Thanks CK!
G&J had it made for a long time - they were the only alternative to Don Best for years. Mike did a good job on their software, and they had good feeds from most of the sportsbooks, so they did not need to do much else to support the service.
But once SportsOptions got into the mix things changed. For the same price, we offer so much more than G&J ever did. I have said before that we are the first true replacement for Don Best, which means we originate all of our own information. If G&J wanted to compete with us they would have been forced to hire a full staff and build tons of back-end programs - I think they may have thought they could compete with out doing all of that.
While we are on the subject of G&J - any G&J customers that don't plan on moving over to DB can check out SportsOptions for free for 7 days: Free trial signup
Thanks
Rick
rick@SportsOptions.com
G&J had it made for a long time - they were the only alternative to Don Best for years. Mike did a good job on their software, and they had good feeds from most of the sportsbooks, so they did not need to do much else to support the service.
But once SportsOptions got into the mix things changed. For the same price, we offer so much more than G&J ever did. I have said before that we are the first true replacement for Don Best, which means we originate all of our own information. If G&J wanted to compete with us they would have been forced to hire a full staff and build tons of back-end programs - I think they may have thought they could compete with out doing all of that.
While we are on the subject of G&J - any G&J customers that don't plan on moving over to DB can check out SportsOptions for free for 7 days: Free trial signup
Thanks
Rick
rick@SportsOptions.com
Mike did a great job on the G&J software, and I paid them for several years primarily just for their Pinny feed, in the earlier days of the exchanges. After MB's commission structure change the Pinny feed lost it's value to me.
I wish Mike well; personally I was never a fan of the DB interface / service.
I wish Mike well; personally I was never a fan of the DB interface / service.
Even though it is unnecessary, I figure I will respond. I would like to clear up a few misconceptions:
1.) G&J Update was not losing business, and was not forced into any decision. In fact, it is quite the opposite. We were and still remain a very profitable company. Sure, we had a smaller staff, but we had a loyal customer base that was VERY happy with the service that we provided. Rick, I am sorry to tell you that our departure from the premium market had very little to do with SO. The only thing SO was successful in doing was dilluting an already shrinking market. I think SO will continue to find it hard to get people to pay for a service that they continue to give away for free. At some point you are actually hurting yourself and your industry more than your "competitors."
The notion that we couldn't compete with SO is laughable. The real question is if you could compete with G&J Update while maintaining a profitable company. If I had the choice between owning G&J Update or owning SO I would choose G&J Update 10 out of 10 times because it was HIGHLY PROFITABLE. Of course, we built G&J with our own money, and we paved our own way with a target on our back the whole time. We didnt have an investor who was willing to lose unimaginable amounts of money for an indefinite amount of time. There isn't a question in my mind that SO couldn't come close to doing what we did. SO probably couldn't even exist if it hadn't been for the roads paved by G&J Update.
You can continue to build all the bells and whistles you want, but at the end of the day Don Best has the most accurate information, the fastest data feeds and the greatest resources. They also have something else, support from the books. All SO can ever hope for is to be a secondary or backup service. I am sure that is part of their sales pitch. If this market can only support one line service, Don Best will be it, hands down. We are very confident that our customers will be extremely happy with the Don Best service.
To our customers:
We are not going anywhere. We will still be working closely with Don Best to make sure this transition goes smooth. We are also involved in a very exciting new project and now that Don Best has given us some free time, we hope to really turn our newest project into something special. Be on the lookout for that one.
PS. Thank you Santo for the kind words. I hope you are still able to do what you used to do at least in some capacity, even if it is without a screen. I am sure you still have my email, feel free to chat anytime.
1.) G&J Update was not losing business, and was not forced into any decision. In fact, it is quite the opposite. We were and still remain a very profitable company. Sure, we had a smaller staff, but we had a loyal customer base that was VERY happy with the service that we provided. Rick, I am sorry to tell you that our departure from the premium market had very little to do with SO. The only thing SO was successful in doing was dilluting an already shrinking market. I think SO will continue to find it hard to get people to pay for a service that they continue to give away for free. At some point you are actually hurting yourself and your industry more than your "competitors."
The notion that we couldn't compete with SO is laughable. The real question is if you could compete with G&J Update while maintaining a profitable company. If I had the choice between owning G&J Update or owning SO I would choose G&J Update 10 out of 10 times because it was HIGHLY PROFITABLE. Of course, we built G&J with our own money, and we paved our own way with a target on our back the whole time. We didnt have an investor who was willing to lose unimaginable amounts of money for an indefinite amount of time. There isn't a question in my mind that SO couldn't come close to doing what we did. SO probably couldn't even exist if it hadn't been for the roads paved by G&J Update.
You can continue to build all the bells and whistles you want, but at the end of the day Don Best has the most accurate information, the fastest data feeds and the greatest resources. They also have something else, support from the books. All SO can ever hope for is to be a secondary or backup service. I am sure that is part of their sales pitch. If this market can only support one line service, Don Best will be it, hands down. We are very confident that our customers will be extremely happy with the Don Best service.
To our customers:
We are not going anywhere. We will still be working closely with Don Best to make sure this transition goes smooth. We are also involved in a very exciting new project and now that Don Best has given us some free time, we hope to really turn our newest project into something special. Be on the lookout for that one.
PS. Thank you Santo for the kind words. I hope you are still able to do what you used to do at least in some capacity, even if it is without a screen. I am sure you still have my email, feel free to chat anytime.
