It's a big weekend for college football. The top teams in the country will battle it out for a conference championship title. Nick Dimengo, Senior Editor at FHM Magazine joins Cheddar to give his opinion on who will end up with the trophy on January 8th.
He predicts the Oklahoma Sooners will win it all, but he says to keep a close eye on the Miami vs. Clemson game. Clemson is the defending champion, but this game is Miami's last chance for a ticket to the playoffs so it will be intense. Now Wisconsin's division has had a tough year, but the team itself is undeafeted. Dimengo talks about what a win this weekend could mean for the team.
Plus, Giants fans will see a new QB on the field this weekend. Geno Smith will start over legacy quarterback Eli Manning. Manning was benched in a surprising move by the Giants' organization, which has left many players and fans upset. Dimengo talks about Manning's future as a Giant and in the NFL.
Fintech companies are taking notice of the rapid growth in esports, and Quicken Loans has partnered with 100 Thieves, a League of Legends expansion team. Quicken CMO Casey Hurbis said this venture opened the company's eyes to the endless possibilities of esports and its personalities.
The Twitter Esports Business Summit ran from Oct. 1-3, and it held its focus on the growing market of esports and how Twitter fits into the business. Rishi Chadha, head of gaming content partnerships at Twitter, said the company is focusing on the communities that foster players and fans, as well as publishers and developers of different platforms.
The team became the first in the NBA to introduce GIFs for the Facebook platform. Sandro Gasparro, director of social media for the Los Angeles Clippers, told Cheddar it's not just another way to promote engagement, but can also connect fans to players on a more personal level.
Ralf Reichert, CEO of ESL, sat down with Cheddar at this weekend's tournament at the Barclays Center and talked about the esports world and what he believes is needed for the enterprise to grow.
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Ron Darling, a former MLB starting pitcher and current TBS baseball analyst, said the easiest way to attract younger people to baseball is to get more kids playing it when they're kids. Darling said there are more children opting out of football due to concerns about head injuries, and those athletes should be primed to take up a different sport.
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18Birdies has seen success as a one-stop shop for golfers, both amateur and pro, gaining 1.3 million members since its launch. The app lets players book tee times, navigate a new course, and choose the right club. But CEO Eddy Lui says the main goal is to create a community ー a social network ー of golfers.
The blockchain has made its way into a slew of industries. Next at bat ー the sports world. The Los Angeles Dodgers are moving away from traditional promotions and have begun using crypto tokens to give away digital bobbleheads to fans. Ralph Esquibel, VP of information technology for the team, said this is the first giveaway of its kind and could lead to more experiments with cryptocurrencies.
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