HQ Trivia Offers Its Biggest Cash Prize Ever During NBA Finals | Tech News
Game show app sensation HQ Trivia is celebrating this year’s NBA Finals in the biggest way possible—offering its largest cash prize ever in the history of the twice-daily game.
For those unfamiliar, the HQ Trivia was launched in August 2017 by two of Vine’s original founders, Rus Yusupov and Colin Kroll. The two came together and created a startup called Intermedia Labs, the now parent company of the mobile app. The game quickly achieved viral status, now commanding audiences of over 1 million players on a daily basis.
Live games stream every day at 3 p.m. EST and again at 9 p.m. EST hosted by Scott Rogowsky, a New York-based comedian. Players have 10 seconds, the limit intended to reduce the time available to cheat, to answer 12 questions and compete for a cash prize. With each round, the questions increase in difficulty.
Initially, prizes ranged from $1,000 to as much as $18,000 during the app’s first few months, but as more people started playing the game, the cash prizes increased. Further, a recent $15 million funding round for Intermedia Labs, which closed this past March, and two major sponsorships deals with Nike and Warner Brothers also helped. The partnerships involved a three-part $3 million deal with WB, including a $250,000 jackpot on a game that promoted the film “Ready Player One,” and a sponsored game from Nike with a $100,000 cash prize. Nike also gave away 100 pairs of HQ-inspired Air Max 270 sneakers.
Until this past April, $250K marked the largest cash pot to date. However, this changed when Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson served as a guest host of the game, where a record $300,000 prize was split amongst winners. Fast forwarding to today and the six-figure payouts are getting even bigger thanks to a deal with the NBA.
Tomorrow we have a very special $100,000 game at 9P ET that will lead to something bigger… pic.twitter.com/FPcfFPYiVm
— HQ Trivia (@hqtrivia) May 31, 2018
Beginning with Game 1 of the matchup between the Cavs and the Warriors, HQ Trivia is giving away $100,000. Each game of the series, the pot will increase by $100K meaning that with the teams playing a minimum of four games, HQ is guaranteed to beat April’s record. If there is a Game 7, HQ will more than double the amount.
Per CNET, the games will feature questions about the teams’ home cities and general basketball trivia. Though typically two games are streamed each day, only the evening games (9 p.m. EST/6 p.m. PST) will feature these new prize pools.
As TechCrunch points out, this partnership may very well mark the first effort in a broader push by HQ into the sports space. This would not only open the doors with respect to future brand deals but could also spell greater popularity for the game on a global scale down the road.
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