SportsPicker 2.0’s colors are crisper and cleaner, there are drop-down menus for sorting, and you can even view the picks of the leaders.

We’re thrilled about our new layout, but even more excited to announce the introduction of challenges and notifications. Challenges can be sponsored (with cash prizes), or Custom, created by you or your friends, allowing you to compete against their Facebook friends. You set the sport, duration, and then invite friends to your challenge. At the end of all the picking, one person will stand alone with the most points, taking home bragging rights and perhaps even more!

Notifications are great if you need a little reminder of when to make your picks. They’re completely customizable, so there’s no chance of getting info-overload. The days of forgetting to make your picks and never hearing the end of it from your friends are over!

We’ve been busy over here at SportsPicker HQ….

Today, we’re pleased to announce that we’ve released SportsPicker Mobile for iPhone. This is a culmination of a dream we’ve had since we first started working on SportsPicker.

So go get it and start making your picks from anywhere.

Oh, and it’s free. Consider it an early Christmas present.

Head on over to SportsPicker and check it out. There’s nothing to install or enable, the matches should be available instantly!

Starting this Saturday, you’ll be able to pick English Premier League matches alongside NFL, NHL, NBA (once they start playing), MLB, NCAA Basketball and NCAA Football.

The functionality has already been built into SportsPicker, it’s just a matter of the matches getting underway this weekend.

Head on over to SportsPicker and start making your picks!

We’ve always admired the work that Special Olympics does in promoting the value of sports to everyone. Since the first games in 1968, Special Olympics have changed lives all over the globe. This is important work, and we want to help.

Starting today, every time you play SportsPicker, we’ll donate to Special Olympics. It’s seriously that simple. More info and the donation amounts can be found on a special page we set up.

So get out there and make your picks!

Oren Kantor at the 2009 National Championship Bowl

It all started back in March 2003. I was a sophomore in High School and the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament brackets were just released. Surprisingly, I was invited to join an office pool with over 400 entries at $10 each. I pulled out my calculator and couldn’t believe the total — the winner would take home over $2,500! I paid my $10 and began doing my research for my picks. After reviewing all of the games and teams, I was immediately drawn to my favorite college player that year, Carmelo Anthony. Behind him, my next favorite collegiate athlete was Dwyane Wade, who played for Marquette (and would go on to play for my favorite NBA team: my hometown Miami Heat). I filled out my brackets and picked Marquette and Syracuse to face off in the final game with Syracuse winning. I turned it in and set out to watch as much college basketball as I could, but with a new twist to the excitement.Over the next few weeks, my bracket seemed to get closer and closer to the top of the standings. When Marquette and Syracuse made the Final Four, I began to see a potential to win the entire pool. Marquette was ousted by Kansas, and my hopes began to dwindle. At this point, the pool was set up so if Syracuse won, I would take home $2,500. If they lost, I would win nothing. Unbelievably, Syracuse ended up winning the championship game and I took home the grand prize. At the age of 16, I had earned bragging rights for the rest of my life in this office pool. In fact, I still use “Oren Kantor 2003 Champ” when I enter that pool.

In March 2011, I enrolled in my final entrepreneurship Masters class at the University of Florida, In that class, Professor Livengood instructed students to pitch their ideas to the class at the next class meeting. I knew that I wanted to create my own business, so I had to come up with something good. That night I went home and watched the NCAA Men’s Basketball tournament and rooted for my teams that I picked with my bracket, again using “Oren Kantor 2003 Champ” as my username. It hit me all of a sudden: Why can’t I pick the winner of games for every sport? Other than gambling, there were no easy ways to pick winners and track the results. The following day I pitched the idea and SportsPicker was born. Since then, the idea has evolved and transformed — as great ideas to — and we finally settled on launching as a Facebook app with mobile apps coming soon.

So let me be the first to introduce to you, SportsPicker – Your Daily Dose of Bragging Rights!

Pick, Watch, Compete, Brag!

What are you waiting for? Play now at http://apps.facebook.com/SportsPicker

Feel free to send any suggestions to: support@sportspickerapp.com, we are always looking to improve our game and make it the ultimate pick’em competition.

Thanks and Go Gators, Heat, Marlins, and Ravens!

Oren Kantor
CEO

Friendly bragging-rights system adds social aspect to picking winners of sporting events, while unique points-based odds system provides incentive for picking underdogs.

BOCA RATON, Fla. – October 12, 2011 – OHK Labs announces the release of SportsPicker today, a whole new take on social gaming. With its combination of a simple interface for picking the winners of sports games and the power and ubiquity of the Facebook platform, SportsPicker delivers a fun and challenging social game revolving around professional and collegiate sports.

A significantly different concept from fantasy sports and online sports betting, SportsPicker takes the best of both — including social competition and odds-based selections — to create an entirely new and exciting way to enjoy sports. Users simply make their picks for each game, then check their standings against their Facebook friends who are also playing. Points are rewarded on a seven-point scale, with the underdog valued at up to six points and the favorite as low as one point. This enables a weighted odds system which rewards underdog picks. Additionally, SportsPicker is free (ad-supported), so there is no barrier to entry for players and their friends.

“SportsPicker is a great new way to compete with friends by selecting the winners of sporting events,” said Oren Kantor, OHK Labs CEO. “We all remember watching some of the greatest upsets of all time and bragging to our friends when we picked the underdog. Now, SportsPicker delivers that gaming experience in a simple and dynamic way.”

SportsPicker, now available to all Facebook users, can be found at http://apps.facebook.com/sportspicker . There is no charge to play, and anyone with a Facebook account can get started immediately.

Key features of SportsPicker include:

• Innovative points-based system rewards players for picking underdogs over favorites
• Support for nearly all popular professional and collegiate sports, including NFL, MLB, NBA, NHL, MLS, NCAA Football and NCAA Basketball
• Built on the Facebook platform, SportsPicker keeps track of a player’s point totals and automatically builds a leader board to compare friends’ point totals
• A simple one-click method for choosing a winner of each individual game. Players can select picks for every available game in a matter of seconds
• Free, ad-based revenue model means that users can play at no charge, increasing the size of a player’s competition pool
• SportsPicker’s safe, non-wagering system, provides a risk-free method of picking the winners of sporting events
• SportsPicker allows people to pick teams to win, an important distinction from traditional fantasy games, which center around individual players

“With the proliferation of fantasy sports and online wagering, we thought it would be great to take the best of both systems and roll them into one fun, safe, engaging game,” adds Kantor.  “We think we have a real winner in SportsPicker, and we’re very excited to be able to offer it to players free of charge.”

SportsPicker is the only game of its kind available on the Facebook platform, currently estimated to contain over 750 million subscribers worldwide. While the sports available are currently North America-centric, plans are already underway to add international sports.

For more information about SportsPicker visit http://www.sportspickerapp.com and download the press kit from http://www.sportspickerapp.com/SportsPicker_Press_Kit.zip

About OHK Labs:
OHK Labs is a Florida-based developer of mobile gaming applications, founded by Oren Kantor in 2011. SportsPicker, its first game, is available on the Facebook platform and will be available for iPhone and Android platforms later this year.

Media Contact:
Ian Schray
specularmedia
+1-503-317-5641
pr@sportspickerapp.com
Twitter: @sportspickerapp
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/sportspicker