As you know, last year the team behind Hubdub.com launched our first premium sports game (FanDuel.com). This has meant that for the past year we’ve been unable to spend any resource on developing or marketing Hubdub.

Having gained significant traction with FanDuel.com over the football season, and having launched with our first distribution partner last week (Philly.com),  we’ve come to the stage where we have to do something proactive with Hubdub.com.

Therefore, it’s with genuine sadness that I need to tell you that we’ve taken the tough decision to close down Hubdub.com at the end of this month.

The time we spent working on Hubdub was an incredible experience. The whole team learned a huge amount, and met some truly amazing people. I want to make a special mention of the wonderful Category Editors and Super Users who have run the site solo for us for the past 12 months, without them there would have been no Hubdub. And of course, the super passionate Hubdub players - thank you all for creating such creative and exciting questions, for being so passionate about the news and about your predictions. You are terrific!

Over the lifetime of Hubdub, there have been great times and of course some trying times! I’m sure everyone has their special moments or questions they want to remember.  For me, some of my favorites were:

- When will Hillary Clinton cry again?

- The whole Spitzer debacle (of course!)

-  And finally, the most popular market ever with over H$2 million staked - Who will be the next President of the US?

This is very emotional for all of us, but the overriding feeling we should all have is one of pride - to have been part of such a special and committed community is something that doesn’t happen often and we’ll treasure it always.

Thank you.

With fond memories,

Nigel and the Team

p.s. I understand that for many of you, the closure of the site will mean a loss of interaction with some good friends and this really saddens me.  There has been a Googlegroup and a Twitter account set up by the Super User community to make sure that Hubdub fans can all stay in touch. If you’d like to continue the debates, you can join here: http://groups.google.com/group/hubdubfans or https://twitter.com/hubdubfans.

p.p.s. Please do add your Hubdub memories or favorite questions below in the comments.

Popularity: 18% [?]

A list of the top 100 hottest emerging and most innovative tech companies in the media industry was released today, and everyone here at Hubdub was delighted to be included as hot property in the Games & Entertainment category. According to the press blurb, the Tech Media Invest 100 aims to:

“…showcase young entrepreneurial companies that are developing innovative new ways to serve business and consumers and have the potential to radically change the shape of the technology and media industry….these companies have potenial and we look forward to seeing how they monetize their innovation”

Congratulations to everyone else who made the list!

Popularity: 27% [?]

We have just launched a brand new fantasy sports game - FANDUEL.COM - which lets all us Fantasy Sports fans play and win fantasy sports in a day instead of waiting (and suffering!) the whole season. Players can draft a new team at any time, and pitch it head-to-head against an opponent - a friend, or another FanDuel player - for real money. The player whose team has the most fantasy points at the end of the day’s games wins the cash prize. It’s purely fantasy baseball right now, but the fantasy football game will launch with the start of the football season next month.

You can play from $5, although there is a free version too (but you don’t win prizes and where’s the fun in that?!)

We came up with the idea when we were hanging out with some major Hubdub fans out in Texas earlier this year, and thought it would be great to bring the excitement of Hubdub to fantasy sports. And FanDuel was the result. We hope you’ll like it!

So if your fantasy baseball team is hurting right now, why not give FanDuel a try. Click here to sign up - and we’ll give you a $10 bonus to play for free.

Or, if fantasy baseball isn’t your bag, sign up here and we’ll notify you when the fantasy football game starts next month.

As ever, we value your feedback, so let us know what you think!

Popularity: 31% [?]

We’ve just been notified that we’ve also been nominated for a Best Design Award at the European Tech Awards. There are some great websites in the category so we’re extremely pleased to even be nominated for such an award. If you’d like to help us out then click here to place your vote. Again, there’s no need to register and it only takes a few seconds to cast your vote.

Thanks again for your support.

Popularity: 34% [?]

Techcrunch Europe is hosting the European Tech Awards next month in London and we were pleased to hear today that Hubdub has been nominated for Best European Web Application.

If you’d like to vote for us (and of course we very much hope that you will!) then click here to vote (no need to register, just click on Hubdub then scroll down and click the Vote button at the bottom of the page).

Thanks!

Popularity: 34% [?]

I thought I’d check my email at 6.30 this morning before my children decended on me, and imagine my delight when I opened an email from one of our Super Users (thanks Onedave!) telling me that Hubdub was featured on CNN yesterday.

I then did the natural thing and checked Google analytics - and noticed that, of course traffic was up, but that there was also a significant amount coming from the BBC’s website. And blow me if we hadn’t been on the BBC too!Not a bad start to an otherwise wet and grey Edinburgh day. (Thanks CNN and BBC!)

Popularity: 30% [?]

Hubdub is up against media monsters such as the BBC, Sky, The Telegraph and Reuters - we’ve all been shortlisted for the Association of Online Publishers’ award for innovation, taking place on June 2nd in London.

The shortlist is:

Band In Your Hand - BBC
CluedUp - Telegraph Media Group
guardian.co.uk message for Obama - Guardian News & Media
Hubdub.com - HubDub
Reuters Davos World Economic Forum Coverage - Thomson Reuters
Sky News - Templated Graphics - BSkyB
Telegraph Mobile Application - Telegraph Media Group
The Economist Debate Series - Economist Group
The Feelings 24 Hour Challenge - Global Radio

It looks like the “glitterati of digital publishing” will be there, and  it will no doubt be a very glamorous and prestigous event. We’re absolutely thrilled to be short-listed. But how’s a wee start-up supposed to compete with the BBC et al when the cost to attend the ceremony is £300? All donations gratefully received…

Popularity: 37% [?]

  So you’ve watched Selection Sunday, you know the seeds, now you can really start playing our March Madness 09 Predict-a-thon - seriously!

There have been some interesting seedings and draws today, including #8 LSU v #9 Butler and #8 Ohio State vs Siena.

If you haven’t already signed up for a Predict-a-thon account, there’s no time to waste! Sign up now while there’s still bargains to be had!

Popularity: 37% [?]

At long last, the moment every College Basketball Fan has been waiting for…no, there’s still 4 days to go until Selection Sunday, but today Hubdub’s March Madness 09 Predict-A-Thon launches!

So what exactly is this Predict-A-Thon?

• A discrete prediction competition only for the NCAA Basketball Tournament
• Players sign up and receive H$1000 to predict on questions about March Madness 09
• You can play right through the competition, with in-running predictions about the Final Four and Championship Game - watch the game live and make your predictions REAL-TIME
• The top 5 players at the end of the tournament win CASH prizes!
• Oh yes, and it’s completely free to enter!

You think you can last the distance? Then sign up for the March Madness 09 Predict-A-Thon here*

I’d love to hear what you think of our first Predict-A-Thon - drop me an email anytime.

*If you're an existing Hubdubber, you'll have to sign up with a different user

name I'm afraid - although you can use the same email address.

Popularity: 39% [?]

If you’ve been dreaming of what March Madness will bring for Hubdub, it’s time to rise and shine, rub those eyes and stretch out those prediction fingers as Hubdub March Madness is nearly upon us.

In just three short days we will be lifting the curtain on our first ever cash prize prediction competition, with prizes totalling $500. (That’s real cash btw, not H$!). It’s free to enter, and Hubdub Gods and newbies alike all start on H$1,000. At the end of the competition, the top 5 players on the March Madness leaderboard will pocket the following bounty:

• 1st prize: $250
• 2nd: $100
• 3rd: $75
• 4th: $50
• 5th: $25

So, whether you’re a seasoned Hubdubber or an absolute beginner, head over to http://marchmadness.hubdub.com and pre-register your email address to get notified on Monday the instant the games are open.

Popularity: 41% [?]