Interview with
Sam Pines, CEO of World Pong Tour
Hi Sam, thank you
for joining us today. You run the
World Pong Tour, which is an organization which hosts beer pong tournaments.
It’s an interesting company with an interesting story.
Can you tell us how this came about?
I went to college at Marist in
Poughkeepsie
,
NY
and much like any college kid I went to parties and at many parties they had
beer pong. I’m not sure if there
was a pivitol moment or experience, but at a certain point I started to think
how great it would be to have an organization to promote beer pong.
After I graduated I took a year off during which the idea
gnawed at me. I wasn’t working,
and all my friends thought it was a great idea, so I said what the heck and
started it up at a few local bars. And
so in 2006 the World Pong Tour was born
What did parents
think about this?
My parents were a little surprised about the idea but they
were, and continue to be, very supportive of the business, especially now that
it’s doing so well.
What did you think
when Beer Fest, which features a prominent segment on Beer Pong came out?
Um, I’m rather embarrassed to say, I never saw it.
Tell me a little
about how the league works?
Well, it’s a bit more of a tournament format than a league
format to be precise. We run
tournaments at local bars in 12-15 states, mostly on the East Coast.
Each tournament brings about 30-60 teams, 2 people per team.
Our revenue model is entry fees and a couple of sponsors, such as FYE,
BJ’s beer pong,
Pong
University
and the Titan’s Lacrosse team. In
the future we plan to expand into merchandising, which we are very excited
about.
You have an event on
June 11th, mind talking to it?
Sure – it’s our big tournament at
Atlantic City
. The winner gets a 25 thousand
grand prize. We’re very excited
and planning for a huge turnout.
What’s the Diva
Search?
It’s an online contest for girls who are into beer pong to
be recognized as Beer Pong Hotties. Girls
can apply on the website and the top girls get to go to
Atlanta
for a competition. The winner gets
$2500
How big is your profit margin with this
sort of thing?
We hit about a 50% profit margin.
Most of our expense is operational.
I have five full time people and then there are the part-time reps who
run and promote the tournaments. All
said and done we have 100 people in our family.
How are you at beer
pong?
Pretty good – shoot about 30%
Where do you see
this going in about five year’s time?
I hope to make beer pong an acceptable sport, sort of like
darts. I can also see us expanding
into other beer games such as flip-cup.
When you talk to
random people on street, what do they think about what you do?
The response is always good, people love it.
Looking back, what
do you think your biggest mistake was?
I actually can't think of anything huge.
I didn’t need all that much capital to start it, just enough to buy
cups and balls. Bars were happy to
host it as it drew traffic. I guess
the hardest part was to get
sponsors. It was a bit of an
education process in that they were worried it was about drinking where it is
really more about having a good time and creating a community.
What’s the biggest
thing you love about what you do?
Doing something I want to do – it’s my dream come true.
I can work for myself and create my own destiny.
Are you the only one
in the nation doing this?
There is another company doing it, sort of. They host a
world series of beer pong in Vegas on New Years.
We’re working with them in doing something collaborative.
There are also smaller leagues doing tournaments but no direct
competitors to our model.
When do we get to
see you on ESPN or somewhere else on TV?
Hopefully by the end of the year, we’re talking to a few TV
networks.
Anybody you would
like to thank?
I would like to thank my family and my friends for supporting
me and the company.
