Eyeball Inc., the Bedford company that’s developed an online network for amateur sports, has launched a new web-based platform for league and tournament organizers.
The company said in a statement today it has formed a partnership with the 2016 SEDMHA Honda Minor Hockey Tournament, a 240-plus-team event that will use the new platform.
Founded by tech vets Jay Steele and Shaun Johansen, Eyeball has developed a social network that allows people to follow minor sports teams. The company found a strong market among sports teams in the Halifax area. That led to a $1 million investment from publicly traded Clearwater Fine Foods Inc. late last year and additional funding from a handful of angel investors.
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“The SEDMHA Honda Tournament is the perfect opportunity for us to launch our web platform,” said CEO Steele in the statement. “We initially developed this app so that it could be a venue to assist with the coordination of youth sports, but it’s also a place for communicating important information, and celebrating achievements in sport. The web platform will help bring this type of engagement to the next level and allow us to reach a new set of users.”
Held in the Halifax area, the four-day SEDMHA Tournament is one of the largest in North America, comprising 18 different ice surfaces, more than 500 games and more than 5,000 players and coaches.
The new Eyeball platform will allow tournament and league organizers to upload their complete schedules, rosters, and information in a few simple steps.
The company said the clean design of the web platform lets visitors quickly find when and where their next game is. In addition, the platform still offers users the ability to network and communicate on mobile devices.
“Eyeball’s platform is ideal for streamlining communication and fostering tournament engagement,” said Wayne MacDonald, chairman of the SEDMHA Honda Tournament.
“Eyeball will assist the SEDMHA coaches, parents and players with everything from showcasing division brackets, coordinating carpooling and tracking stats, among countless other details.”
Steele and Johansen have previously launched and sold two startups. During the original dot-com boom in the mid- to late-1990s, they teamed up to launch Plazmic, an early mobile venture that they ended up selling to Research in Motion. A few years later, they started another mobile startup called Viigo. And again they sold it to RIM.