The Whistle And Bunchball Gamify Sports Community For Kids And Teens

NEW YORK, Aug. 7, 2012 /PRNewswire-iReach/ -- Kids and teens today expect every digital experience to be personalized, customizable, collaborative, and rewarding. The Whistle -- the first cross-platform content provider solely focused on developing entertaining, educational and participatory sports programming tailored to kids -- has partnered with Bunchball, the pioneer and market leader in gamification, to drive participation on The Whistle's website, www.thewhistle.com .

"Bunchball's technology, team and innovative approach to driving user engagement will take TheWhistle.com to the next level of interactivity," says Elizabeth Lodge, Manager for Strategic Partnerships for The Whistle. "We're excited to work together to offer unique features and personalization through a collaborative and social community for kids and teens around sports."

"The Whistle is a brilliant concept that's designed to reach kids where they live and to connect them with sports in ways that will keep them healthy, happy and active," said Bunchball CEO Jim Scullion. "Gamifying TheWhistle.com with Bunchball brings the excitement of competition and the dynamics of game play to this new online community. We're looking forward to having Bunchball's gamification engine power an unforgettably fun and challenging experience that will attract new members and keep them engaged."

Following the integration of Bunchball, TheWhistle.com will offer missions, contests, rewards, and recognition to maximize active engagement and participation among users. Incentives will include access to exclusive content, virtual goods, status, honors, recognition, points, and badges. TheWhistle.com will also utilize rewards to incentivize healthy behavior; users will be rewarded for watching sports training videos and tracking their real-world activity. Fans will also be able to vote online for their favorite sports clips to appear on The Whistle's show on NBC Sports this fall.

ABOUT THE WHISTLE:

The Whistle is a new sports network and community for kids distributed across both traditional and emerging platforms – where kids are today. The Whistle creates and aggregates entertaining, curriculum-driven content that teaches kids about fitness and nutrition, sportsmanship, and math and science.  Led by sports and entertainment industry veterans – and including investors such as 4-time NFL MVP Peyton Manning and 12-time MLB All-Star Derek Jeter – The Whistle is where kids go for sports and sports go for kids.  Look for the launch of www.thewhistle.com in September 2012.

ABOUT BUNCHBALL:

Bunchball is the market leader and visionary in gamification. Powering the Engaged Enterprise, Bunchball enables organizations to improve business performance throughout their ecosystem by creating highly active and loyal customers, employees, and partners. Bunchball's comprehensive suite of innovative cloud-based solutions empowers companies to engage and motivate, leading to improved employee productivity, customer loyalty and ROI. Bunchball's world-class customers include Adobe, HP, Cisco, BOX, Warner Bros., Comcast, LiveOps, VMware and Hasbro. Based in Silicon Valley, Bunchball's investors include Granite Ventures, Triangle Peak Partners, Northport Investments, and Correlation Ventures. For more information, visit www.bunchball.com, our blog at www.gamification.com, or follow @bunchball.

Contact for The Whistle: Jodie Sweitzer, c) 610/213-2456, [email protected]
Contact for Bunchball:  Melissa Roxas, Inner Circle Labs, (415) 684-9401, [email protected]

Media Contact: Jodie Sweitzer The Whistle, 610-213-2456, [email protected]

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SOURCE The Whistle