“Too bad that all the people who know how to run this country are busy driving taxis and cutting hair.”- George Burns

Millions of addicts play fantasy sports all over the world, yours truly included. We trade, follow and manage virtual teams as we desperately try to compensate for frustrating mistakes that are made by the managers of our favs. I, for example, truly believe that I can manage the Knicks much better the Isiah. On the other hand, who can’t???

bp InTech was founded by Tal Ben-Simon and Tomer Pascal with an ambition to take Fantasy Sports to the next level. It has now raised a seed investment from Lightspeed & Gemini Israel. LGilab is a joint venture between Lightseed and Gemini Israel dedicated to seed investments in very early stage Internet Israeli start-ups. LGiLab is managed by Ouriel Ohayon, also responsible for Techcrunch France, with Dan Ciporin (Chairman and former CEO of shopping.com) as chairman.

I remember hearing about the lab for the first time quite some time ago from my friend Danny Cohen, who’s put a lot of energy in grassroots realization of the Israeli Internet potential. I was naturally very pleased to hear from Ouriel about their first public investment being announced today. If I was pleased at first, the company itself got me really excited.

Yahoo, ESPN and CBS offer the current leading Fantasy Sports arenas in the US. Tal Ben Simon promises something completely different. While most current sites offer a rather static trading arena, ‘playSPEX’ will offer a quantum leap experience in all levels - user interaction, community stickiness, fun and business potential. It utilizes most up to date technologies and enables users to play, argue, discuss and share content, thus formulating a very active sports center.

The service is not launched yet but having spoken with Tal and knowing the investors I am sure there is a solid advantage and business model involved. I personally would definitely welcome developments in that space. The ‘playSPEX’ corporate site and Founders’ blogs will launch over the next few days. I will keep you updated and encourage you to stay tuned!