The University of New Brunswick’s Thomas Bobyn, Grant Frey and Micah Hesman won first place recently at the second annual DraftKings Pitch Competition at the MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference in Boston, MA.
DraftKings, the leading sports-tech media and entertainment company, invited students from across the globe to submit a pitch for game ideas revolving around either a new fantasy sport, a novel way to play fantasy for a current DraftKings sport, or a new idea for the DraftKings Sportsbook.
“The winning idea by the University of New Brunswick team demonstrated a soundness of both game analysis and business application,” said Greg Karamitis, Senior Vice President of Fantasy Sports at DraftKings. “This competition really enables students to step away from the classroom and flex their entrepreneurial skills, and we appreciate the thoughtfulness each team displayed throughout the process.”
For their first-place efforts, Thomas Bobyn, Grant Frey and Micah Hesman will receive cash prizes, internships at DraftKings, which is headquartered in Boston, and lunch with CEO and Co-Founder Jason Robins. The second and third place teams will also receive cash prizes and special access to sporting events.
DraftKings whittled the applicant field down to just five teams. Each of the finalist teams had five minutes to present its game idea to a panel of judges, comprised of executives from DraftKings, professors from MIT, and fellow analytics industry experts. Students from a variety of universities and colleges competed for the grand prize.
This is DraftKings second year hosting the competition in partnership with MIT Sloan to drive innovation in their products and offer students the unique opportunity to have direct access to the company and its senior leadership to pitch their ideas.
