Facebook Hockey Pools: New Approach to an Old Tradition

Half a Million Turn to Facebook App to Make Their Picks

VANCOUVER - Canada loves hockey, and despite the absence of half of the country's teams from the post-season, the nation's enthusiasm for hockey pools has never been stronger. Hockey pools have soared in popularity thanks in large part to internet-based services that make managing the details easy. One such service is Vancouver-based Mainsocial Technology's Hockey Pool Facebook application, which was used by more than half a million Canadians during the 2007-2008 NHL season.

"Facebook has become an important way that people stay in touch with one another," explained Ben Nevile, the entrepreneur who founded Mainsocial last year after recognizing the reach and potential of Facebook in Canada. "You probably don't use it to talk to your closest friends, but it helps you maintain contact with all the people outside your inner-circle. There are the type of people you'd like to have in your hockey pool."

By using this friend information, the Hockey Pool software - which can be found at http://apps.facebook.com/hockey_pool - further simplifies management by automatically organizing each participant into relevant pools. The approach has been effective; a week after its release in August of 2007, the application had 1200 users. A month later it had 50,000. By the start of the NHL regular season in October, more than 250,000 Canadians had signed up, and that number continued to climb throughout the year.

"It definitely has been a challenge to handle so many users," said Nevile. "After it first launched, I received hundreds of support emails a day." The software is free to use, and Nevile covers the cost of operating the pool through advertising. "It was initially tough to convince companies that advertising within Facebook would be effective, but I think people are starting to realize what an important medium it has become."

Although Hockey Pool users are by-and-large consistent with the type of person you'd expect to enjoy hockey - males between the ages of 21 and 35 - more than 20% of the software's users are female. "Women love Hockey Pool," says Nevile. "The most fun and enthusiastic emails I get are from elated wives who are beating their husbands."

Mainsocial is a Vancouver-based software company designing the next generation of social applications.