No one is quite sure what “Betting 2.0” will look like — but the co-founder of the newest player in the daily fantasy sports space is hoping he and his partner have built the prototype.
Noah Bernstein and fellow co-founder Hugh Roberts are the proud architects of Locker, which combines sports betting, daily fantasy sports, and trivia into a unique contest app that asks players to make in-game predictions and awards points based on those outcomes. The product launched ahead of the Nov. 6 Monday Night Football tilt between the Los Angeles Chargers and New York Jets.
The currently free-to-play contest platform matches fans against one another and provides cash prize pools distributed at the end of every contest.
“We’re serving the couch coaches of the world … the guys sitting there that want to get into the competition and compete alongside (their) favorite teams and athletes,” Bernstein said in a recent interview with Covers.com. “You’re really engaged on a drive-to-drive basis.
The genesis
The 23-year-olds’ foray into the hyper-competitive online gaming space is the culmination of years of shared entrepreneurial passion, which began when they were paired together randomly as roommates in the first week of their freshman year at Berkeley.
“I remember when we met, I was starting to get the entrepreneurial bug, and we were both into it,” Bernstein recalled from his Los Angeles office. “We leveraged that shared interest to get our hands into a couple of startups as undergraduates.”
As they wrapped up their time in school, having already partnered on several successful ventures (one in which Bernstein was given “a $100,000 budget and a chance to meet one of Apple’s vice presidents”), they sought something that they could dive into as a post-collegiate passion project.
“(Entrepreneurship) is a long journey and it’s hard,” Bernstein said. “And it takes a lot of effort and a lot of passion and a lot of time, so you might as well do it in an industry that you like. And we also wanted to be the target demographic.”
Are you ready for some football?
Cue the pivot to the NFL — particularly the rituals of their football fan brethren.
“We would meet every day at cafes, and listen to all of our friends in college, friends in frats, non-fraternity people, and ask them, what are people talking about? What do people want to see?” Bernstein explained. “And it’s just sports betting, sports betting, sports betting. No matter who you meet anywhere, that’s what they’re talking about.
“NFL Sundays were like a religious holiday for me and my friend groups. Everybody’s in the same house, hanging out, watching the games, shit-talking each other … and that’s my favorite part of watching football. Giving my buddy shit when Cooper Kupp drops a wide-open ball.”
Bernstein said that when he and Roberts took a deeper look at the sports betting and DFS landscape, they didn’t see a product that did a great job of combining gamification with socialization — and that’s when they realized they might be on to something.
“One of the things we do well is, I see the questions as a play sheet,” Bernstein said. “As you’re watching the game, we want to release questions where users can use the context of the game to make the right choices.
As with most ventures like this, the start was a rocky one — particularly given that Bernstein and Roberts weren’t exactly flush with cash when they left Berkeley. Not comfortable with paying themselves in the early going, the duo agreed to live in a Napa Valley airplane hangar owned by their lead investor.
“We lived, slept, ate, and went to the bathroom in this huge airplane hangar for a couple of months getting this thing off the ground,” Bernstein said with a smile.
Taking a different approach
Locker might not be airborne yet, but it’s well-positioned to take off at a time when the sports betting and DFS landscapes are scrambling to figure out how to attract new customers.
Locker’s premise is a simple one: Players are treated to an aesthetically pleasing intro in the moments leading up to the start of the game and are then fed a question prior to opening kickoff. Drive-specific samples might include, “Which player will lead the Eagles in rushing?”, or “Who will catch the most passes for the Texans?”
Once players answer the questions, they can then sit back and enjoy the action. This runs in stark contrast to the premise of live betting or microbetting, where many markets become available after each play — and bettors need to have one eye on their sportsbook at all times.
New questions generally come up only during commercial breaks, allowing players to focus on the contest without the risk of missing out on the actual game.
“It’s really important not to bug your users too much,” Bernstein said. “You need to find the right balance of keeping people engaged, but also letting them just enjoy the game.”
Bernstein anticipates plenty of challenges in trying to compete with the biggest names in both sports betting and DFS. And for his part, he’s deferential to both — but also knows that Locker’s differentiated product gives them an edge over the competition, even if only for now.
"When you look at the industry as a whole, I see a lot of white-labeling the same products with the same features, rebranding it and putting it out," he said. “And I see that as some of the reasons why customer acquisition costs are so high for all these companies. You’re going to have to give out money if you’re offering the same thing."
“It’s also about easy calls to action from a product and design perspective. Sometimes when I hop on a sportsbook I get overwhelmed myself, and I’m a sports bettor. It feels like I’m looking at the stock market, or something else a little buttoned-up. For us, it’s all about enjoyment and engagement less than just options.
Honing in on the gridiron
NFL is the sole focus for Bernstein and Roberts at the moment; NBA and MLB products are in the offing, but Bernstein said with a smile that he prefers to keep a lid on the specifics of those contests for now. He did, however, say that he and his team understand that different sports cadences will require different approaches where Locker’s gameplay is concerned.
“Hugh and I wanted to come in and innovate — and we weren’t just satisfied with one product. So (there will) be quite different products and game mechanics for each sport.”
Locker’s free-to-play model will eventually shift to include pay-to-play options, and Bernstein is keenly aware of the trap-filled battlefield DFS sites are currently navigating across the United States. He doesn’t foresee any issues for Locker, which presently operates in 20 states — including California, Florida, and Texas.
“Every day, Hugh and I wake up, have our coffee and look up what’s happening (in DFS) across the country,” Bernstein said. “It changes every day.
“We will be introducing pay-to-play games with higher jackpots, and as such, we will be defined as a DFS operator. And you have to toe the line. We take it extremely seriously on our side, and will only operate in states where we’re confident our peer-to-peer pools are classified as games of skill.”
As for what Bernstein hopes to see Locker become, the answer is simple.
“My grandma is 96, she loves watching football,” he said. “But she’s not going to go through a sportsbook and make a bet. She can play this game, interact with people, and feel like she’s among good company on our app.
“Whether you’re watching the game at a stadium, at a bar with your friends, or alone at your house, we want to be there, and be that second-screen platform you use to engage and enjoy the game that you’re watching. That’s the goal for us.”
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