ProPlayerConnect.com Launches Website Connecting Businesses with Pro-Athletes

Arizona Bay, Vinny Testaverde, Michael Waltrip, Among Other Pro-Athletes
Invest in ProPlayer Connect

SAN FRANCISCO, March 31 /PRNewswire/ -- ProPlayerConnect.com, the first
and only website to directly connect pro-athletes with businesses for
sponsorship or endorsement opportunities and discounted or free products,
today announced the launch of its Beta site; http://www.ProPlayerConnect.com.
In addition, ProPlayerConnect.com announced it received investment from
Arizona Bay, 13-year NFL linebacker Jason Kyle; all-star quarterback Vinny
Testaverde; and Daytona 500 winner, Michael Waltrip, among others.
With over 150 pro-athletes registered on ProPlayerConnect.com, the website
has already documented over 2,500 offers between businesses and athletes.
Offers have ranged from endorsements, free products and discounts to requests
for celebrity appearances. ProPlayerConnect.com is available to active and
retired pro-athletes from baseball, basketball, boxing, football, golf,
hockey, mixed martial arts, motor sports, the Olympics, rodeo, soccer, tennis,
and the X games.
Companies can view athlete profiles posted by the athletes themselves and
contract with those athletes directly for appearances and events or offer them
free products or sponsorship opportunities. Alternately, businesses can post
requests for endorsements, sponsorships, free products, discounts, job
offerings and appearance opportunities. After creating a free profile on
ProPlayerConnect.com, athletes can instantly access and contact registered
businesses to participate in their sponsorships, events or organizations and
take advantage of discounts and free product offerings. Athletes can contact
one another directly through the site and businesses can post career
opportunities for retired athletes to search and act upon.
ProPlayerConnect.com was created by 13-year NFL veteran and current
Carolina Panther football player, Jason Kyle, in collaboration with Arizona
Bay, an innovation capital firm that builds and funds information technology
applications for the inventor community. "Over the years I have seen a need
for bridging the gap from athletics to a second career," said Jason Kyle
founder of ProPlayerConnect.com. "This site assists in that connection and it
helps any pro-athlete take advantage of offers or business opportunities they
would never have exposure to otherwise."
"We knew Jason was on to something big when we first spoke with him about
the idea for Pro Player Connect," said David Graham, managing partner of
Arizona Bay. "There are thousands of sponsorship opportunities out there, but
they typically end up going to only five percent of the athletes; we knew that
if we teamed up with Jason, made a small capital investment and put our
development team to work, we could build a web-based platform that would
create a level playing field for every pro-athlete."
About ProPlayerConnect.com
ProPlayerConnect.com is the first and only website that enables businesses
and athletes to directly contact each other for sponsorship and endorsement
opportunities. The website accepts and encourages every pro-athlete to
participate and carefully screens all business that register with the site
before allowing them access to contact athletes. Businesses and athletes can
sign up at http://www.ProPlayerConnect.com
About Arizona Bay
Founded in 2000, Arizona Bay builds and funds information technology
applications for new and established businesses. Based in San Francisco,
California, the innovation capital firm combines investment capital and
technology development expertise to help companies and entrepreneurs develop
effective, revenue producing products that maximize market share. Arizona Bay
offers a one-stop shop for product development by providing strategic
guidance, venture funding, software design, management and rigorous market-
testing. Arizona Bay rapidly commercializes technology driven business ideas
that transform the distribution, management and monetization of ecommerce and
software applications. The firm has a proven track record of identifying
concepts and products and actively building them into market-leading products
and companies. For more information visit http://www.arizonabay.com
SOURCE ProPlayerConnect.com

David Gerzof of Big Fish Communications for ProPlayerConnect.com,
+1-617-233-5001, dgerzof@beabigfish.com