Playerboss - a statement - 22/05/2003

On Tuesday afternoon an article was published by the Newcastle Evening Chronicle concerning Sporting Eye Ltd. Sporting Eye are responsible for the Playerboss fantasy football game, and after running the game for the past two seasons we´ve decided not to continue for the 2003/04 season. After intially trialling the game with a userbase of 400 teams, we attracted 4,000 team entries last year. If the company were to run the game next seaon I´m sure this figure would rise again. However, fantasy football is a media promotions tool, and in this way, the game can only survive if you partner with a large newspaper or website (as the Telegraph and BBC operate). We´ve invested a great deal of time trying to attract media partners but have unfortunately been unsuccessful.

It would be possible to run the game again next season in the hope of attracting a media partner, however this would mean comitting to a further season - a commitment to both people playing the game and to our staff. This is simply too much of a risk to take, and we´re not the type of people to start a game, collect entry fees and then wind-up the company two weeks after the season kicks off!

If Playerboss was bought from Sporting Eye it´s still conceivable that the game has a future. It´s genuinely a strong game and has proved to be one of the most reliable online games in the fantasy football market. The concept was well thought out, so much so that it won a business award, however things simply haven´t worked out as planned.

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