Technology

Shake had a successful beta test during the NBA playoffs, where the startup attracted several hundred users, all by referral.

Shake

A startup called Shake is bringing a new twist to social gaming with a focus on friendly challenges in free competitions that encourage positive brand engagement.

Shakesoft-launched in the iOS store earlier this year, offers simple prediction games targeting a Gen Z audience in which users earn tokens that can be exchanged for prizes. Brands, in exchange for offering rewards, receive first-party data on preferences.

The company’s original idea was to formalize casual betting, like betting on the winner of a game, with the loser buying the bottle of wine you share. The idea evolved into completely risk-free and legal competitions everywhere, but the general principle remained, evolving to include both sport and entertainment.

“We offer friends handshake choices,” said Shake CEO Jack Kingsley, a veteran of CAA, DAZN and Buzzer.

Kingsley leads a lean team of two full-time engineers supported by an angel round raised in tandem with his co-founder, Executive Chairman of Shake, Heather Brooks Karatzwho has held the titles of executive vice president and/or general counsel for Relativity Sports, LAFC and United Talent Agency, as well as president of the Los Angeles Wildcats of the XFL. Kingsley and Karatz grew up near each other in Northern Virginia; Kingsley interned for Karatz at Relativity ten years ago.

Shake, Karatz said, is “truly a social, accessible, fun platform for a broad audience and one that allows brands to engage in an ecosystem and create a community where they can be the heroes.” She explained that a brand could learn that hypothetical Heather recently made choices about NBA and NWSL games — but also the outcome of an episode of Bachelor — and then chose Postmates over DoorDash for its price.

Shake

“We often see consumers on other platforms getting frustrated with brand engagement and advertising because it interferes with their experience,” Karatz said. “Here, it’s additive. Here, a brand offers them a reward for sharing their data, and a consumer will do it all day, every day.

A beta test conducted during the NBA playoffs without any marketing investment resulted in several hundred users, all from referrals, which Kingsley presented as an initial validation of Shake’s hypothesis. The hope is to retain the “connective tissue” of traditional fantasy football, he said.

“One thing we see differently from other social gamification products that have come before us is that a lot of them are called peer to peer – it’s a marketplace to connect you to other people who want to play,” a he added. “We like to call each other friend to friend. You’re competing within the walls of your friend group, and that’s a different psychology too.

Now that Shake has gone public with its launch, it’s targeting college students as the first Gen Z sub-demo, given that campuses are social environments and this cohort typically doesn’t have much discretionary income – not to mention that many are. under 21 years of age and/or residing in states where betting is not legal anyway.

Even though the legalization of sports betting in many jurisdictions has become a new area of ​​marketing and sponsorship, it does not appeal to everyone, Karatz noted, as users of betting platforms experience ups and downs that do not are not always positive for the brand identity.

“The existing sports betting ecosystem is a tricky place for brands,” she said. “We’re really creating a new category around sports betting and sports gamification that sits at the intersection of real money betting, social aspects like fantasy which hasn’t really evolved in a very long time, and combining those characteristics both in a new category while also being a social platform that allows people to chat with each other, chat with each other and integrate an entertainment component that doesn’t yet exist elsewhere.