ProTrade To Expand Offerings To Become Year-Round Experience

By Eric Fisher, SportsBusiness Journal

ProTrade Expanding Platform To Include NASCAR Drivers And Football Teams

ProTrade, the stock market-inspired fantasy gaming outfit, plans to add NASCAR drivers, NCAA football teams and NFL clubs to its trading platform over the next two months, continuing a period of significant expansion for the San Mateo, California, company.  The additions arrive on top of recent expansions into NCAA men's basketball and PGA Tour golfers, and are part of a broader effort to make its fantasy trading a 12-month enterprise and remove the seasonality common to fantasy sports. Also being considered is adding English Premier League teams.  "We're really excited about what the trading on college football teams could become. Ideally, it'll be another source for determining, at least in the eyes of the general public, who's the No. 1 team in the country," said Jeff Ma, ProTrade co-Founder and VP/Research.

WIN PROBABILITY: Meanwhile, the company also is continuing a syndication effort for its Win Probability product, a formula that uses complex algorithms to determine a team's real-time chances of winning a game. The Win Probability product was first used in Warriors broadcasts on FSN Bay Area, and was recently featured as part of ESPN's coverage of the College World Series.  Negotiations are now ongoing between ProTrade and ESPN to use Win Probability in the network's college football coverage this fall, and the real-time Win Probability charts are also posted at live.protrade.com.