A bit of backgroud
Back in 2002 Hamish Gray, a die hard sports fan, wanted to accompany his sporting obsession and techno skills with a little friendly competition between his friends and fellow sports fanatics. As well as wanting a more enjoyable way to pass his lunchtimes in the office, he wanted to compete with his mates with all sorts of sport picks to determine who really has the best sporting knowledge.
The Picks competition was born, a spreadsheet sent to a group of friends around the globe (NZ, Aus and the UK) where the predictions were made each week.
After a couple of years the enthusiasm for the idea grew. It was now time to take on the big boys (you know who you are) and make the competition open to everyone. After a few months of ‘living the dream’, coding the website at a beach in NZ, it was time … and in 2007 the spreadsheet became the website NZVirtualSport.
NZVirtualSport was released to the general public with the 2007 Air New Zealand. Additional competitions, such as the Rugby World Cup, Tri-Nations, NRL and A-League, soon followed.
Hamish still wants to make his virtual competition better than the rest, and continues to enhance and improve the website. So far in 2008, NZVirtualSport has unleashed Challenges to complement the traditional league tables. It allows users to compete head to head with each other, mirroring the format of the actual sporting competitions.
In the background through the years, testing Hamish’s ideas, theories and algorithms is Carl Williams. A Hawkes Bay supporter who keeps the developers in check and manages marketing and sales.
We always want to know how we are going and if there is anything we can improve – please contact us about our competition here.
One thank you to Vanessa and Stephanie – the wives, we cant do it without you.