Don Gibson, right, Mike Kuby, left, and CTO Phillip Johnson share their vision for Maptasy’s innovative approach to fantasy sports at the Fantasy Sports & Gaming Association conference in Las Vegas. (Photo courtesy of the Fantasy Sports & Gaming Association)
PHOENIX – The idea of filling out a NCAA Tournament bracket is claimed to have been created in 1978 by a postal worker named Bob Stinson, who was inspired by the brackets he created for his softball league. Claims also exist that the trend began in 1977 with Jody Haggerty in Staten Island, where 88 participants picked the Final Four teams and the national champion for $10.
Regardless of who came up with the idea, the concept stuck and is now a staple activity for avid sports fans in March. Approximately 56.3 million Americans filled out at least one bracket in 2023 and fans will legally bet a combined $3.1 billion on the tournaments this year, according to the American Gaming Association.
With advancements in helping participants fill out a bracket or bet on games, innovation has transformed how March Madness fans enjoy the tournament and compete with their friends, family and coworkers.
Insert Maptasy, a new start-up fantasy sports company that combines the worlds of geography and board games, veering away from the traditional concept of drafting any players and teams you want and strategically planning.
The game still features the traditional “snake draft” other fantasy sports apps use to select teams. After selecting a team with your first-round pick, users can only select teams that are adjacent to their previous selections on the map, meaning users can not select back and forth with teams in the East and teams in the West. It forces users to be strategic with their selections to create an empire.
The idea was created by Kevin Kane, Scott Kelley and Dan Krahenbuhl, three former Arizona State University geography graduate students. Their idea was not for a school project or a project for work and business.
“They came up with this idea just hanging out,” said Mike Kuby, Maptasy COO and former Arizona State University geography professor. “It was just buddies hanging out, drinking beer and brainstorming.”
As a group of three friends, they did their own test round. They all picked a team from each of the eight regions they created, generating some friendly competition that came with arguments and trash-talking throughout their test.
A year later, Kelley approached Kuby to ask if he would be interested in joining the team. Kuby – who released his own board game called Traverse, which was licensed by Educational Insights in 1991 – had an immediate answer.
“It was like a eureka moment,” Kuby said.
Maptasy CEO Don Gibson shared Kuby’s interest from the beginning. An accomplished attorney, entrepreneur and business executive, Gibson was approached by Kuby when Kuby’s daughter, who took one of Gibson’s classes, recommended that her dad reach out to him.
It is not often that Gibson assumes a title with a start-up. He declines about 90% of the start-up ideas that he considers. When he was introduced to Maptasy, Gibson was immediately hooked.
“Just based on the novelty of it, knowing that there was nothing like this in the fantasy sports space,” Gibson said. “It will have great value. You’ll see the realization of the vision and so forth, and that’s how we came together and we continued developing the concept.”
The development of the concept took a larger group that also included a few interns, including their marketing intern Caleb Lipsitt. The trial and error that comes with marketing and advertising was frustrating at times, but he understands the process of finding a marketing strategy that sticks.
“If you get discouraged by a couple of bad posts or the accounts aren’t growing the way you thought they were, the only way to (grow) is to keep going and getting the message out there,” Lipsitt said.
Lipsitt, an Arizona State University master’s student, took advantage of the internship opportunity when he learned about the program through Gibson. Between the founders, the C-suite executives and the interns, the program is filled with people who are tied to the university, which makes Maptasy unique.
“The fact that we are all connected to Arizona State University, it’s certainly a source of pride,” Gibson said. “It’s a boundary that binds us.”
The draft pool opened Monday to coincide with the days between Selection Sunday and the first round of the tournament. Maptasy plans to refine the concept for future use during the Fall sports season, but for now as the madness in March continues, the optimism stays put and the morale remains high for all who are involved with Maptasy.
“I think what’s exciting is at Maptasy is if we can prove the concept and people start playing and they have a good time, and (we) keep refining the game, I think the possibilities are endless,” Lipsitt said. “I think if we’re able to build something (sustainable) like that at Maptasy, it could be really special long-term.”