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Todd Overton, SCA Promotions
The proliferation of big money prize pay-offs has spread through sports in the last several years. It is now a part of nearly every major sporting event. Sponsors love the strong impressions, teams love the added inventory and entertainment value, and fans love to see the drama unfold. And everybody loves a big money prize-winner - except this guy.
Accounts Manager Todd Overton has been with SCA Promotions for 9 years. SCA Promotions is the number one prize indemnification company, with over $60 million dollars in claims paid. Founded in 1986 by World Bridge Champion Bob Hamman, whose expertise in Bridge helped him develop the actuary methods he uses in prize indemnification. SCA Promotions started with a simple Hole-in-One indemnification, then added half court shots and grand slam innings and now have hundreds of turnkey contests and promotions.
Todd Overton joins us for the August Interview to discuss the indemnification industry and how teams and events are using companies like SCA to create and enhance their game entertainment.
Gameops.com: Let's start with the basics - just what is prize indemnification?
Todd Overton: It's the easiest question, but one of the most difficult to answer. Essentially it is indemnifying against an event from happening.
Gameops.com: Can you give us some background on SCA Promotions?
Todd Overton: SCA was founded in 1986 by Bob Hamman. Bob is the World Bridge Champion, and clearly has a gift for odds calculations. Bob started a company called Sports Contest Associates in 1986 that shortly afterwards became SCA Promotions.
We started off with the very basic Hole-in-One golf shots, half-court shots, and Grand Slam Home Run Inning contests. The business quickly grew and added other promotions for other industries such as radio, media, gaming, and retail promotions. SCA started with 3 employees and we now have 85. We are now the largest indemnifier in the business.
Gameops.com: Give us some examples of the turnkey contests and promotions.
Todd Overton: In basketball you have the half-court shot. It is popular because it's easy to set-up, easy to understand and it is seen as something that can actually happen. This promotion is still really popular with teams. This is an example of a 'spectator participation' event.
A great example in baseball is called the Grand Slam Inning promotion. This is an example of a player participation game. It is also popular because it is simple, inexpensive and easy to use in various forms. You pick one inning and if your team hits a grand slam in that inning one fan wins a grand prize. For example you may use this with an auto dealer. Fans register at the dealer. One fan wins tickets to each game, and that fan is the winner if the Grand Slam is hit. It drives traffic to the dealer, is easy to follow and implement.
In hockey the most popular is the mouse-hole, where a fan tries to shoot a puck through a small hole in a board that is put in front of the net. We call that "Hockey Score-O." It's popular because it too is inexpensive, easy to do, and easy to understand. The signboard in front of the net also provides the sponsor exposure during the contest.
In our industry everyone has seen the half-court shot and the shoot the puck through a hole. Games like this are easy and quick, but in many places they have run their course.
Many clients now have their own ideas, which we can help to tweak and package into promotions we can indemnify.
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