AUSTIN, Texas — Wes Mizell hopes people who watched the big game on Sunday were doing so while using his app, Game Time Live.
The 17-year-old Westlake High School senior wants the Super Bowl, or the last game of NFL season, to garner more attention for the app he helped create with a group of friends in their junior year.
Mizell, along with Ben Pankonien, Reed Senterfitt, Thad Hutcheson and Hudson Yancer, developed the app in a business incubator class.
The group presented the idea during Pitch Night, which was like Shark Tank for high schoolers. Entrepreneurs heard their idea: How Game Time Live helped users play the game while watching it.
The app allows users to answer trivia questions throughout a game. The person who answers the most questions correctly in a row wins the cash prize.
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"It made the entire game so much more fun," said Mizell.
Mizell's group won and earned a $10,000 prize.
Which led to a national pitch invite, a tie for first place and another $10,000.
"We were crowned national champions and that gave us funding, and that's really where it started," he said.
Except that's really not where it started.
I know because I asked his mother, Paula Mizell. She said Wes first got the idea for the app 10 years ago when he used to play "sportscaster" with his big brother.
She gave us the first look at the ESPN-like video.
"CC Sabathia needs, his curveball is falling, needs to do more fastballs," said a then 7-year-old Wes.
He said they got pretty competitive when it came to watching games.
"So, throughout the game, we would sit there making $1 bets back and forth, back and forth. Does Texas make this field goal? What's the outcome of this drive? Do they gain this first down," said Wes.
The focus now is gaining users for Game Time Live and highlighting that they can draw those users to ads by asking bonus questions during the game.
The app is free and for now is only available on the App Store.