Heckler Sports sees a business in talking smack

SAN FRANCISCO -- Another social network entered the fray today, but Heckler Sports relishes competition.

The company wants fans to cheer, chat, argue and heckle with one another — and with pro athletes — during games, starting with Game 1 of the NBA Finals tonight as the Oklahoma City Thunder and the Miami Heat meet. Heckler execs liken their service to Twitter meets Facebook meets ESPN.

"There is a desire to come together among people over sports — whether it's in a bar, at parties, homes," says Chief Operating Officer Erin Ngeno.

The service, available on the Web (hecklersports.com) and as an iPhone app, allows users to share their sports interests and athletic achievements.

Though Heckler joins a crowd of forums dedicated to fans online, its back story is iconoclastic in the start-up world. Ngeno and fellow co-founder and CEO Baayan Bakari, both of whom are African American, raised the majority of $1.1 million in funding outside the usual Silicon Valley sources. Their advisers include former NFL great Tim Brown and ex-Dallas Cowboys defensive back Everson Walls.

Bakari, who managed millions of dollars as a national director of training for Oakland-based The Mentoring Center, a national organization for helping young, at-risk African Americans, says he wants to build the world's premier social-media sports network.

That's a tall task, because millions of sports fans engage in Facebook Groups and follow their favorite teams or interact on Twitter. ESPN.com has myriad options in which to interact with others.

"Building momentum may be difficult early on," says social-media analyst Greg Sterling. He says Heckler could tap into the passionate nature of sports fans who want a specific social network, and not a sports-chat forum layered onto a larger social network.

"This is more of a sports environment, not social," Bakari says. "The future of social networks are shared-interest sites. Look at Pinterest, for instance."

Heckler's secret ingredient, Ngeno and Bakari say, is its ability to trade opinions and comments on any live sporting event with fans and pros.

Users, for example, might find themselves chatting with Brown, a Heisman Trophy winner at Notre Dame and perennial All-Pro during his 16 years with the Los Angeles and Oakland Raiders.

"As an ex-athlete, you're always being asked about games," Brown says. "Now, you can ask a player during a game. That's pretty unique."

Walls, who calls himself "old school" and is new to social networks, says the conversation on Heckler Sports will be akin to "talking on the phone to a lot of people" during a game.