Buy Tiger, sell Dolphins on new sports stock market
Michael Sroka dreamed up a day-trading website for sports fans while still in high school, and the concept will finally come to fruition with the launch of OneSeason.com.
The website, scheduled to debut on Wednesday, offers U.S. fans the chance to buy shares in such athletes as basketball star LeBron James and golfer Tiger Woods. The aim is to make a profit from trades, much like investors do when betting on the stocks of General Electric Co or Cisco Systems Inc. At OneSeason, users can trade real money based on the performance of athletes, teams, leagues and other sports personalities. The idea came to Sroka, 27, at his Winnetka, Illinois, high school. “Daydreaming in my economics classroom, I mashed together my two favorite things, which were sports and trading,” he told Reuters in a telephone interview. Designed to appeal to sports fans, investors and gamblers, OneSeason allows users to build a portfolio — the company prefers “sportfolio” — of shares in athletes. The shares, called “synthetic ownership interests,” are delineated with ticker symbols, just like real stocks. So Los Angeles Lakers all-star guard Kobe Bryant will have shares with the ticker “KOBE” when issued. The value of those shares is determined by market demand influenced by onfield play, off-field behavior, fan opinion and future prospects, Sroka said. While OneSeason represents a first, it comes as Internet users grow comfortable with dealing in intangible assets. “People have become much more comfortable with virtual goods and digital assets,” Sroka added. “In the past five years, people have also become much more comfortable with financial transactions online.”