Why We Built HOMER
The honest answer is that we were tired of arguing about old predictions.
Every Sunday, the same thing happened. Five of us in a group chat, making calls before kickoff, trash-talking during the game, and then by Tuesday nobody could agree on who said what. Someone would claim they called the upset. Someone else would say they never agreed to the pick. The one person who actually scrolled back to check would find the message, screenshot it, and by then the moment was gone.
We tried a spreadsheet. One of us volunteered to maintain it. That lasted three weeks before the spreadsheet was two weeks behind and the volunteer was tired of doing data entry for a group chat.
We tried a pick'em app. It worked for straight-up picks, but it did not handle the actual social part. The trash talk happened in iMessage. The picks happened in the app. The two never connected. And there was no way to track the IOUs, the "I will put a beer on it" calls that are half the reason anyone cares.
What Was Missing
Every option we tried had the same problem. The prediction and the conversation lived in different places.
In the group chat, the conversation was great but the record was terrible. In the apps, the record was fine but the conversation was nonexistent. Nobody was hanging out in an ESPN pick'em interface to talk about the game.
What we wanted was simple: a room where you lock in picks, talk trash, and the app remembers everything. Who said what. Who was right. Who owes whom.
It did not exist. So we built it.
The AI Part
HOMER the AI announcer was not the original plan. The original plan was just a prediction tracker with a chat. But something was missing. The room felt dead between picks.
When you are watching a game with friends in person, there is energy. Someone makes a bold call and everyone reacts. Someone's pick goes sideways and the group piles on. That energy does not translate to a text-based room without something driving it.
So we added HOMER. An AI personality that lives in every room, announces picks when they are locked in, reacts to results, and occasionally roasts someone who has been on a losing streak. It is not trying to be a real person. It is trying to be the friend in the group who always has a comment.
The announcer is what made the room feel alive. Before HOMER, the app was a tracker. After HOMER, it was a place you actually wanted to check during a game.
What HOMER Is and Is Not
HOMER is an app for friend groups who want to make predictions, track results, and keep score of who owes who without any of the overhead.
It is not a sportsbook. Actions are not real-money stakes. They are handshake deals with a record.
It is not a fantasy app. There are no rosters, no drafts, no waiver wires. If you want those things, there are great apps for that. HOMER is for the group that just wants to pick games and keep score.
It is not a content platform. There are no influencers, no paid picks, no leaderboards full of strangers. Every room is private to your league. The only people who see your picks are the people you invited.
What We Got Right (and What We Are Still Figuring Out)
The room model works. The AI announcer works. The Action system works better than we expected, because the social pressure of a visible ledger is a surprisingly effective motivator.
What we are still figuring out: how to make multi-sport seasons feel connected, how to handle time zones gracefully when your friend group spans three states, and how to get the AI announcer to stop roasting people who are already on a seven-game losing streak. (We are working on mercy rules.)
The core idea has not changed since the group chat that started all of this. Make it easy to lock in picks with your friends, keep a record of who was right, and never argue about an old prediction again.
That is HOMER. That is why we built it.