Pic Logo: www.eliteprospects.com

One of our longtime partners, EliteProspects (“EP”) has announced some very exciting and highly strategic initiatives during the last couple of months. EP is known worldwide as having the most detailed, accurate, and always up to date statistics for all hockey players and teams.

During the last couple of months, EP has been very busy upgrading their websites to become even more user friendly and is transforming the way you can interact with hockey news and statistics from leagues all around the world. This includes introducing some new features, starting with the launch of EP Premium a few months ago, and the newly introduced EP Rinkside. All part of their long-term strategy to become the number #1 hockey website globally. We sat down with their GM Peter Sibner to get his thoughts on the new initiatives.

PHIQ: Peter, first of all congratulations to all your achievements during the last couple of months and thank you for taking time to speak with us.

Peter: Thank you, my pleasure!



PHIQ: With already such a successful site what was the reason that you decided to take on these new initiatives?

Peter: We’re constantly looking to make EliteProspects better, and we thought there was a void to fill in the coverage of prospects from all over the world, in English. Offering quality content and prospects coverage to our millions of monthly visitors will further expand the EP brand.



PHIQ: Can you tell us a bit of the feedback you got after you launched your new website, which we really think is awesome.

Peter: It’s been very encouraging. Most readers and users let us know we’re actually filling that void. Our stories have already sparked some radio interviews and so it’s been very good publicity for EliteProspects. I’m really happy we’ve been able to work with strong writers such as Dimitri Filipovic, Patrick Williams, Aaron Vickers, Julie Robenhymer and many, many more. Lots of writers are contacting me to offer their contribution.



PHIQ: You launched EP Premium as the first subscription-based service in “EP-history”. What are the reactions, the number of subscribers and where are you headed with that initiative?

Peter: It’s been a good start, but we are nowhere near being done. We’ll continue to launch great features at EP. Two weeks ago, it was Game Logs and Advanced Search, many more coming up.



PHIQ: You recently launched EPRinkside and it looks amazing. We understand that you have been working for quite some time in the background and once you launched it, you received a very impressive number of contributors with market reputations that are second to none. What was your approach to achieve this as a “stealth project”, your own involvement and how is the market reacting?

Peter: Well, we wanted to create a great platform for prospects content and we also felt all that great content shouldn’t change the character of Eliteprospects.com too much, so we decided to go for a stand-alone website. Which has been received very well. New functions are still being launched so we will be releasing a wealth of new types of interaction features, Mail Bags, AMA’s etc over the next few months.



PHIQ: Is there anything in the market that competes with this right now? We know Hockey DB is a widely visited site in North America. How does EP compare with competitors?

Peter: Well, we’re busy putting everything we have into becoming the best we can be, so we try not to focus too much on competing websites. We also try to find synergies and partnerships with other great resources for hockey stats to improve access to information to hockey fans.



PHIQ: Finally, what should our members expect in the future from EP?

Peter: Progress. We still consider EP a prospect in the sports media industry. After all, we’re only 19 years old and just recently draft eligible…



PHIQ: Peter, it has been a pleasure to work with you and your team over the years and we look forward to continuing work closely with you during the years to come. Thank you very much for your time and openness for this interview.

Peter: Thank you, my pleasure.

If you haven’t had a chance to check out all the great stuff EP is working on, head on over to www.eliteprospects.com and www.EPRinkside.com, and as always, thank you to all our faithful members for your continued support of our work here at ProHockeyIQ, as we aim to give you the best tools to expand your global hockey network.