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The Orion

White Tie Fantasy: The next big name in fantasy sports?

White+Tie+Fantasy+hopes+to+be+the+next+leader+in+daily+fantasy+sports.+Photo+credit%3A+Brandon+Eiges
White Tie Fantasy hopes to be the next leader in daily fantasy sports. Photo credit: Brandon Eiges

It’s everywhere. On billboards, the radio and on almost every sports channel. Daily fantasy sports has become a global phenomenon, and two former oil workers-turned-techies think they have a product that will take the world of fantasy by storm.

Jered Johnson and Chris Tisler are the CEO and the COO of White Tie Fantasy, a daily fantasy sports site that aims to give players something different than Fanduel and Draft Kings.

“For us it all came down to this, do something that you love, do something that you know, and do something where you are actually going to fix a problem,” Johnson said.

The two are not originally from Chico, but they ended up here and decided it was the perfect place to start their new journey.

“Chico is the happy medium,” Tisler said. “You get everything you want: good restaurants, cool NorCal people, and it’s big, but not too big to where it’s crazy.”

Chicostart, a company specializing in assisting startup businesses like White Tie Fantasy, has been a huge help for Tisler and Johnson. It has given them a network of information and resources that has helped them get where they are today.

“Chicostart’s mentorship and advisory has been phenomenal,” Johnson said.

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The White Tie Fantasy team at the Capital. Photo credit: Brandon Eiges

Tisler and Johnson are two former oil workers who decided to try their hand in the tech field. After a few fails and successes in the world of apps, they came to the conclusion that they could make a difference in the realm of fantasy sports.

The two came up with the idea on one of their many trips through the Silicon Valley, they were just spit balling ideas back and forth and agreed on fantasy sports.

“It was the ‘come to Jesus meeting’ we had with ourselves,” Tisler said. “We had to decide, was this it? Was this what we wanted to dedicate the next year and a half of our lives to?”

Their website reads, “The White Tie Fantasy team knows more than you, are more handsome than you, they are extremely modest, and have never been wrong… Except once when they thought they’d made a mistake.”

The intent of this message isn’t to brag about how good at fantasy sports they are; it was written to fuel competitiveness.

“I know as a fantasy sports player, but just in general, people in this demographic, are competitive by nature,” Johnson said. “If you challenge somebody to like ‘we are smarter than you are’ it kind of lights a spark under them.”

Along with a more competitive playing style, the main way White Tie Fantasy hopes to gain players and stand out is through the way users will be able to draft players.

In normal daily fantasy sports sites, a participant has a salary they can spend on buying each player in their lineup. They’re just picking any player they want with no head to head competition or excitement of someone stealing the players they want.

Fifth-year senior and marketing specialist for White Tie Fantasy, Brandon Eiges says they believe they have found a solution to this dull way of playing fantasy sports.

“What we have done at White Tie, is we brought a social element to daily fantasy sports,” Eiges said. “We wanted to bring that element of year-long drafting that every single person does before their league draft goes through, and bring that excitement and experience to daily fantasy sports.”

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The White Tie Fantasy team at California Memorial Stadium, home of the Cal Bears. Photo credit: Brandon Eiges

In a market where they are under close watch and scrutiny of being illegal or being labeled as gambling, Johnson and Tisler aren’t worried about the future of the field they chose.

“The most important thing that people need to understand is fantasy sports has been around since the ’80s,” Johnson said. “This is legal on a federal level and it wasn’t an issue until daily fantasy came along. It’s considered a game of skill and was given a carve out on a federal level that says this is legal.”

The site is scheduled to be up and running in April if all things go according to plan. White Tie Fantasy is looking to separate themselves from the competition by making daily fantasy sports more enjoyable and by giving players a more memorable experience.

“This is why we’re different. One, we’re more competitive, we are more fun and overall, you’re going to have a better experience playing with us over Draft Kings and FanDuel or any of these other shmucks,” Eiges said.

Jason Spies can be reached at [email protected] or @Jason_Spies on Twitter.

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