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Sometimes, ideas seem so simple that you wonder why you didn't think of them yourself. How many times have you seen professional athletes on Twitter chatting with their fans about video games, exchanging gamertags, etc.? It happens, a lot.
Former Chicago Bears linebacker Hunter Hillenmeyer is starting a project that will streamline the entire process of connecting you, the fan, with pro athletes in the virtual gaming world. It's a mobile app called OverDog, and I wish I had thought of it.
The reason I'm sharing this with you all is pretty exciting. OverDog is literally in the prototype stages, and is getting ready to launch in April to a very exclusive group of fans and gamers. Hunter already has dozens and dozens of pro athletes from every major pro sport (NFL, NHL, MLS, MMA, etc.) on board and ready to play, including many from the Chicago Bears (Lance Briggs, Matt Forte, Charles Tillman, Earl Bennett, etc.), so now it's time to start building the list of gamers.
All of this is being made possible via a Kickstarter campaign-- Kickstarter is a way for great ideas to be funded by people from anywhere in the world-- and there are less than 30 days remaining for project OverDog. There are many levels of funding available, each with its own unique incentive into the OverDog world.
At the end of the day, social media is allowing a more personal connection between professional athletes and their fans, and videogames are more popular than ever. With the April launch of OverDog, if you are one of the supporters, you will get a couple months to play games versus real players, provide feedback on how to improve the app, what features should be added, etc. After that, the project will move out of prototype mode, and into a full-blown mobile application.
Make sure to check out the Kickstarter project for OverDog HERE, and check out all of the different options that you, as a potential beta tester, have at your fingertips.