A Q&A with 365 Scores co-founder and CEO Ami Sirkis. The Tel Aviv–based company was founded in 2010 and closed a $1.2 million Series A funding round in late January. Investors include Cedar Fund, Tal Elyashiv and Shy Datika.
SUB: Please describe 365 Scores and your value proposition.
Sirkis: 365 Scores is a leading sports tracking service, providing users with a flexible and feature-rich platform for keeping track of their favorite sports, teams, and athletes. The app provides real-time score updates and other breaking news via notifications to the users through its innovative web app, mobile app and browser add-on.
SUB: Who are your target markets and users?
Sirkis: 365 Scores is a global service designed for sports fans across the world, as we support 18 languages and a multitude of sport categories.
SUB: Who do you consider to be your competition?
Sirkis: ESPN’s wide range of offerings are the main competitor
SUB: What differentiates 365 Scores from the competition?
Sirkis: We offer a personalized and unique service tailored to the specific user with real time scores, news, videos and alerts in 18 languages. The 365 Scores mobile app in particular gives users a unique platform to follow their favorite teams, athletes and sports anywhere they take their mobile phones. The app gives users all of the best features of the 365 Scores platform in a mobile format that is perfectly designed for mobile screens.
SUB: When was the company founded and what were the first steps you took in establishing it?
Sirkis: The company was founded in 2010 and the first step was to create the sophisticated engine that surfaces content from across the web, from tweets to blogs and scores, letting you follow exactly the teams, sports, and athletes you choose.
SUB: What was the inspiration behind the idea for 365 Scores? Was there an ‘aha’ moment, or was the idea more gradual in developing?
Sirkis: The founders are all sport fanatics who wanted to create a unique sport channel that is tailored to the users and allows them to follow the teams, sports and athletes they want.
SUB: How did you come up with the name? What is the story behind it?
Sirkis: We supply sports information all year long, so that is how we got to 365 Scores.
SUB: What have the most significant obstacles been so far to building the company?
Sirkis: The most significant obstacle was to create a unique engine that can scan over a 1 million pages a day and can support millions of users in real time.
SUB: You just raised $1.2 million in Series A funding. What are your plans for the funds?
Sirkis: With the new funding we have raised, we plan to expand the platform and provide even more features and functionality, especially in the mobile arena. The new version of our mobile app for both Android and iOS is the first step in this direction, and we have many additional releases in the pipeline that we are focusing on in order to enhance our users’ entire experience.
SUB: Why was this a particularly good time to raise more outside funding?
Sirkis: We have substantial traction worldwide and our mobile offering was just launched.
SUB: How does the company generate revenue or plan to generate revenue?
Sirkis: We plan to generate money from advertising and offering special packages for sports fans—tickets, merchandising, etc.
SUB: What are your goals for 365 Scores over the next year or so?
Sirkis: We want to enhance our users’ experiences and increase 365 Scores’ user base, especially in the mobile arena
365Scores – www.365scores.com
