March Madness could turn into a life changer for a group of college friends who never even take the court.
Tyler Eshraghi and Tom Boettner said the project began in one of their MBA classes at UNC where they were tasked with creating a concept for a business.
“Going into that we thought, wouldn’t it be great if we just did something that was really fun? And something we enjoyed. But at the same time, experience a frustration with,” said Eshraghi.
What started as an assignment turned into a full-time job. The company is called Sideline Fantasy Sports.
“Our aim is to simplify the way people play fantasy sports,” said Boettner.
Anyone can play, wager and have a chance of winning. The game the two created for March Madness is called Sideline Madness.
“You pick your eight teams and you have 1,000 points to wager across the teams. As those teams win, that determines what your payout is, or what your points are for those teams,” Boettner said.
In the end, the person with the highest score wins the entire jackpot.
“If your teams who score a lot of points early, but get eliminated you can still win because it’s just whoever scores the most points by the end of the tournament,” Boettner said.
Eshraghi and Boettner say one of the best parts is that there are only eight teams to worry about.
“You get to focus on things that you actually care about as opposed to picking a game where you don’t really know who the teams are,” Eshraghi said.
Both Eshraghi and Boettner quit their full-time jobs about 6 months about to dive into the start-up.
They are not generating any money currently.
