sports in Europe.
About WinView Inc.
WinView, Inc. is a Silicon Valley and New York based company
that is focused on free mobile two-screen synchronized televised
sports games for prizes in the U.S. The Company plans to leverage
its extensive experience in pioneering real-time interactive
television games played on the mobile second screen, its
foundational patents and unique business model. The WinView app is
an end-to-end two-screen TV synchronization platform for both
television programming and commercials. The free skill-based
WinView Games app uniquely enhances TV viewing enjoyment and
rewards sports fans with prizes as they answer in-game questions
while competing with friends in real time during live televised
sports. These free games of skill are legal in every state. For
more information, please visit www.winviewgames.com.
About WinView Inc.'s Intellectual Property
WinView's portfolio of 40 foundational patents covers the
synchronization of the second-screen with TV broadcasts and
commercials and the optimum methods of monetizing sports-based
games of skill, among other types of programming content. The
WinView platform provides sponsors and advertisers with exclusive
access to all the two-screen game participants through sponsorship
of the game, in-game videos and incentivized interactive
commercials in sports telecasts. The Company plans to expand its
service in partnership with the leagues, TV and cellular
industries, leveraging its intellectual property to establish a
two-screen synchronization standard across the entire TV broadcast
and cellular networks, which are industries that rely upon
standards to function efficiently at scale.
Contact Info
Media
Business: Whit Clay, Sloane &
Company
T: 212-446-1864
M: 917-601-6012
wclay@sloanepr.com
Consumer/Sports: Andrew Bard,
Burson-Marsteller
T: 212-614-5274
M: 646-525-5517
Andrew.Bard@bm.com
Corporate: Anthony Giombetti,
WinView
T: 818-821-7530
anthony@winview.tv
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SOURCE WinView, Inc.