SPEED™ Interactive Fantasy Bid Game Nominated For Cablefax Best Of Web Award
LINKED TO FAMED BARRETT-JACKSON COLLECTOR CAR AUCTIONS PARTICIPATION UP MORE THAN 10-FOLD SINCE 2005 LAUNCH
Thursday, March 11, 2010 – SPEED Fantasy Bid, where viewers watching the live broadcast of the standard-setting Barrett-Jackson Collector Car Auctions on SPEED are encouraged to test their skill at predicting the final auction sale price on a variety of collector cars and vehicles throughout the course of the auction, has been named a finalist for a 2009 Cablefax Best of the Web award in the Games category.
Launched in 2005, SPEED Fantasy Bid () recorded 50,000 bids in its inaugural year. In 2010, almost 700,000 Web and wireless SMS text bids were cast in conjunction with the season-opening January auction in Scottsdale, Ariz.
“Fantasy Bid has become a franchise for SPEED,” said Kevin Annison, SPEED VP of Digital & Interactive Media. “It continues to be our most successful multi-platform gaming initiative and continues to exceed our expectations every year. The game generates a lot of traffic to our Web site and mobile platform. With almost 700,000 Fantasy Bids over a four-day period, there is no question that fans love to play along while watching the great Barrett-Jackson action SPEED.”
With SPEED Fantasy Bid, the network randomly picks one car per hour to designate as the Fantasy Bid car. Viewers have no idea which cars are picked until each car is announced and the fantasy bidding begins. This prohibits fans from researching price and forces them to rely on their knowledge of the market and their gut feelings in the heat of the moment. When the Fantasy Bid vehicle reaches a pre-determined point in the staging area, the LIVE SPEED television broadcast goes to a remote camera shot and a SPEED field reporter gives a quick walk-around and basic stats for the Fantasy Bid car. As soon as he is done with the preview, participants are instructed to submit their Fantasy Bids for that car on SPEEDtv.com or text their bid via SMS to SPEED3 (773333).
The fantasy bidding period continues until the car rolls onto the actual auction block (approximately 10 minutes). At that point the fantasy bidding is closed and the actual auction process proceeds without interruption. When the car is sold the final sale price is immediately entered into the SPEEDtv.com game engine and the scores are calculated based on whose Web/SMS bids are closest to the final price without going over. In case of a tie the bid time code determines the winner.
Prizes are awarded for each car to the player with the closest bid. Then points are awarded to each bidder based on how far away from the final sale price they were. These points are added together for each player for each car played. Prizes are then awarded for the daily points leader and the overall points leader at the end of the auction.
Additionally, SPEED wraps a number of interactive components around the Fantasy Bid game, live multi-camera angle streaming, viewer chats, photo galleries and a collector car trivia application that generates some of the highest traffic levels to SPEEDtv.com, SPEED Mobile SMS campaigns and branded sponsorship opportunities.
In February, SPEEDtv.com recorded 1.3 million unique visitors, up 40 percent from a year ago and the highest single Web traffic month in the history of the network.
The next SPEED Fantasy Bid game will be run in conjunction with the Barrett-Jackson Collector Car Auction from the South Florida Fairgrounds in Palm Beach, Florida on April 1-3. SPEED’s multi-day coverage of the event begins April 1 at noon ET. For more information on the auction, please visit www.barrett-jackson.com.
Winners of Cablefax Best of Web awards will be announced at a luncheon in New York City on April 28.
About SPEED™
SPEED™, anchored by its popular and wide-ranging coverage of NASCAR, is the nation’s first and only cable television network dedicated to automotive and motorcycle racing, performance and lifestyle. Now available in more than 79 million homes in North America, SPEED is among the industry leaders in interactive TV, video on demand, mobile initiatives and broadband services. For more information, please visit SPEEDtv.com, the online motor sports authority.
Media Contact
Erik Arneson – SPEED -Earneson@SpeedTV.com – 704-501-5795