FansUnite wagers on sports and fans’ desire to win money
New game in town: Partners launch ‘ virtual playground for sports bettors’
BUSINESS LUNCH: At Homer and-Smithe’s Homer Street Cafe Tuesday, Darius Eghdami relished the $ 20 daily roast and an $ 11 Zuccardi ‘ Q’ Tempranillo 09 Mendoza. It’s a safe bet he’ll return to the Paris- like eatery. In fact, safe bets are his game, such as graduating as a chartered accountant to article at KPMG. Beyond that, he and like- aged Duncan McIntyre and Nicolas Shuster recently raised $ 250,000 to launch and develop a beta version of Fans Unite.
“It’s a virtual playground for sports bettors,” said lifetime fan Eghdami, who, with the others, ran a handicapping system until 2011: “I charged $ 70 a week and sat at the back in class at UBC, making picks.”
Today, he says paying one handicapper is a mug’s game. That’s because FansUnite’s platform ( fansunite.com) aims to include “10,000 handicappers who are making picks while we are tracking their records and verifying them … so you can filter those who are best by week, month and all- time, by sports, by team and by betting type — outright win, spread, over- under.” All for $ 15 a month, which FansUnite will charge after releasing fully this summer.
“Our motto is making betting social, Our goal is to make everybody win more money” said Eghdami, whose developer- father Kombiz’s VLINX ecommerce trading platform “was a big help in setting up FansUnite.”
Only those who view FansUnite’s handicapper picks will pay. Others may exercise betting skills riskfree with free virtual currency that is renewed monthly. Meanwhile, “The sports books are all looking to link up with a social platform,” Eghdami said, “and we are providing them with a more- educated bettor.”
• FORTUNE SMILING: Garret Louie, 39, and Rob Rizk, 40, are betting on Chinatown. That’s where they, Garry Bone and the five- partner NLA sales agency that Garret’s father Nick started recently paid $ 3.575 million for a century- old, 50- foot- frontage building. Home of the group’s Fortune Sound Club since 2009, it housed Ming’s restaurant in Pender Street’s neon- glittering nightlife era.
Such lightning will strike again, said Timebomb Trading principal Louie, noting that some 20 restaurants, bars and stores have arrived since Fortune opened. His and Bone’s limited- edition sneaker store, Livestock, will soon join them.
“We helped kick Gastown into a cool environment,” Louie said of Livestock’s 2004 opening. “Now we’re seeing it here.”
Livestock will occupy part of the now- renovating Fortune building’s street- level floor. Other retailers are reportedly angling for an adjacent space.
None of this might have happened had oft- travelling snowboard- and surfboard- garment wholesaler Louie not recruited Rizk as backup for a Red Lounge deejay stint offered in 1991. As GMAN and Rizk, their El Famoso nights ran for seven years. The duo’s Grande and International nights filled Sonar and Mars/ Atlantis, and fouryears of Big Up often drew 1,000 to Gossip Night Club. “We’ve been great partners,” said Louie, who seldom DJs nowadays.
“We’ve never had a fight,” Lebanonborn Rizk added. “But we have had heated debates. Anyway, Garret says: ‘ I’ve had more experience than you.’ And he has.”
• FORTUNE SMILING: Smashed pelvises and cracked cheekbones seldom launch careers. But they did for Bike Gallery founder- owner Stephen Kim, 43, who was 20 when so grounded for 10 weeks. Recovering, stone broke and with his business studies seminar at Douglas College shot, he turned summer- sales at Cap’s Bicycles into a full- time job. That led to managing Cap’s, Bike Cellar ( now Dizzy Cycles) and John Henry Bicycles stores, always with a passion for road bikes instilled when Tour de France yellow- jersey racer Alex Stieda spoke at his Centennial Secondary School.
Kim borrowed $ 75,000 from his family in 2006, rented a 10th- off-Trimble storefront for $ 2,900 monthly and, without name- brand bikes, sold $ 246,000 worth.
Snagging the Specialized make a year later almost tripled his revenue. Today, after doubling his store to 3,000 square feet ( and paying $ 7,400 monthly) he turns over $ 1.3 million. With three operating partners, he keeps cyclists in shape at the two- doors- away Academy I. O. H. S. facility.
“What really helped was my relationship with ( Wedgewood hotel manager) Philip Meyer and the Wedgewood Cycling Club,” Kim said. That’s likely why the up- to-$ 20,000, all- carbonfibre Colnago bikes from Italy he and
Smashed pelvises and cracked cheekbones seldom launch careers. But they did for Bike Gallery founder- owner Stephen Kim, 43, who was 20 when so grounded for 10 weeks.
others now represent were launched in a Wedgewood room filled with lean, strong “mamils” — middle- aged men in Lycra. Kim also has a fruitful relationship with Vancouver Canucks President/ GM Mike Gillis who, valuing anonymity, wears all black on the same- hue bike he rides avidly.
Like road racers, Kim always has stages ahead. The latest was the bikesgearmore.com online store he aims to develop globally. Blue- sky plans are for further road- cyclist facilities on his West Point Grey block.