OneSeason.com Nets 3.5 Mil in Venture Capital

By Alicia Ashby On January 21, 2009 · Leave a Comment

Online sports game OneSeason.com announced today that it had secured $3.5 million in first-round venture financing from Charles River Ventures. OneSeason.com intends to use the round of funding to invest in infrastructure for its site, which involves both social networking and a virtual goods marketplace. As part of the funding round, George Zachary of Charles River Ventures joins OneSeason.com's advisory board alongside James Hong, founder of Hot or Not, and Football Hall of Famer Ronnie Lott.

OneSeason.com users buy and sell virtual "shares" of stock in top
football, baseball, basketball, and hockey players in an attempt to
assemble the most valuable portfolio. These shares are called Synthetic Ownership Interests (SOIs), which users purchase via RMT. OneSeason.com users are encouraged to use their collection of "investments" to show off both their allegiances to favorite teams and players, and a general knowledge of their favorite sports.

Value of individual players can rise and fall in accordance with real-world sports news events, and demand for that player's SOIs as created in OneSeason.com's virtual marketplace. Users are encouraged to trade, sell, and buy SOIs as they would corporate stock, and can even follow changed via a ticker widget embedded on the front page (complete with RSS feed). OneSeason.com describes SOIs as "virtual baseball cards," but with a high-tech sheen that's more appealing to adult sports fans.

“We are very pleased to have CRV, a top-tier firm with an outstanding
track record, join our team,” said founder and CEO Mike Sroka in a statement. “They
bring valuable experience with virtual goods and social applications to
draw upon as we move forward.”

In the past, OneSeason.com has stated that the company expects to make roughly $50 million per year if the site grows to the point where it sustains 3 million users. This takes into account that OneSeason.com caps the amount of money an individual user can invest in SOI purchases at $2,500 per year.