For Marco, Fantasy Football Is Real Business

The game is fantasy and the name is funny (it was taken from Oronzo Canà's unlucky game formula in the Italian movie L'Allenatore nel Pallone) but the business opportunities are real for BizonaMagic (www.bizonamagic.com), the fantasy soccer game created and published online by Marco Massicci, who recently completed a SDA Bocconi MBA. Online since late December, the game already has 215 teams which challenge each other each week.

31 years old, with a degree in management engineering and five years of experience in business consulting, Marco decided to focus on an MBA to open new professional paths. "I chose an MBA as a jumpstart to speed up my professional growth, acquire new skills and create new opportunities for myself." The idea came to Marco when he was playing a Playstaion game with friends and noticed how restrictive it is to play only with people at your home or using the console online, while there were good opportunities to create real transversal tournaments which could be played on various platforms. His business skills, however, were acquired in SDA classrooms. Marco chose an entrepreneurial project for the field project part of his program and attended lectures with pleasure on all the stages of creating a startup, from developing an idea to writing and implementing an business plan. "After acquiring these skills, I did research and analysis on the gaming industry and consumers' willingness to pay, focusing on fantasy games based on the figure of a soccer coach," explains Marco. "I decided on fantasy football, thinking I could differentiate myself by creating an English-style fantasy soccer league, not connected to votes by journalists, but on players' performance statistics. In other words, the game is based on objective elements and the results of your team can be updated in real time, during the match. The game is therefore very technical, and it's a good challenge for devoted fans."

Even the transfer market in this game is innovative, since it's entirely market-based, with the player value varying based on supply and demand. "It's a transfer market that's a lot like financial trading," explains Marco. Developing BizonaMagic depended a lot on the creation of a large community of players. A league of teams can be created among friends and co-workers and chatting with other players. After successfully putting the game online, Marco then dedicated hours to developing opportunities for growth. "I'm working a lot with marketing the game to increase users. The objective of this first year is mostly to get information about the game out there and create an initial buzz. On the profitability side, the presence of a large community is very attractive for advertising and there are also possibilities of a partnership with an online newspaper to create an alliance." Marco complete his MBA in December and is now working on BizonaMagic while looking for a new professional opening. "I think I have a great business sense and I would like to take advantage of that in the field of private equity or venture capital. The BizonaMagic experience, from conception to implementation, has required the commitment of all my skills, from writing financial statements to planning to a marketing campaign. It was a wonderful and fulfilling experience for me."