Review: ScoreMore Baseball App

ScoreMore Baseball’s main tagline is “Moneyball for all.” Grand words for a baseball scorekeeping app, but if you’re in the market to dominate the little league fields, this could be the app for you. It is available for Android, iOS and Blackberry systems and in addition to the standard hitting statistics such as batting average and on-base percentage, ScoreMore calculates Runs Created.

Unfortunately the app lacks any advanced pitching metrics, though given the necessary league numbers, statistics like FIP or SIERA are unattainable. As their tagline suggests, the phrase “Moneyball” is thrown around quite often within the app. There is a Moneyball Dictionary where terms ranging from slugging percentage to Runs Created are described — though no formulas are revealed, which is curious given that RC is a fairly straight forward one — and even a Moneyball Lineup.

scoremoremoneyball Within the Moneyball Lineup option it describes each of the first six batting positions. Notably written under the first batter section is the sentence “Regardless of a player’s physical attributes, the primary criteria for the leadoff batter is to get on base more than anyone else on the team.” They are not “selling jeans” in the app.

scoremoreexplained

The demo shows the optimized lineup — with seven out of nine starting players OPS above 1.000 I sure like the demo offense — but let’s see how it stacks up against a different lineup optimizer, one available at Baseball Musings.

scoremorelineup
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For a difference of .013 runs per game, the ScoreMore Moneyball lineup (outlined in red) stacks up just fine against a different one. Curious that the Baseball Musings optimizer did find find four better lineups, but rounding to the hundredths of runs is beyond splitting hairs.

A nice feature in addition to the standard score keeping is the ability to chart balls in play, though any spray chart wouldn’t be anything more than an eye-based guess. While scoring a game, you’re given the standard option of on base or out, and within the on base options there is everything else you’d expect.

scoremorehit Say Andrews hit a double, of the line drive type, then you’re taken to a screen to confirm the hit location by tapping where the ball landed. Imprecision, the new Moneyball!

scoremorechart

For a free scorekeeping app ScoreMore does the job adequately enough. The lineup optimizer, while not perfect, is a nice feature as is the ability to chart balls-in-play, but the imprecision is something to be expected. If nothing else just charting ground balls, fly balls and line drives by color makes for a fun spray chart for people to look at, however this app shouldn’t be taken too seriously.

(Header image via ScoreMore)

OOTP Announces Sweet New Features: Managers, Owners, and More

“That video game looks like a spreadsheet,” some doubter once said to me.

“That doesn’t look fun,” another has said.

Well, those jerks can go play their laser games and their wizard sports because Out of the Park Baseball (OOTP) is just about the funnest a simulation game can be. And it looks like OOTP16 is going to be even better. Why?

Controlling owners. Manager personalities. More detailed team finance displays.

It almost sounds like satire, but I’m genuinely tickled the OOTP team announced a bevy of new complexities for their ever-impressive video game. The owners and managers are both getting more features, options, and quirks.

But first! A new finance screen!

A customizable team finance screen. This is the thing I always needed but didn't know I needed.
A customizable team finance screen. This is the thing I always needed but didn’t know I needed.

This is nice because it will save me some time flipping back and forth from the Team Info to the Graphs to the Advanced sections. Now I can amalgamate the greatest hits into one screen.

Here’s a look at the new owners:

The owners -- now with more personalities!
The owners — now with more personalities!

And they’re coming with a list of demands!

Here's a look at some of the owner issues. This particular owner, we can see, is a dumbo.
Here’s a look at some of the owner issues. This particular owner, we can see, is a dumbo. Hayashi was past his prime!

And now managers are going to have more discrete tendencies, and we can control how much they control even more!

The redone strategies page looks MUCH better --  vaguely like a thing I'll actually use now.
The redone strategies page looks MUCH better — vaguely like a thing I’ll actually use now.

I’m excited.


Drones to Invade Sports Broadcasts Soon?

The drones are coming. Maybe. Someday. I hope. Fox Sports tested flying cameras in a high-flying sport over the weekend as it used drones to capture video during the AMA Supercross Series broadcast at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis, IN. According to USA Today, Fox will utilize drones in upcoming golf coverage, as well.

“If we can track a motorbike doing 30-40 mph, we can track anything in sport,” Brad Cheney, director of technical operations at Fox Sports, told USA Today. “We can certainly track a wide receiver only doing 19 mph.”

HeliVideo, a company based in Austin, Texas approved by the Federal Aviation Administration, developed the eight-propeller drones used during the test run. Each unit costs $25,000. While ESPN used drones in limited action during the X Games, it’s believed this is the first use indoors. Monster Energy, the named sponsor of the motocross event, published the below video on YouTube Saturday as licensed pilots flew three drones during a simulated race.

While this is a positive step towards the use of drones in telecasts of the big three sports, the USA Today reported “it took layers of approval from lawyers and risk management types” to pull off this coverage, so imagine the bureaucratic headaches involved with securing permission from say, the National Football League.

Leagues aim to protect themselves from injuries to players, or even worse, fans. But come on, corporate suits. These are *licensed* pilots. How could you not trust one?

Licensed operator captured during the Fox Sports drone test run.
Licensed operator captured during the Fox Sports drone test run.

Awful Announcing reasonably estimates, based on the USA Today report, that live play telecasts will include drones within the next three years. But why do we have to wait that long? The technology is here today. Take a year, test the use of these drones on practice fields, Little League games or studio back lots during staff pick-up games. How about bringing some publicity to attention-starved sports like AVP Beach Volleyball or Major League Kickball ? I’m pretty sure Bradley Woodrum’s softball team will sign any and all releases put in front of them for a 24-pack and a new team bat.

Drones would make the wire-supported camera, limited in its use and documented to be dangerous, obsolete. A Fox Sports cable camera broke and injured ten fans in the stands during in 2013 during a Spring Cup Series at Charlotte Motor Speedway and damaged several cars, some severely, that were traveling at 195 mph.

It’s an obvious next step in sports broadcasting, and it’s frustrating that the tech, which is ready now, has developed faster than the heads of broadcast companies and the hand-cuffing legalese that bind the hands of network story tellers.


Simulating the First 36 NCAAM Games with WhatIfSports

With millions of people filling out NCAA brackets and no doubt millions of, let’s say “jelly beans” being wagered, why not try to get the inside track on the opening round games? With thanks to WhatIfSports and their basketball simulation system (as well as Yahoo! for the bracket), we have the four play-in games plus the 32 opening round games predicted.

To participate in the premium features of WhatIfSports — such as creating or joining a sim league or dynasty — there is a fee. However, the NCAA single game matchup sim is free. Though no word on their methodology behind the sim (what stats are weighed, how heavily, is it a Monte Carlo, etc.) I’ll share my methods. I used the neutral court option and ran each team once. Small sample size is an issue, and rather than spend hours running a full simulation, like the tournament, I’m sticking with the one-and-done style. With that out of the way, lets take a look at the play-in games!

Hampton wins a fairly one-sided matchup, keeping Manhattan at arms length in the first and second half.

ncaa1

Our second play-in game is much more competitive, with Boise State narrowly defeating Dayton.

ncaa2Robert Morris couldn’tkeep pace with North Florida, getting doubled up on points in the first half. Though they won the second half, it wasn’t enough to overcome the early hole and UNF advances to the field of 64.

ncaa3Our first power conference team is eliminated in Ole Miss, going down to BYU by doubt digits.

ncaa4

The rest of the results can be found in the brackets below, though note some of opening round upsets. In the Midwest bracket we see Buffalo beating out West Virginia for the classic 5/12 upset and Valparaiso downing Maryland. The upsets continue in the bottom half of the bracket with Butler dropping to Texas.

ncaamidwest

Moving on to the East bracket, a problem arose. Unfortunately the system did not have Northern Iowa’s 2014-15 season on file, so Wyoming got the upset by default. Boise State toppled Providence for their second win of the tournament and while Virginia beat Belmont, it was a five point game.

ncaaeast

History was immediately made in the West bracket, as 16-seed Coastal Carolina shocks the world and beats Wisconsin! BYU defeats Xavier in another upset to finish the surprises for the day.

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ncaawest

Events unfolded without much surprise in the upper half of the South bracket. Suddenly UCLA downed SMU, Iowa State fell to UAB and Davidson defeated Iowa, all upsets.

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Clearly the surprise was for the first time ever a 1-seed, Wisconsin, lost in their opening game. Whether or not this proves to come true remains to be seen, but this bracket will probably do better than the one I filled out.

(Header image via Wikipedia)

The US Digital Gaming Market

It’s starting to become less and less crazy to call the United States digital games market a billion dollar industry. Thankfully, according to SuperData Research, it is estimated at $995 million, a 2% increase over last year. That number represents money going to the developers, and does not account for in-game trading and betting.

For a taste of how much money trading and in-game economy represents; Yanis Varoufakis, formerly Valve’s chief Team Fortress 2 economist is now the Finance Minister for Greece. Yes, from valuing digital items and pixels to a helping run a country, the economic factor of modern games is not to be understated. A single hat in TF2, the Burning Team Captain, is famous for being a ridiculously priced item, namely about $12,000.

tf2price

Of the $995 million mentioned, some of that is gathered from monthly subscriptions, mostly from massive multiple games. SuperData Research shows five of the most popular MMO subscription games in the US in the table below.

GRAPH-SuperData_EastWestRevenueSplitTopP2PMMOsThese subscription-based numbers are missing free-to-play League of Legends and Dota 2, arguably the two biggest multiplayer games in the esports scene. LoL is known for its massive following and Dota 2 is famous for its huge userbase and even bigger prize pool at the yearly tournament known as The International. Esports have become mainstream when the dollars being thrown around rival that of not only major sports franchises, but entire leagues.

(Header image via Shawn Carpenter Photography)

YouTube Kids Sports Options Reviewed By My Own Twins

When my oldest son was 3 he was obsessed with Cars. While my infant twins napped, he and I would hide in the office to be quiet. I’d do my thing at the computer, and he’d sit next to me in an office chair enjoying some iPhone time. Most of his allotted 20 minutes he’d spend on YouTube, following whatever trail led from my Lightning McQueen or Mater search that got him going.

On one particular day I was writing and chronicled the following:

The Boy, my 3-year-old, is easily influenced by what he sees on television. If something catches his interest, he commits every atom in his being to that one thing. It started with Toy Story and culminated with us buying him a Jessie hat, which thankfully he’s stopped prancing around the house in.

Then came Cars, and that obsession is still rocking. In fact, he’s sitting on an office chair next to me, watching YouTube on my iPhone. I don’t know what the video is, but I hear an adult male speaking with a slight accent describing a new Cars toy he recently purchased. He’s reading the box, extracting said toy from its container and describing it in detail…and it’s creeping me out.

The rabbit hole that is YouTube is a dangerous thing. According to Childwise, which specializes in children’s research, YouTube is the most popular digital brand between for those 16 and under. That’s ahead of Minecraft, Facebook and Instragram. And because of the way it’s designed, it’s so easy for a child to head down a road flacked by flowers and rainbows with a search so innocent and end up lost in a dark, dense forest of inappropriateness.

One day, while cooking dinner, Jax asked to watch Bambi clips on YouTube. I was convinced this was safe, and he could hide in his room from the twins for a bit before it was time to eat. Other than the mom dying at the beginning, it’s about as innocent as one could get, right? A few days later, he started asking me about zombies. He said Bambi’s mom was a zombie. Whattttt. This kid’s crazy, I thought. After some interrogation, he said he saw it on YouTube. So I searched Google and found what he was talking about.

Facepalm. Thanks for nothing, Cartoon Network.

Google recently relieved, at least a bit, parents everywhere when it released its YouTube Kids app for Android and iOS. As the company blogged, “the app was designed to be easier for kids to use, with a brighter and bigger interface that’s perfect for small thumbs and pudgy fingers.” It also includes features for parents to set up how and for how long the app is used. There’s a timer. We parents love timers. “Sorry, Little Jimmy. The timer says it’s time to be done, not me. I know, I think the timer is a bad, stinky mean guy, too.”

My twins, Ellie the girl and Gray the boy, just turned 4. I sat down with them to explore the sports options on the YouTube Kids app. Here is some of what we found.

SPORTS BALLS by Pancake Manor

“You throw this ball, through the hoop – a basketball” is sung by orange and purple muppet-looking things to the tune of a pop-punk two-minute music video. It’s the most watchable option under the sports search results. And that’s only because I have a huge thing for Marty Feldman.

youngfrankensteinigor

Ellie: She really liked it, and she likes the orange guy. I guess she likes bushy eyebrows.

Gray: At first, he didn’t like it. He said the guys were weird. At the end of the video he pivoted, said he liked it, and now likes the purple guy. One day I’ll make him watch Young Frankenstein and it’ll blow his mind.

 pancakemanorcapture

Baby Big Mouth Surprise Egg Learn To Spell – Sports

This is one part of a series of videos that utilize magnet letters, plastic eggs and cheap prizes to grab a kid’s attention. The camera isolates on the letters and a faceless man’s hands, which somehow creeps me out after a bit.

Ellie: She stinkin’ loved this and wanted to watch more. She’s interested in letters right now and loved discovering the prize in the egg at the end. I think he had her at the pink wristbands.

Gray: He was indifferent. He watched it, seemed interested, but at the end just wanted to move on.

Sports Finger Family

I despised this one. This is developed by a British company and features sports popular across the pond such as soccer, tennis and cricket. It’s filled with bad rhymes and gross animation. The singing isn’t any good, either. At the end of each sport’s short rhyme, the player becomes a finger puppet. A freaking finger puppet. I’d rather my kids watch zombie cartoons.

Ellie: She liked the girl playing tennis. She had no idea what the point was with the finger puppets.

Gray: Also unimpressed with the finger puppets. He asked what cricket was, and rather than get in to it, I simply told him I had no idea. He was satisfied with that answer.

Sports for Kids – Learning About Sports

Maybe I’m just a grumpy, cynical jerk, but the narrator’s voice is unlistenable. I’d rather listen to Fran Drescher read every line of hers from The Nanny. And as my wife would confess, I want to rip out Drescher’s vocal chords, load them on to the next rocket heading to space and pray that it explodes. The script worked for me, as it explains the goal in the sport, and that’s helpful to teach kids just learning about sports.

Ellie: She asked to stop watching after volleyball, 32 seconds in.

Gray: He asked to stop watching much, much earlier.

There’s more of the same after searching “sports” in the app. And while these videos were pretty lame, they held the attention of my preschoolers well enough. And I know I could hand them this app and let them head down a road that won’t lead them to zombies, twerking or Fran Drescher.

It does have Baseball Bugs, so even if it some day does lead to them learning how to assemble a pipe bomb with everyday craft items, the app is still a winner in my book.


The Rise of Premier League Viewing

The growth of soccer is something we’ve been hearing about since the mid 1990s. Major League Soccer may not have the top tier quality of European leagues just yet, but the quality of play has certainly been on the rise, particularly in the last few seasons. Older stars such as Thierry Henry, Robbie Keane and of course David Beckham have given the MLS a touch of precision it has been lacking. When seeing what these players can do in the MLS, many fans have seemingly sought out higher levels of competition, namely the English Premier League.

Back at the midway point of the EPL season, NBC — who owns broadcasting rights here in the United States — released viewership numbers and they showed an uptick from last season. NBC claimed a 15% jump in TV views and an encouraging 36% increase in streamed games via PC, mobile and tablets. Corroborating the continued rise in soccer’s popularity is the latest Global Web Index report, showing an bump up across the board in EPL watching.

Of the sample of about 40,000 users across 32 different countries, 28% claimed they watched the EPL on television. Another 16% reported streaming the games through their connected devices rather than the traditional TV route.

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Unsurprisingly the 16-24 and 25-34 age demographics lead the online viewership numbers, with 19% and 22% respectively streaming their games

Given the time zone differences — a Tottenham fan in San Jose, CA is faced with a seven hour difference or a Bayern fan in NYC still has a five hour difference — it remains a difficult reality for the European leagues to grow here. While some people, myself included, are more than happy to wake up early to watch games, eventually we may reach a point where the casually interested fans are not willing to sacrifice sleep for their soccer fix. Until we reach that point, the rising popularity of soccer, especially the EPL, is a welcome sight.

(Header image via Ungry Young Man)

Using PivotTables for Fantasy Sports Data

The PivotTable can be — in the right hands — one of the most powerful and useful tools available to an Excel Wizard. What does a PivotTable do? It reorganizes raw data into malleable tables. This allows us to look at the same data, but through a different lens.

It’s kind of like the difference between a cup of cold froyo in its original form — with a layer of peanuts, a layer of chocolate- and marshmallow-flavored froyo, and a layer of chocolate syrup — and a cup of froyo stirred and mixed up so that the sauce and nuts and yogurt are more integrated. It’s all the same components, the same flavor, but in one form, you can see them more clearly.

Before we can use a PivotTable, we need a question and a dataset that requires a PivotTable. (Throwing a PivotTable at a random problem will do you nothing.) The typical question I have that requires a PivotTable: Who performed best over the last three seasons?

And the question is more complicated than just “let’s add up data from 2012 through 2014.” I want to weight the years 5-4-3, meaning 2014 — being more recent — is 1.25 time more important than 2013, and 2013 is 1.3 times more important than 2012. This is a common weighting that Tom Tango uses a lot, most notably in his Marcel projections.

So let’s use a PivotTable with my Ottoneu fantasy team’s data so I can best predict my targets for the upcoming year. I’m going to head to my Ottoneu league’s home screen and then browse to the “Sortable Stats” section, but just about everything here can be replicated with the FanGraphs leaderboards and WAR instead of fantasy points.

I’m going to next choose to look at split season from 2012 through 2014:

This will return a single line per player per season.
This will return a single line per player per season.

Then we export the data to a CSV:

We can open the resulting CSV with Excel.
We can open the resulting CSV with Excel.

Opening that data, we get a bare bones spreadsheet somewhat like this:

Here's what a spreadsheet looks like.
Here’s what a spreadsheet looks like.

Then in the Insert section on the top ribbon, choose PivotTable:

Insert > PivotTable
Insert > PivotTable

You will then receive a popup window titled “Create PivotTable.” I never use the first section, but will typically leave the second section alone too. Basically, if you want, you can keep the PivotTable in the same sheet/tab, or you can have it create its own new tab. Since PivotTables frequently change shape, I rarely want it anywhere near my raw data because it could accidentally overwrite key stuff.

So hit “OK.”

This will result in something this-ish:

Sometimes the field list will be docked against the side of the spreadsheet. It just depends on what your default or previous settings are.
Sometimes the field list will be docked against the side of the spreadsheet. It just depends on what your default or previous settings are.

My original question is: “Who performed the best over the last three years?” That means I want my rows to be each individual player. To do this — and avoid problems like having two players with the same name — I will drag the “playerid” field to the “Row Labels” section:

The "playerid" field as a unique FanGraphs ID for each player. Baseball-Reference, MLBAM, and other all have their own unique naming systems too, and it's important to use those when possible.
The “playerid” field as a unique FanGraphs ID for each player. Baseball-Reference, MLBAM, and other sources have their own unique naming systems too, and it’s important to use those when possible.

You should now have something unhelpful looking like this:

Now the rows are each identified by a player's unique FanGraphs number.
Now the rows are each identified by a player’s unique FanGraphs number.

Now we need to add the column headings (“Season”) and the data we want displayed (“FPTS”). Again, this is just a simple drag and drop operation:

This will rearrange the raw data into a more helpful form.
This will rearrange the raw data into a more helpful form.

So we end up with something like this:

Now the fantasy points (FPTS) are displayed by player and divided by year.
Now the fantasy points (FPTS) are displayed by player and divided by year.

This is great! But let’s get those names in there now. Drag the “Name” field into the Row Labels sections, adding it just underneath the “playerid” field. This should result in a real messy display where the names appear under the numbers and have completely unnecessary subtotals.

Head to the “PivotTable Tools” and the tab “Design.” Here, we can rearrange the look and feel of the PivotTable. Under Subtotals, choose “Do Not Show Subtotals.” Under “Report Layout,” click “Show in Tabular Form.”

By removing the subtotals and changing to a tabular layout, we can see the player names neatly lined beside the unique playerid numbers.
By removing the subtotals and changing to a tabular layout, we can see the player names neatly lined beside the unique playerid numbers.

Now our data is in good shape. We’ve isolated the position player fantasy points by season, and now we just need to create a formula that will weight recent performances in favor of older stats.

The finished PivotTable should look something like this.
The finished PivotTable should look something like this.

So now, in order to jam in my own little formula, I will copy the data (CTRL+A then CTRL+C) and paste the values into a new tab or spreadsheet (so CTRL+V to paste it, then CTRL then V to paste just the values). Now that I’ve got raw numbers organized the way I want them, I will delete the top row (which does nothing for me) and then format the data as a table:

After massaging this data a little bit, we should be ready to create our fun little formula.
After massaging this data a little bit, we should be ready to create our fun little formula.

First, I’m going to use the filter buttons to get rid of any players who had blank years. Not only do these guys complicate the following math, but they also invariably do not qualify for my question concerning most fantasy points over the preceding three seasons.

After I filter out the “(Blank)” items in the each year column, I should have something like this:

Note how there are no hitters with missing years.
Note how there are no hitters with missing years.

Then I just create a formula that multiplies each year by the appropriate 5-4-3 weight, adds the results, and then divides that sum by the sum of the weights (12). That formula is specifically this:

=([@2014]*5+[@2013]*4+[@2012]*3)/12

NOTE: These previous two steps could go in either order, really.

Then, for fun, I’ll format the final column to look a little nicer, maybe throw in a conditional formatting here or there, and then I’ve got a nifty little tool for for my first year draft. Of course, if I were using this data for a draft in an old league, I would have filtered down to just Free Agents — either in the Sortable Stats page, or within the PivotTable:

The filter tool can allow me to pick which fantasy team I want to look at. In the case of an old league, I'd want to look at "Free Agents." Obviously though, in a first-year draft, everyone is a Free Agent.
The filter tool can allow me to pick which fantasy team I want to look at. In the case of an old league, I’d want to look at “Free Agents.” Obviously though, in a first-year draft, everyone is a Free Agent.

So, after all that work, I finally get my sweet, delicious prize:

Tasty, tasty data.
Tasty, tasty data.

With a little bit of formula athletics, we can expand this data to look at everyone, even if they have missed a season. This would allow us to allow put rookies and sophomores into the table. But since this is a PivotTable article, I’ll save that for another time.

Happy spreadsheeting!


Previous How To’s:

How to Use Tableau for Baseball Data
How to Use Vlookup for Sports Data

Let me know if there’s something else you’d like a How To on!


OptiShot2 Allows Golfers to Play Year-Round

Winter is finally starting to release its grip on the U.S., but temperatures are still below average and there are several feet of snow on the ground across the northeast. However, golfers can still work on their game without trudging through the snow thanks to simulators like the OptiShot2.

OptiShot is a small company based out of Traverse City, Michigan (2015 snowfall: 89 inches). Their golf simulator allows users to play a full round indoors using every club in their bag*. Even in the summer, the simulator can still come in handy: since there’s no walking or hunting for balls, users can play a full 18 holes in under an hour.

* – While you can use real golf balls with the OptiShot, you might want to consider using their foam practice balls — or no balls — if you’re actually playing inside.

The heart of the OptiShot system is a row of sixteen infrared sensors embedded in a practice mat. The sensors track the club tens of thousands of times per second, sending data via a USB cable to a laptop. There, the OptiShot software computes the speed of the club head, club face angle, and swing path. Of course, the system also computes the trajectory of the shot, projecting it onto three-dimensional replicas of famous courses from around the world. For added realism, the software also includes penalties that limit the range of shots out of the bunker and rough.

But OptiShot CEO Russell Edens says the company’s user base is what sets the OptiShot apart.

“We have the largest user base on the planet,” Edens said. “You can play against other golfers around the world online, and we hold events for people to play against each other.”

To keep its customers happy, OptiShot is constantly digitizing new courses, releasing the Riviera Country Club simulation (pictured above) last month. The device ships with 15 courses, replicas of the courses that host the U.S. Open, PGA Championship, and Ryder Cup; additional course simulations are available for purchase online. OptiShot’s course designers rely on high-resolution photos and detailed three-dimensional data “that maps every contour, dip, and bump” of the famous courses, Edens said.

OptiShot trained its system using launch monitors (like TrackMan) that track a shot’s speed and trajectory, and Edens is proud of the system’s accuracy.

“Frankly, the accuracy of OptiShot for the price point is shocking,” Edens said. “When it come to sidespin, we are often better than most simulators on the market.”

Edens said the touring and teaching professionals OptiShot has worked with to design and test the system were impressed by the system’s ability to capture their game.

“The reaction is nearly always the same,” Edens said. “They hit a shot, nod their head and say, ‘Yup, that’s my shot.'”


Crowdfunding Site Raises Donations For NCAA Athletes, Is A Particularly Bad Idea

FanAngel is a site that, in a just world, wouldn’t exist. The crowdfunding site enables fans to become patrons of NCAA athletes, donating money to persuade said athletes to stay in school, with the site holding the money in escrow until the athlete’s eligibility expires.

While it is true that NCAA athletes from power conferences have been getting the shaft for decades by not being compensated properly for their increasingly valuable labor, crowdfunded donations from fans do nothing to alleviate the exploitative labor conditions under which NCAA athletes operate.

In the event that a FanAngel crowdfunding campaign is successful and the athlete’s NCAA eligibility expires, 80 percent of the money would go to the athlete, 10 percent would go to the athlete’s teammates (nice touch!), and 10 percent would go to a scholarship fund or charity. FanAngel makes money by taking 9 percent of the total amount raised (more on this later). Of course, if the athlete doesn’t stay in school the money is refunded.

Shawn Fotjik, founder of FanAngel, said in an interview with ESPN sports business reporter Darren Rovell, “If you wanted Marcus Mariota to stay in school for his senior year, you could give $20.” I applaud Fotjik on getting good PR from Darren Rovell, but Marcus Mariota is either going #1 or #2 overall in the 2015 NFL Draft and there is no amount of money FanAngel could raise that could keep him in school.

Contributing to a crowdfunding campaign for teenagers who are exceptionally good at big time NCAA sports, and also strangers to the donor, is something I’d assume would be creepy to most well-mannered adults. As has been proven time and time again in my life, I am wrong about this assumption.

Fans of Jarrell Martin, a sophomore forward for the LSU Tigers who, according to DraftExpress.com, is projected to be drafted at the end of the 1st round in the upcoming NBA Draft, have raised over $700 on FanAngels for him to return to LSU for his junior and senior senior seasons, completing his NCAA eligibility. Understanding that FanAngel is a new venture and will need time to scale both users and donations, it still strains credulity to see this ever happening.

For a glimpse of what might be in Fotjik’s future, FanPaya crowdfunding site which raises donations as graduation gifts for college athletes, has received over 100 cease-and-desist letters from universities and conferences.

Additionally, FanAngel may want to rethink the 9 percent fee they collect for successful campaigns. Other supposedly altruistic crowdfunding donation sites have been taken to task in the past for collecting high fees. One of the worst offenders is Give Forward, which collects 7.9 percent of every donation plus a $0.50 transaction fee. Nine percent is a laughable amount that puts FanAngels in the same exploitative waters they claim they are trying to drain.

If college sports fans suffering from hero worship want to contribute to an NCAA athlete’s cause, they should skip crowdfunding platforms and donate to the National College Players Association (NCPA), which spearheaded the player union movement at Northwestern. Or do what has been done for time immemorial, put some cash in an envelope and make a handoff.

(Image via FanAngel)