Marina del Rey-based Orion Data Analysis Corp. is banking that avid sports fans will pay to have high-tech sports predictions easily accessible on their cell phones.

Its StatShark.com, considered the first online sports forecasting service to employ the level of detailed analysis used by financial and economic prognosticators, has signed a wireless deal to provide its content to Cingular Wireless subscribers.

StatShark.com, which launched its main Web site in time for the 2005 National Football League season, enables fans, fantasy players and handicappers to receive the results of 10,000 simulated contests before an actual game is played. The company this month began promoting its new StatShark Mobile service as a March Madness enhancement for college basketball fans.

“StatShark.com considers factors that even the most avid sports fans are unable to calculate,” said Jason Manasse, Orion’s chief executive. “What we’re providing is entertaining content that adds value, whether you’re sitting in a bar with friends watching a game, setting up your fantasy league team at home or looking at the (betting) line at Mandalay Bay.”

Both services use Orion’s proprietary data analysis and simulation engine, which constructs a mathematical equation comprising more than 100 different variables for every player, coach and team. That generates a full range of possible results and the precise odds and probabilities for every statistic, every player, and every game.

Overall, it has successfully picked the game winner in 78 percent of NFL games, 68 percent of National Basketball Association contests, and 73 percent of National Collegiate Athletic Association regular season basketball games, Manasse said. It was running 75 percent correct for March Madness as of early last week, and plans to start covering Major League Baseball later this spring.

The wireless subscription costs $4.95, but the StatShark.com Web site offers a variety of free and paid access to its content, with regular subscriptions ranging from $8 a month for the typical sports fan to $600 a year for handicappers and sports investors. Partners such as Amp’d Mobile, CBS SportsLine, Yahoo!Sports, and VegasInsider.com also offer limited versions of the same information on their sites.

Manasse and his partners have raised more than $600,000 in local angel investor and friends-and-family funding since September 2004 to develop and launch the service, he said. The company also is developing applications for stock picking, real estate investing, travel research, and assessing personal relationships.

Food Court Press


Consumers may be able to skip over a 30-second TV spot with their digital recorder or ignore a display ad in the morning newspaper, but while munching on a burger and fries at the shopping mall they’re a captive audience for whatever might be staring up at them from the dining table.

That’s the pitch Los Angeles-based Creatable Media Inc. is making to advertisers with its first product: a sleek, modern food court table that frames a variety of interchangeable advertisements.

To strengthen its market presence, the company recently contracted with the sales division of Clear Channel Outdoor Holdings Inc., a subsidiary of Clear Channel Communications Inc. of San Antonio.

The company already has its custom-designed tables and chairs in 55 U.S. malls, including 12 L.A. locations such as the Glendale Galleria and Sherman Oaks Fashion Square. Marketing Vice President Kim Brewer said the company has been installing tables at about a dozen malls a month since signing its first contracts with mall operators last fall, with a goal of more than 120 locations by November. It has deals with some of the country’s largest mall developers, including Westfield Corp. and Macerich Co.

The most interested advertisers so far have been film distributors and television networks, with the WB network promoting shows such as “One Tree Hill” that have “mall rat” appeal, and NBC hoping to attract their parents with posters for its venerable “Today” morning show. But the company hopes to attract retailers soon.

Brewer said their mall marketing studies indicate that customers don’t consider the ads intrusive and had high retention of the ad content later. To insure that shoppers have an unobstructed view, mall operators are required to purchase clear acrylic food trays for their vendors.

“We’re converting the mall into a powerful medium in which our clients can reach consumers in a buying state of mind,” she said.

Creatable Media, lead by company President Vince Pierse, is owned by Sydney, Australia-based Hawkesbridge Private Equity, which in January acquired its assets from another Australian company for $4 million. The deal included the forgiveness of $3.2 million in convertible debt and an $800,000 cash payment, according to Hawkesbridge’s Web site. Pierse has been vacationing in New Zealand and couldn’t be reached for comment.

This and That


Lake Forest-based Del Taco, Inc. has signed Santa-Monica-based Palisades Media Group Inc. to oversee the media buying and planning for the majority of the major markets for the nation’s second largest Mexican fast food chain. Palisades, best known for its entertainment industry clients, has been making a major push for business in general market categories.

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Women & Wine, a year-old Los Angeles-based online community that organizes wine tastings and travel and provides resources for women who enjoy wine, is launching a weekly hour radio show April 20 on the Internet radio network VoiceAmerica. The radio segments will be supported with content on www.womenwine.com and www.voice. voiceamerica.com.

*Staff reporter Deborah Crowe can be reached at (323) 549-5225, ext. 232, or at

[email protected]

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